Frances Hardinge has an amazing way with words and an incredible imagination. All her books are filled with something new and exciting to read.

This is a book about friendships and is also a deep sea adventure.
The world building in this book is amazing.
This book is beautiful both inside and out

I no longer have an interest in reviewing this title but would like to thank the publisher and author for the opportunity, it is now far past the publication and archive date. I have awarded 3 stars to keep this review neutral.

Hardinge has created an impressive mythology here. It takes the idea of sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic and extends it to life. It raises some fascinating questions about religion and culture, loyalty and manipulation. It is also long and fairly dense, so it is not to be undertaken by a casual reader.

Frances Hardinge - Deeplight - NG: I read this for the 2020 Lodestar YA award. It had some good ideas/plot, but was too dependent on idiot characters and bad science. As it was for the awards it was not appropriate to provide a review.

Loved this wild story about toxic friendships, deep sea creatures, and secrets. Definitely a great book for anyone who loves deep sea adventures!

I'm unable to review this title due to a conflict of interest. I downloaded the eARC by accident when I was working with the publisher on this book.

An engaging fantasy YA that makes you ask just how far it is worth to go to save a friend. Like Frankenstein did with his monster, Hank awakens powers he cannot control. Now he is faced with the question on how to proceed.
Were does reality end and fear generated myth begin? I suggest you read and find out.

Thank you for providing this book as part of the 2020 Hugo Awards Voter’s Packet (Lodestar finalist).

Four and a half stars, really. If you've ever wanted to read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea crossed with Frankenstein, this is for you.

Frances Hardinge has a unique knack for writing books with young protagonists that address multiple deep themes effortlessly underneath an imaginative adventure story.

In this particular book, she writes a toxic friendship that feels uncomfortably real. Jelt and Hark have been friends forever and they have saved each other in the past. Hark feels bound to Jelt and Jelt knows how to play upon Harks feelings to keep Hark from moving on. Jelt himself is a bully, a gaslighter and a criminal and knows that he'll never be more than that. Hark is intelligent enough to have a chance at getting out of that life, and Jelt won't let that happen. Why? It's only hinted at. Jelt might not want to be left alone, he may feel a sort of twisted affection for Hark, and he's probably jealous that Hark might find a better life than the one that he and Jelt currently share.

But that's not all! In this time of fear and misinformation, Hardinge has written about god/monsters that are literally created by human fear. Fear creates the monsters, and then humans go about managing that fear in order to secure power for themselves- sound familiar? There's also the theme about the difficulty of change and how we shape ourselves according to the people around us.

Plus, this is a really spooky monster story. There are the godlike monsters modeled on real deep sea creatures - I wanted to know more about all of them! There's the mad scientist who employs Hark to spy upon the old priests that propitiated the former gods with human sacrifice. There's monstrous transformation. Plus there's an Undersea lit with strange silvery and purple glows in the deepest black.

It's a great story with complex characters. The only thing keeping it from being a five star read for me is that the end felt rushed after all the buildup.

I'm really torn about this book. I like the world building, I like the main character...but I just can't abide Jelt. Jelt is a manipulative abuser, and the fact that he is so well versed in the abuser ways at such a young age...well, that's just disgusting. The more I read, the harder it was to stomach, and since I've spent a lot of my last few years learning how to identity and help the targets of such abuse, I just couldn't read a story where the target is ready to go to great lengths to save his abuser.

So, A+ for world building--D for having an emotionally abusive character being the victim that is trying to be saved.

I'm a sucker for sea monsters, and this book not only features them, but sets up a whole mythos around them. They're worshipped as Gods, and these Gods demand sacrifice. The worldbuilding is hugely rich and refreshing, and this is an unusually dark/deep plot for a YA novel, which I enjoyed immensely.

This book restored my love for books set within a watery setting. It can be so difficult to keep things exciting when it comes to the sea when things are somewhat limited. However, the writing style made me want to drop everything and keep reading.

Thanks once again to the publisher and NetGalley for including Deeplight by Frances Hardinge in this year’s Hugo Award Voter’s Packet.

Life is hard when your best friend is a bully, Hark learns to his regret in this book. Hark finds that he is faced with increasingly difficult choices as time goes by.

Even so, I enjoyed reading this book.

Yes, Hark finds himself in an interesting quandary but he tries to keep all his options open until the last minute. (Don't we all?) At the same time, he is also able to just enjoy the moment re life’s little pleasures (such as going out on a boat).

Recommended for fantasy and young adult fans for a tale told well!

This epic fantasy has believable characters. The main character grows as he experiences betrayal and trauma. The story is very well told and the wording delightful. Deep light is full of unexpected twists that stay aligned with the rules of this world.

An entrancing yet terrifying novel, Deeplight by Frances Hardinge explores both cosmic horror from the depths and toxic relationships that exist around us in our everyday lives.

The worldbuilding in this book is just so unique and fleshed-out, every facet carefully thought out to create a fascinating world that just draws you into the mystery of it all. In this world, there are old gods whose remains are harvested by the locals as the basis for their economy, despite the dangers that go unseen. I'm not always a fan of pirate/seafaring fantasy stories, but this one was just so immersive that I didn't even mind. It certainly helps that Hardinge has some excellent prose that creates such a perfect atmosphere.

The characters themselves also have such intricate relationships, and the highlight is, of course, the one between protagonist Hark and his "best friend" Jelt. It's very clearly wrong and unhealthy, but nevertheless a fascinating dynamic that kept me hooked until the very end. Hark's character arc as he develops into his own person is incredibly satisfying.

My main caveats with this book came from the pacing, which was very slow at the beginning before it avalanched into something super fast in the second half. As interesting as all of the set-up was, I was a little frustrated by how not much seemed to happen for the longest time.

Nevertheless, this book was a wonderful read and I would highly recommend it for anyone who wants a dose of cosmic horror and pirates.

Beautifully written dark fantasy adventure. I'm a huge fan of Hardinge's work and this is one of my favourites books of hers for a long time. Her enthusiasm for her richly imagined world is clear, the 'monsters' of all kinds are creepy and disturbing and her characters are well imagined and complex. I could (and would love to) read a whole series of books set in this world.

Deeplight was a book that really caught me by surprise, and in a good way. I hadn't anticipated getting sucked into it quite so thoroughly, and yet it caught me from the very beginning and never let go. It's a tale of friendship and of what happens when friendships become toxic, of belonging and loyalty and of course, of monstrous sea monsters who are worshiped as Gods. It's a marvel of unusual world-building, fascinating characters and difficult choices and I fell in love.

Set on a large group of islands, the people of the Myriad once worshiped the Gods; giant sea monsters who were majestic and terrifying. Until the Cataclysm, where the Gods wiped themselves out in a series of wars or battles with each other. Since then, the only things left of the Gods are the pieces of themselves that were left behind; Godware. But the Gods haven't died in the minds of those who once worshiped them; the people of the Myriad still identify themselves by the Gods that once ravaged their shores.

If this had just been a story of the Gods, it would still have been fascinating. But it's also the story of Hark, a fiercely loyal young man, and the friendship he has built his life around with Jelt. And it becomes are far more individualised story, one that twists and turns his friendship into an unrecognisable shape. Sold into servitude for his part in one of Jelt's schemes, Hark finds that all is not as it seems. However, Jelt is not finished with him and he finds himself pressured and pushed into actions that make him uncomfortable by the chains of a friendship he values above all else. And soon he finds himself having to figure out who the real monsters are; the Gods or his best friend.

This is tagged as being middle grade, however as an adult well past thirty, I devoured this novel. There are a lot of themes that would be interesting for discussion with a younger audience, however it is also a complex and intricate book full of weird and wonderful monsters, stunning world-building and flawed characters. This is my first novel by this author. It certainly won't be my last.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my free review copy of this title.

Another very weird book from Frances Hardinge. Gods and smugglers and scientists, family and friends and maybe you can trust them but maybe you can't. Wicked secrets and terrifying secrets and how far would you go to make things work... What an exceptional piece of work this is.

I received this as part of the Hugo Award voter packet in 2020. The cover is gorgeous, and I ended up enjoying this, but I don't know that I would have picked it up or powered through if I hadn't been reading it for Hugo voting. Felt very slow at moments, but this was also in the last few days before voting and I was admittedly getting fatigued. Also, I can't speak to the accuracy, though based on my limited knowledge it's good, but really appreciated the deaf rep, all the way down to something like a name sign.

It was strong enough for me to make me interested in reading more from Frances Hardinge so that's exciting.