”All of them were haunted women. Violence had broken and reforged them, and the sharp edges it left behind made them dangerous”. 

A Dark and Drowning Tide, by Allison Saft

Summary

A sharp-tongued folklorist must pair up with her academic rival to solve their mentor’s murder in this lush and enthralling sapphic fantasy romance from the New York Times bestselling author of A Far Wilder Magic.

Lorelei Kaskel, a folklorist with a quick temper and an even quicker wit, is on an expedition with six eccentric nobles in search of a fabled spring. The magical spring promises untold power, which the king wants to harness to secure his reign of the embattled country of Brunnestaad. Lorelei is determined to use this opportunity to prove herself and make her wildest, most impossible dream come to become a naturalist, able to travel freely to lands she’s only ever read about.

The expedition gets off to a harrowing start when its leader—Lorelei’s beloved mentor—is murdered in her quarters aboard their ship. The suspects are her five remaining expedition mates, each with their own motive. The only person Lorelei knows must be innocent is her longtime academic rival, the insufferably gallant and maddeningly beautiful Sylvia von Wolff. Now in charge of the expedition, Lorelei must find the spring before the murderer strikes again—and a coup begins in earnest.

But there are other dangers lurking in the forests that rearrange themselves at night, rivers with slumbering dragons waiting beneath the water, and shapeshifting beasts out for blood.

As Lorelei and Sylvia grudgingly work together to uncover the truth—and resist their growing feelings for one another—they discover that their professor had secrets of her own. Secrets that make Lorelei question whether justice is worth pursuing, or if this kingdom is worth saving at all.

My Thoughts

I’ve only read one other book from this author—Wings of Starlight, her Tinkerbell book, and I was a fan, so I decided to try out this one. It was a decent read, but not my favorite. While Saft’s writing is very strong and her characters are each unique and interesting, I take problem with some of the themes underpinning the novel and the message being conveyed. Let’s start with the good parts.

Saft does a stupendous job of drawing upon Jewish and Eastern European folklore in this book, and since I’m unfamiliar with that mythology it was fascinating. The plot was generally good; they start their adventure, their leader gets murdered, and they have to figure out who did it while dealing with tensions between the entire crew. Our main character Lorelai is rivals with Sylvia, her love interest, and friends with only one other crew member. She also struggles with strong racism and bigotry from certain members of the crew, who look down on her for being Yeva, which is the name for the fictional Jewish stand in. There are tensions, fights, and magic. The character tension and dialogue is good and snappy, and the romance was a lot of fun. The entire book had queer vibes and queerness was completely normalized, with different crew members having different tensions and history regardless of gender. For a book that isn’t too big, the characters were also distinct. The dark academia vibes are immaculate as well.

However, the magic system was relatively underdeveloped. While the actual magical creatures make sense since they just exist, the way the characters draw upon magic, and who has the ability to and who doesn’t is never really explained. They just kind of use it and it falls to the wayside in favor of telling dozens of myths throughout the book, occasionally peppered in in a way that feels a bit heavy-handed. Furthermore, the themes of the book felt far too accepting of colonization/pro-colonialism. The entire crew are the heirs to different kingdoms that have all been conquered by the king’s country, who they are working for on their expedition. She and the entire crew end up working with this king, and the main villain in the end is the person who wants to fight back, protect their country, and not just sit by while their culture is colonized and integrated into this new “unified” country; assimilated, really. Their argument is that more war would kill more people, but that feels far too accepting of the actual conquering and cultural colonization taking place. By the end of the book they just kind of accept working with the king and helping him out, and Lorelai is the only Yeva who is actually free, while the rest are still stuck in settlements. I don’t at all agree with this anti-revolution message, or the idea that people should just be accepting of imperialism if they can selfishly benefit from the system at the expense of others.

Lorelai is also not the most appealing protagonist—she has this grumpy sunshine vibe with Sylvia, which I enjoyed, but her inner monologue is bitter at times in a way that revolves between understanding and self-pitying. Her perspective does do a good job of emphasizing the horrors of fantasy antisemitism and its impacts, however. You can see the author’s background in YA shine through, as this is her first adult novel, because the characters occasionally act like teenagers and not 20 something young adults, most of whom have fought in wars.

Ultimately I enjoyed this book and it was a fun read, especially coming off of finishing the entire Throne of Glass series which I LOVED, but it wasn’t this author’s best.

Review: ⚫ ⚫ ⚫

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