The description of Somewhere in the Deep was really intriguing to me. A girl made to fight monsters to stay alive finally finds a chance to leave the monster island. While SITD is that, it is also much, much more. It is sensitive and explosive found and lost, and then found again, family. *A note that I did not read Monsters Born and Made and that the world was all new to me. I do feel it was fast-paced and we were thrown into the story. but I didn't mind it. I love, love, love, the caves and the events in the caves. It really is a fantastical, magical, creature story and I could have spent forever reading about the creatures and the origins of the caves. I am really excited to see what Berwah does next.

Another beautiful work by Tanvi Berwah!
I loved MBaM, and Somewhere in the Deep was not disappointing!
LOVE the adventure. Kress is a strong lead (and I love her fighting aesthetic, helmet and all). Rivan is a sweetheart everyone must protect. I even love Aryadna and the misfit group. Beautiful world building and I love the writing, how the story flows nicely. It was fun, fast paced, filled with action and adventure!

4.25 stars

Kressent is the daughter of the kin killers and is doing everything she can to leave this island where she sees no future for herself. But after she is no longer allowed to fight monsters in the pit, a new adventure awaits her that might guarantee her the freedom she wants, although this does not go how they were told it was going to go.

Once you understand the world of this book, it is a pretty easy but entertaining read. It definitely is classified as a fantasy, but no real difficult storylines or creatures are introduced in this book, making it appropriate for everyone to read. Even though many characters were introduced in this book, it still remained easy to follow as not too many details were given to those besides the main characters. The plot also has the ability to keep you so focused on this book as there are so many things happening, but at the same time, just enough things are happening. The plot is gripping and entertaining and makes you feel all these emotions for the characters.

I also must admit that Kressent is such a good female main character. She was so well described in this book, and I loved to read about her parents' story and how she gained more insight into their actions while she was doing her expedition. Then her friendship with Rivan was wonderful, everything they did for each other just made me wonder whether they were love interests. At least, from Rivan's side, this is how I interpreted their relationship, and perhaps it would have been interesting to have this romance included in the book. But nonetheless, the characters were very well written, and they all matched up with each other very well, making the plot even better.

<b>"The Land keeps its secrets" ch11</b>

First, a thank you to NetGalley and the author for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own of course.

Usually, when you read a YA (Romance) Fantasy, it is either character-driven, plot-driven, or both. However, in this book, there is a third element that should be focused on as much which is the SETTING.

The island of Kar Atish, its description, what layers it holds, the creatures lurking beneath it, and the secrets it guards all play important roles in the story making the island somewhat alive.
and the author did an amazing job bringing forth every space to life, although I do wish there was a map at the beginning of the book. It would have made it easier than rereading paragraphs to understand the layout
The island is inhabitant by miners working to dig out zargunine material that the upper class called Landers use to wage their wars and enslave people.

The book follows the life of Kress (Krescent Dune: strange name for a girl born and raised on an island considering these names are associated usually with the desert) who was orphaned at the age of 11 when her parents did something horrible and died while doing it. She hides her identity as best as she can and fights in the pit in order to gain enough silver to buy her freedom and her way out of the island
She befriend Rivan, a miner, and his two brothers who became sort of her other family.
She is tricked to join an expedition inside the tunnels of the mines looking for supposed survivors by the promise of her freedom only to discover that this whole escapade was a ruse to find more zargunine or something better
They stumble upon dark secrets and loyalties are tested

I absolutely enjoyed reading this book even though I didn't read the first book (each book is a standalone). The description of the creatures and monsters and that of the island created clear and vivid images in my head.

but it was the political and cultural undertone of the book that really hooked me in. This was a clear depiction of colonialism especially that of the British/India, French/North Africa, and late-Ottomman/Arabian world if you will.

<b>The Landers, an upper caste of rich, powerful people who seem to hold our world in their fists</b> arrived at the nine islands and the island of Kar Atish and <b>we were informed that anyone not a Lander was of a lower caste, a Renter, by birth</b>. The brutality of how these Landers treated the islanders and regarded them as not only inferior but also objects that only serve the masters is a clear shout-out to how colonialism perceived People of the invaded land.

The dynamic between Kress and Rivan was beautiful to see especially how much Rivan Loved Kress. <b>"You can't pick who to love any more than you could avoid a tsunami"</b>. The eye role I made every time Kress questions his motives clueless of what he felt towards her brought an ache to my eyes.
I am just imagining all the Pinterest fanart and simpping over these two, especially Rivan. Don't believe me? just read this
<b>Kress, not even the ocean could have stopped me from finding you."</b> FYI, the ocean is their god.

Throughout her miserable 6 years since her parents died, Rivan was her anchor, I nearly cired when they said
<b>"Sometimes choices get taken away from you by the world"
"Then you find new ones"
"Does this world feel like it lets you find new choices?"
"Not if you close up to the chance"
"The world never gave me a chance!"
"What do you think I was doing all these years? Why am I not enough, Kress"</b>

and because of this feeling of desperate abandonment, I excused how passive Kress was sometimes. Some characters were bombarding her with insults and mocking and she just stood there! I almost threw my kindle a couple of times from frustration shouting "Say something damn you!"

but I understood her feeling of guilt and her inner struggle that whatever she does, she will never be good enough. It was refreshing by end to see her standing up to herself though

Now to the parts I did not like

This book is 307 pages. It is short for a fantasy book but it felt like 50 pages shouldn't be there and 100 more should be added.
it was boring how many times it was repeated that Kress was afraind about Rivan and what would happen to her if he got hurt and how his brothers would feel. It was over 20 times! enough already.
Or how many times she monologued on her life and how she wishes to get out

I wanted more background on the side characters. Who was Harren and Racksha they played important parts but we got little info on them.
what was Aryadna's true relationship with her grandfather? it wasn't convincing.
more about the parents
and the myths of the island

just felt that something was missing

also, this thing that modern writiers are doing to reach a quota in their books!
if you want to put an LGBTQ rep in your story, I have no problem with that as long it is there to be of significance and importance. NOT "It is here just to be here"!!

According to the writer here on GR, May was transgender. Reading the book you do not figure it out by yourself if you don't look closely at the ONE CLUE.
He had no significant role. it wouldn't matter to the story whether he was there or not.
So what was the purpose??????

the last thing was I did not grasp if this was a High fantasy or a Low fantasy. The setting and world building gave it a high fantasy feel. But the lingo used was definitely low fantasy

all in all, this was so much better than many of YA fantasy books I've read lately and definitely will read all the books by this author.

A fun YA fantasy, with a unique world, and likeable characters. The plot was fast moving, and the writing was easily engageable, however the book just didn’t manage to captivate me in the way others of the genre have. That said, that’s probably more a reflection on the amount of YA fantasy I have consumed than on the book itself.

The world of the book was contained to that of an island and while the scope was small, it was very effectively fleshed out with its class system of the invading ‘Landers’ and the oppressed ‘Renters’. An aspect I really enjoyed of the book was the exploration of land ownership, and the way that the land itself seemed to be a character in the novel. The lore of the world was interesting, filled with mythical beasts of legend, people from the depths, and mineral ores of untold power. However I did find the world to be quite claustrophobic, with its dark setting of the depths of monster filled caves, and while that was the intended purpose I must say I would’ve enjoyed a few more scenery changes throughout, as after a while it became slightly monotonous. The plot similarly did seem a bit repetitive at times, until the conclusion, as well as the fact that none of the twists surprised me as they were a bit too strongly foreshadowed.

I enjoyed the characters of the book, although I felt that I didn’t have time to grow to necessarily love any of them. Additionally I would’ve enjoyed some relationships to be more fleshed out, in particular Rivan and Kress, who were sweet, but most of their close bond was told to us, in the context of their long lasting friendship, rather than shown. Maybe it was just that Rivan could have benefitted from more time establishing his character as his own person, beyond the fact that he was a caring friend and brother, to make them feel more authentic (I still liked Rivan though).
The one aspect that didn’t allow this book to reach bigger heights for me was the constant sense I had that I was waiting for something big to happen to shake up the game, that never eventuated, however maybe I’m just used to the larger scope of fantasy series rather than the limits of a standalone.

All in all a fun fantasy, with a well constructed world, that didn’t particularly bring anything new to the genre, but was an enjoyable read all the same.

Okay first of all, I want to take a second to shout out that cover which is absolutely stunning! I hadn't read Monsters Born and Made before this one but I do remember also quite liking that cover when I first saw it too. I do also want to note that while this book is a companion to MBAM, you do not need to have read both for either to make sense (although there are some small spoilers for MBAM). I assumed this was a standalone at first and was really blown away by the worldbuilding. Berwah did such an amazing job with crafting the world she is writing in, and her description of the monsters in this book were breathtaking. As a kid who was obsessed with Atlantis: The Lost Empire, this book made my heart sing. The team, the descent into a shadow-y ancient city, all of it was wonderful. I also have to give Berwah major props for having the team also have to return to the surface. I have seen so many adventure books that completely gloss over the return journey and I love that she chose to detail it and make it just as hard as the journey down. Over all, this book was a great treat that I cannot recommend enough!