A review by healingtothemax
The Light at the Bottom of the World by London Shah

3.0

Part of the Underwater trend I've noticed/dove into, TLATBOTW launches a new series. This debut author's entry earned 3.5 stars. Nods to social media here because London Shah is so very likable in her gratitude, graciousness with readers and championship of other artists' works. I feel this book is a fair start of a new series and the world built is thorough and immersive; we stick with our heroine and her very relatable isolated viewpoint which at times proves frustrating (her obsessive search/longing for her missing papa irregardless of others' boundaries) and liberating (her determination in bettering her world and the larger world through hope and kindness brings her to question everything and everyone around her including her own choices). The book's writing and its heroine read young, as in both will mature with more experience. Often odd notes were hit for me in its editorial choices, prose phrasing and plotting especially in the third act when all strands converge. Other characters are ciphers, unfortunately including the romantic interest with many shirtless "he's so pretty and heroic" scenes. Action-packed in plot and overpacked in sentence structure, tlatbotw speeds its reader through a dreamily familiar world nostalgic for its glorified "happier" days and wary of its danger-fraught future. Advice for both reader, writer (and wayward editor), slow your roll through these dense waves, try to breathe rather than drown. Taking your time will reveal you can in fact swim and savor a deep plunge into the unknown.