swcatlover 's review for:

A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft

3.0

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

I liked this book until the very end. I loved how folklore drove the story. The relationships between the characters were messy and complicated, making it an interesting train wreck at times. I also liked how the magic system worked. The book was well written and had some beautiful prose. 

However…the politics were weird

The fact that everyone was just like “let’s side with the colonizer” was off putting. The main character’s reward for supporting the empower is that she gets to leave the Jewish ghettos. It’s an awkward choice for a supposedly happy ending. She literally spends all the book talking about how important her people and culture are to her and then is happy to work for a man who she knows will probably will turn on her people.  Im guessing the author was aiming for a realistic ending, but it really tainted the book for me.