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A review by bookbridgebot
The Light at the Bottom of the World by London Shah
3.0
I really liked the setting of this book - after a major catastrophe, earth is completely underwater and people have adapted to live at the bottom of the ocean, specially London in this case - super neat, and something I haven’t really read before.
The setting and the idea of deep government corruption was cool, but unfortunately this book fell flat for me. Leyla was so damn annoying, I really didn’t enjoy her. The racism allegory was a bit too on the nose for me, and the author didn’t really give much character development to Ari, the other main character. He seemed to just be a vehicle for Leyla to overcome her bigotry, which is a real bummer and so, so old. Why is Ari spending all this time with a girl who thinks he’s a monster? What are his motivations? What is his life like? Would loved to have had some chapters from his point of view.
Overall, the book was just meh.
The setting and the idea of deep government corruption was cool, but unfortunately this book fell flat for me. Leyla was so damn annoying, I really didn’t enjoy her. The racism allegory was a bit too on the nose for me, and the author didn’t really give much character development to Ari, the other main character. He seemed to just be a vehicle for Leyla to overcome her bigotry, which is a real bummer and so, so old. Why is Ari spending all this time with a girl who thinks he’s a monster? What are his motivations? What is his life like? Would loved to have had some chapters from his point of view.
Overall, the book was just meh.