A review by lizshayne
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book should win every award it was nominated for and also maybe some of the ones it wasn't.
It's so good and the comparisons to The Broken Earth trilogy are not misplaced.
It's weird and new and steeped in familiar stories and also one of those books that proves that I will like anything in the hands of a good enough author.
Because this book had two of my least favorite tropes - a redemption arc and second person perspective - and I still loved it.
And it's because Jimenez gets everything I don't like about those two things and flips them on their heads.

Jun's redemption arc is about the impossibility of redemption and the recognition that you get to and have to go on living anyway. And Jimenez uses the second person sparingly enough that I don't hate it AND, instead of using it to try to bring the story closer to the reader, he uses it to situate the reader/audience as part of the story; we are addressed by the story in the story and it plays with narrative in all sorts of cool ways.

I thought it was brilliant and does everything right. And THE ENDING.