Review by katrinarose - The Spear Cuts Through Water

katrinarose 's review for:

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

3.0

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is by far the most unique and weird fantasy book I’ve ever read, and I’ll struggle to explain my feelings about it. This book was almost like poetry in novel form - not in the structure - but in the content and artistry of the writing. It flips from 1st to 2nd to 3rd person POV even within the same paragraph, and for this reason it took me a week to get through the first 50-100 pages, and during that time I thought about DNF-ing it every day. It does settle in 3rd person for the majority of the book, with stretches of 2nd person and scattered sentences of 1st. I found the 2nd person sections very boring.

The story itself had a mythical quality to it. The magic in the book didn’t have much rules or explanation which is not my favorite style of fantasy. I couldn’t really predict what was going to happen next at any point.

My favorite part of the book was actually the romance, but if you’re reading this just for the romance - don’t. It plays a very minor role, yet for me it’s one of the most beautiful and compelling romances I’ve read.

I wouldn’t recommend this to many people because I can’t say I enjoyed the experience a lot, but for some I would highly recommend it. If you like books that are creative, poetic, lyrical, mythical, brutal, and break the mold of a fantasy book, you should read this. If you like magical realism with an undercurrent of romance, you should read this. However, if you like rules in your fantasy and don’t appreciate things like POV-switching for the sake of poetry and story-telling, this isn’t for you.

Content Warnings