A review by katehennessy
Captive in the Underworld by Lianyu Tan

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

In this digital age, there aren't many books that make it to my physical book shelves, but this one passed the 'desert island test' / IRL 'power-cut test', because it's that special one I'd reach for. I also had the pleasure of listening to the audiobook recently (more on that later).

My jaw hung loose for the majority of this novel, either in exhilarated realisation that I wasn't alone in my fascination for powerful, female, authority figures (just call me sheltered!), or else because I was mesmerised by the courage of an author to pen a more darkly sexual character than I've ever encountered in wlw fiction. 

I've never blushed my way through a book before! But first, I must say that's absolutely not to make light of serious real-life issues surrounding sexual consent, for which we must continue to raise awareness. What this novel does, however, as novels should, is challenge us, enable us to safely examine difficult issues, to raise debate, to know where the line is, and teach us about respect. The author makes this distinction clear.

The trigger warnings do, in my opinion, provide an accurate assessment of the content, though individual sensitivities and interpretation might vary. For me, the story's mythological origins and varied representations throughout history, provide a context which is significantly removed from real life, and therefore a fantasy (genre) space to explore this f/f power imbalance from afar. Much like some people enjoy reading about bad behaviour in horror or crime, I think it’s only fair to have that same space in dark romance.

The world-building and strongly defined character traits really drew me in, sweeping me away, and my imagination ran wild in an epic underworld with a queer ice queen, an age gap, and forbidden love. 

So yes, there I am in my garden, stifling my gasps and giggles and dodging my neighbours... because how do explain what I'm reading?!

But whilst the sexual content is undeniably dark, it’s not graphically written in explicit, hardcore language, and neither is it crude or sensationalist. It’s something I love about Lianyu Tan’s writing - her powers of description are character-driven and don’t just rely on unimaginative, functional language. I love her ability to write about dark desires in a way that’s less erotica and more psychological. 

The new audiobook took me a few chapters to adjust to the accent of the narrator, which was RP English for the most part but with some vowels sounds I couldn’t place (I might only have noticed because I’m English), but in the end this quirk was actually pretty gorgeous (reminded me a little of actress, Eva Green, in terms of pronunciation!) and I really enjoyed the vocal performance - both as Hades and Persephone (who are quite opposite, really!) - which brought the pages to life. I loved having this additional layering to Lianyu Tan’s story and I think she chose her narrator well.

'Captive'. Undoubtedly. This novel just wouldn't let me go. This is my very favourite novel.