Unfortunately I have decided to DNF this book at 67%. I truthfully tried to continue, but I just can't bring myself to finish this story. A 400 page book usually takes me 4 days to read when I have the time and this book has taken me over a week to reach the 67% mark.

PROS
The world is beautiful and so intriguing. We have an semi-underwater world where both fathomfolk (essentially mythological creatures) and humans co-exist, but there is heavy classism and racism in the world. The writing adds to the world and there is great worldbuilding. I can picture the buildings, cities, streets, etc. and you can tell that the world is heavily inspired by Asian cities.

CONS
While the worldbuilding is beautiful, I really wish there was a map (maybe there just isn't on my eARC copy?) to help understand where things are located in conjunction with each other.
The characters were very flat for me. Around the 30% mark there is a big character twist and I didn't have any reaction to it; it was abrupt and just kind of brushed aside. I really wanted to like the changing POVs but there was no character development and Nami's character was all over the place to me. She has this side quest that gets mentioned here and there, but nothing has developed beyond that. Mira was cool at first, but once again her character hasn't developed beyond her being a city guard. Cordelia, I'm not sure what the point of her character is beyond causing chaos.

I usually am not critical for book one in a series for having a slow start as it usually is setting up the world and overall story, but 67% in I cannot tell you a concise plot that would warrant a slow build up like this. I read a review with a spoiler for the ending, and while I'm intrigued to know how that happened, I'm not interested enough in the story and characters to read 30% more of this book.

Additionally, so many mythical creatures are name dropped and then there is really no description of them. Tbh I'm lazy and didn't Google the creatures, but I feel like I shouldn't have to in order to understand naga, kelpie, selkies, etc.

Overall, this book had a really interesting premise and world, but fell very flat for me and needed a stronger direction to hold my interest.

The story is portrayed from the viewpoints of Serena, Nami, and Mira, the three main protagonists. Regretfully, it was difficult to get along with any of these characters. I have mixed feelings about this book and rate it 3.75 stars, to four stars rounded up. First, I can't wait to follow this author's career as she has an extremely intellectual and perceptive writing style, and this is her outstanding debut. I will be recommending Fathomfolk widely in the interim, and I look forward to the sequel with great anticipation. Although there are essentially only two locales in this book which are Tiankawi and Yonakuni, where we spend very little time (I would've like more time on these), the world building in this is incredibly well done. The amount of detail Chan includes makes the world feel immense and immersive. I enjoyed the viewpoints of Serena, Nami, and Mira, the three main protagonists. Regretfully, it was difficult to connect with any of these characters as a whole. Even so, it was a good read and I look forward to seeing what others think as well.

Eliza Chan has written an impressive start to a new series. While there is a lot in this book that I loved, there was also some parts that felt like they were far too slow. I do believe though that was just part of trying to create the world and history behind the story.

Overall, I did enjoy this one and I look forward to reading the next in the series.

Overall I enjoyed this. At first I didn't think I would. The first two thirds are difficult to comprehend, the plot feels disjointed and the multiple POV's make it mildly confusing to follow. However, as I got further into the story, and things start to come together, I found it engaging and poignant.
It's my opinion that this story is not for everyone. As a white person, I did spend some time looking things up to better understand the culture and folk/fairy tales I was reading about. This could be because they are not stories or creatures I grew up with, or because there was not a great deal of exposition about them/the world in the first few chapters.
At the beginning of the book, it felt like, as the reader we are almost dumped into the deep end and expected to swim, (pun absolutely intended), and expected to know how to swim amidst this new world, fairly new beings, new characters, and new story. I had a hard time.
I adored the throw backs to the fairy tales and folk tales. The inclusion of sand god/titans and the references to Little Mermaid where beautifully done.
There was so much more to this book than just fairy tales, I won't spoil it, however, I will say it reminded me a lot of past events and left me heartbroken.
It's a beautiful book. I would recommend this for anyone who is looking for something to get them out of their comfort zone.

[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Fathomfolk releases February 27, 2024

4.5

This story takes place in a semi-submerged city, where there’s an age old power imbalance between humans and fathomfolk, with waters rife with so many poisonous pollutants that living underwater would be an eventual death sentence.

Alternating between several pov’s, we get to know the entangled lives of the following characters living in Tiankawi:
Mira — a half-siren and captain of the border guard trying to make change within the political system.
Kai — a water dragon, ambassador, and Mira’s romantic partner.
Nami — a graduate student of the academy exiled to Tiankawi after attempting to steal the dragon pearl; is Kai’s younger sister.
Cordelia — seawitch and shapeshifter who seems to always have a hand in something behind the scenes by dealing in bargains.
Serena — a wife and mother to two who is keeping secrets of her own.
Drawbacks — an extremist group fighting for folk rights.

When two humans are deliberately murdered and drowned during the boat races, it causes even more tension to ensue between them and the fathomfolk.
Will Tiankawi ever know equality?

I don’t know why the reception of this book with early reviews seems to be so bad… I personally really enjoyed it! The complexities of the text really stick with you days after you finish reading.

The cast of characters are so full bodied, with strong character arcs that develop and strengthen throughout the course of the story while highlighting the varied approaches to how they each view and tackle oppression.
There are various degrees of sacrifice shown by their actions which was something that particularly won me over towards the end with the acts of selflessness.

Core themes include diaspora, identity, and class which I thought were expertly weaved in within the fantasy setting while echoing real world feelings. Being a daughter of a mixed relationship just like Mira, I especially loved the conversation between her and Nami found in chapter 11:

<i>“You’re Atliyan?”
“No, I’m Tiankawian.”
<b>“But where are you from? Originally?”</b>
“Here,” Mira said. “Born here, brought up here, never lived anywhere else. I’m freshwater.”
“But we’re saltwater. Fathomfolk. We come from the abyss, we’ll return to the seabed.”
“I’ve never seen the deep oceans. My life is in Tiankawi.”</I>

Seeing the critiques of other reviewers that wonder why the underwater world was so similar to the land makes me question the lack of reader comprehension — Tiankawi is a semi-submerged city, meaning that years ago, what is now underwater once functioned as the city for humans, so as the water levels rose, the fathomfolk had to adapt to the structures that were already there.
As well as the many criticisms of Nami being too annoying and naive for making several bad decisions — she clearly grew up privileged and sheltered to a degree, being gaslit and hidden from important information. How else does one learn if not by making mistakes along the way? Being a perfect character isn’t ideal either, and this approach to her character leaves opportunity for further growth in the sequel. Nami even recognizes her deep rooted prejudices, acknowledges them, and makes a conscious effort to try and change them going forward. This also adds an additional layer of nuance by calling attention to the fact that there can be prejudices within the fathomfolk as well, and that it's not just limited to a broader viewpoint of humans vs folk with gills.

I’m looking forward to seeing what direction the author takes in the sequel, Tideborn!

Oh, this is not a good book. I should have DNFed.

The world needed to be edited down. The author threw every type of underwater mythological creature under the sea and called it a day. I wish she had chosen a few select creatures and fully fleshed them out.

We have three POVs, and all of them felt flat. There's always a risk if including several POVs; you have less time to flesh them out. None of the characters were developed beyond basic personality traits. Let me summarize our main cast: good, naive, and evil. I could not have cared less what happened to them.

The biggest crime this novel committed was that ending. It undid all the moral dilemmas and injustices the book was based on. I can't even begin to describe how disappointed I was at the ending. Why would an author introduce such hard discussions only to wipe away the chance for any true change to occur?

I won't be checking out the next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

I was given an eARC of Fathomfolk through NetGalley! Thank you! Fathomfolk was super well written! It had extremely strong world building and the politics were very well written and defined. My only issue was it got quite dense at times. I would read 20-30 pages and it felt MUCH longer. I also wish that the chapters were titled with the POV name. Overall a very good book, the characters and politics were so great, and I would love to read more stories from this world. I loved the mix of stories and mythologies that the author took inspiration from.

I have been looking forward to this one after seeing the cover announced! It is gorgeous! I also liked what the blurb had to offer as well.

The book is told from multiple point-of-views. There were some that I liked more than others. It was hard to stay interested when there was so many of them. The transition between point-of-views was could be abrupt too. I usually tend to enjoy this in books, but it didn’t work for me in this one.

I did like the world and learning about the fathomfolk. It was different than most books with underwater creatures/humans. I wish there would have just been a bit more world building though. I also felt like this being a fantasy world it would mean that the world itself would resemble something that wasn’t modern, but that wasn’t the case. I don’t know if it fit for the story. The political intrigue was fascinating and mimicked our world in a lot of ways. It makes you think and so it was easy to understand what the characters were going through in that aspect. Their relationships were a bit took quick and some just didn’t have any background and began from the first chapter.

Overall, this was good but could have been better. I don’t think it was enough to continue on with the series.

Folklore, mythology, magic, mystical creatures, East and South East Asian vibes. This book is a great read if you like all of these things. It is the first in the Drowned World series. Fathomfolk live in the depths of the Ocean that as become polluted by humans, and some of them live among the humans. Fleeing the polluted waters as refugees. They are seen as less and looked down upon. This story touches on classism, racism, and how different people deal with living in these conditions. Mira the half-siren tries to do things "by the book" though she is well aware that the humans are oppressing all Fathomfolk. Nami the dragon is a little hot-headed, she wants change, and she knows the source of her people's pain. She joins an extremist group.
Both will have to decide if change is worth the price they each will pay. Stakes are high, lives are lost. Freedom the goal.
Such a fantastic book! I highly recommend it.


Description

Revolution is brewing in the semi-submerged city of Tiankawi, between humans and the fathomfolk who live in its waters. This gloriously imaginative debut fantasy, inspired by East Asian mythology and ocean folk tales, is a novel of magic, rebellion and change.

Welcome to Tiankawi – shining pearl of human civilization and a safe haven for those fleeing civil unrest. Or at least, that's how it first appears. But in the semi-flooded city, humans are, quite literally, on top: peering down from shining towers and aerial walkways on the fathomfolk – sirens, seawitches, kelpies and kappas – who live in the polluted waters below.

For half-siren Mira, promotion to captain of the border guard means an opportunity to help her downtrodden people. But if earning the trust and respect of her human colleagues wasn't hard enough, everything Mira has worked towards is put in jeopardy when Nami, a know-it-all water dragon and fathomfolk princess – is exiled to the city, under Mira’s watch. When extremists sabotage a city festival, violence erupts, as does the clampdown on fathomfolk rights. Both Nami and Mira must decide if the cost of change is worth paying, or if Tiankawi should be left to drown.



I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher. I was under no obligation to give a review. All opinions are my own. I am disclosing this per the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The story at the center of this novel is sadly a common one. Sprinkled throughout it are moments that any marginalized community will recognize and relate to.

Though at its base it is nothing new, the presentation and heart of the storytelling make the old captivating.

The blend of mythos in the diverse fathomfolk being one of my favorite aspects of the book. Kappas, kelpies, selkies, and other water originating beings of myth reside together alongside humans.

The setting submerges you in a colorful yet troubled setting. Tiankawi, for all it's flaws, is an astonishingly accurate representation of the diversity of cities. The half-submerged nature of it adding to the sense of resilience yet also noting it's constant threat of destruction. A watery city reaching a boiling point of tensions.

By far, the most commendable thing about this novel is the characters. Each is fully fleshed out and has moments that are awful but understandable. You'll probably cringe at some words spoken and actions taken, but in their individualized circumstances they are justified.

Also Cordelia is kinda peak villain. It's been awhile since I felt such anger at a character's actions but woo was I mad.

I look forward to seeing where book 2 takes this world.

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit books for providing this review copy in exchange for an honest review!

Fathomfolk is a wonderfully wrought world, that is both complex and understandable. Truly, between the setting, and the societal structure, Eliza Chan really impressed me.

At its core, this book centers around politics, which doesn't usually catch my interest in fantasy books. I want big quests and daring adventures, and you don't really get that in this book, so I was left continually asking "But when is something going to happen?" That never slowed me down while reading though, because there was always at least a glimpse of intrigue to keep me going. If you like a strong plot like I do, you might want to reconsider this one. Ultimately though, I'm glad I read it, but that's the main type of reader that I could see who would not enjoy it.

This book has a large cast of characters, and a large variety of mythical creatures, so I did find myself sort of "trusting the process" in the beginning, but it all clicked in fairly quickly, and soon found myself falling in love with several characters.

The last thing I have to say is that the magic system seems a little convenient. If Chan needs a lot of power, suddenly characters can do incredible things, but if she needs to up the stakes, suddenly they've run through their reserves. I wish that was a little more structured, or at least better explained, but with the work that went into the rest of the world building, I can accept a slight overlook of how the magic works.

Finally, at the end of the day, I cannot wait to get my hands on book two. This was a great first novel, with just enough intrigue that I'm eager to see what else Chan can do.

I think that a lot of the strength of the story was in the setting for me, the characters often times make sense. The romance felt like it didnt fully make sense, like it just happened because the author said so.

DNF at 76%. Unfortunately this book did not work for me. Despite having very rich world-building the story ultimately fell flat. The book dragged so much and I kept putting it down and dreading having to I won't be publicly reviewing this book yet and hope to go back to this at a later date to see if I enjoy it more then before solidifying a proper review/rating. There was a lot of untapped potential here.

Thank you to NetGalley, Orbit Books, and Eliza Chan for my copy in exchange for my honest review.

Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan is a good fit for anyone who likes folklore, political uprising, and original world building.

What I liked:
* I loved the world that Chan has created. It’s fantastical and interesting to see all different types of mythical creatures in one world.
* Mira and Kai were my favorites, and I wish there had been a bit more of their relationship because I loved the two of them.
* Cordellia was another favorite character of mine, and I’m intrigued to see what else happens with her character.
* Finally, the plot moved along quickly enough that I became engrossed and was able to finish the book quickly!

What I didn’t like:
* I really didn’t like the ending. I won’t spoil anything, but there’s a major plot point that I found kind of a cop out to true resolution with the humans and Fathomfolk.
* The story was also very predictable, so nothing was truly that shocking.
* I felt that it read more YA and adult, but that didn’t bother me too much.
* Sometimes the POVs changed so much that I didn’t get to know the characters as deeply as I wanted to.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and will be reading the second one, but the lackluster ending , as well as some stereotypical characters and plot pulled my rating down.

3.5 ⭐️

First of all, thank you so much to Netgalley and Orbit Books/Hachette for sending me a copy of Fathomfolk to review!

To start, let me talk about what I liked about this book. I thought the world-building was really interesting. This is a fantasy world filled with water creatures from various mythologies, but living alongside humans in a half-submerged world. There were really great commentaries on racism and xenophobia, and what happens when you learn to fear and hate those who are different from you. I also think it was really interesting how there was somewhat of an unspoken caste system within the folk, assigning certain folk to a higher status than others, and frowning at mixed-race partnerships even within their own community. I think this was a great way to use fantasy and mythology to reflect the struggles of our own world back at us.

But here's where I struggled with this book. From the beginning, I felt like there were too many perspectives, especially once you find out that two of the perspectives were actually the same person all along. I can appreciate that by getting all their perspectives, we knew what was really happening behind the scenes. But I felt like by spending so much time with each person, it made the book feel like it was dragging.

I also struggled with some of the character development throughout the book (spoilers ahead). First off, Nami's character arc frustrated me. I understood that she was young and impressionable, and got swept up in everything with the Drawbacks. But I felt like just when she was making progress and learning to fight back and take ownership of her actions, she went running back to Firth. From the beginning, even through Nami's eyes, we knew he was bad news. And at the very end when she kills Jeanette, we think she's ready to leave the Drawbacks behind for good, only to have her literally diving into Firth's arms. I feel like she was smarter than that and deserved more self-confidence. Also, you really did Mira dirty by having her finally believe that Kai loves her, finally have them connect in a way that goes beyond the unspoken prejudices and fears, only for him to sacrifice himself to save the city. Was giving everyone gills a really interesting and impactful way to end the story? Yes absolutely. But having to lose Kai, who was one of the only characters that from the very beginning to the very end was truly good in his heart? That's just cruel.

Overall, it wasn't a bad experience, but I don't think this is one that I would recommend to friends, and I likely will not be reading book two.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for the arc copy in exchange for an honest review.*

3.5⭐ rounded up.

I really really wanted to love this book. It was one of my highest anticipated reads of the year and the cover is absolutely stunning, but I didn't jive with this one.

This is a good story with a very important message, but I think the reason I couldn't connect with the book is because I didn't particularly like the characters. It felt like there was a lot of whining and they all just felt very juvenile, along with the romance. I didn't see anywhere where this was meant to be YA, so I wasn't expecting the juvenile feel.

This had so much potential. I love the idea of dragons, and kelpies, and sirens, etc trying to forge a peaceful life with the humans. I don't think the author used the fathomfolk well enough in her story, because they just felt like more, but oppressed, humans. I had to keep reminding myself that they weren't human because there was nothing really effectively conveying that in the book.

The message about how being different does not mean you are bad and different people (species) should be able to live together in peace is very important. I did enjoy the political unrest in the book; it was what kept me reading. Out of all of the characters, Nami was probably my favorite because she didn't want to be a follower, and she questioned things. She cared about the humans too, despite everything, in their time of need. Even in our world, we need more people like Nami.

I will still continue this series. I'm hoping this was more of a set-up book for what's to come.

Amazing premise; incredible worldbuilding - bust of a novel.

The book felt very juvenile and I didn't like any of these characters. I didn't like following them or their lives. However, the world they inhabit was so interesting. I wish authors loaned out settings to other authors.

4 stars. I really enjoyed Fathomfolk! I haven't read a ton of Asian inspired fantasy and I also haven't read any fantasy that features an underwater civilization as the main focus, so Fathomfolk was a real treat for me, but I also don't have much to compare it to. I know on goodreads that this one is getting a fair bit of critique, and I think it's because Fathomfolk does start out slow. The blurb describes Fathomfolk as fast paced, and it's just not. There's a ton of world building, but Chan delivers it to the audience via massive info dumps. There's a lot to get to grips with world wise and character wise. At it's heart, Fathomfolk really is a character driven story-- the plot is kind of minimal. But, I've seen a lot of criticism about the characters themselves, and how unlikable they are. Taken together, I think that intense world building, slow pace, and seemingly unlikeable characters all contribute to the negative ratings.

That said, I am so glad. SO glad that I persevered beyond the world building and continued. Because I actually really loved the world Chan created and also really enjoyed the book as a whole. The descriptions of Tiankawi were really vivid and to be honest, the city sounded pretty freakin cool. It was everything I wanted an underwater (or almost underwater) city to be, complete with a slew of underwater type fathomfolk (like kelpies and sirens and dragons and sea witches, etc). While there was no huge plot, the book does explore some major themes of immigration, xenophobia, class divides, and pollution. I was definitely here for the message. Regarding the characters' unlikability, I'd have to politely disagree with that critique. Nami is meant to be naive and impetuous. She very much is meant to be the type of character that lets her emotions drive her decisions. Because it's the perfect opposite/complement to Mira, who over thinks everything, and is reluctant to act. Their personalities are exaggerated and are meant to represent the two ends of the extreme. Both want the same thing (social reform/ acceptance for the fathom folk), but go about exacting it in radically different ways. While I liked Mira more, I appreciated the need for a character like Nami, and I also enjoyed her growth (and also lack of growth in some regards-- yes she made terrible decisions even at the end, but fallibility is believable). As a romance reader, I really loved Kai and Mira's relationship and I definitely preferred it to Nami and Firth's romance. As far as endings go, I was definitely left reeling (in a good way) and I loved the bit of a cliffhanger we get. I can 100% say that I will absolutely continue with this story and wish I could read Tideborn now.

Thank you so much to Chan, Orbit, and netgalley for the chance to read this one early in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️: 3.75/5
🌶️: 🚪Closed Door

Wow wow wow. I have to imaging that Chan's notebooks to plan this novel take up an entire bookshelf because this book has some of the richest worldbuilding I've ever read. And the best part? No info-dumping. Chan invests time in nearly every single chapter to weave this tapestry of visuals and experience of the setting and it pays off. I can vividly picture Tiankawi and every setting for the scenes.

I also thought the Character structure was really unique. While there is a romance for a main character, there is also an established relationship for another main character, and that relationship remains stable at the end. It's definitely a fresher setup than I usually read. The main characters were all really well fleshed out and developed. We got backstory and motivation from them. I did feel like secondary and tertiary characters were where I wanted to get so much more. A lot of the other characters just didn't get any dimension to them, which may be developed in later books.

Since this is Chan's debut novel, we don't know what the plans are moving forward, but I get the feeling (and hope!) this will be an epic-style fantasy series, as the second book has already been announced. In terms of plot, there are a lot of loose threads that aren't developed enough in this book. In addition to things that aren't wrapped up yet (and I hope get resolved in the sequel), there were a lot of plot points that felt out-of-the-blue. I would expect that a big twist cause a paradigm shift for me, put all the little details from earlier in perspective, but in Fathomfolk, the twists introduced brand-new information we didn't even know could exist yet, instead of depending on hints and foreshadowing previously. I'm just not sure that I liked that. Specifically, about 80% of the way through, I was getting tons of new details and new lore that I wished had been a part of earlier worldbuilding.

The last thing that was a bit rough was the timeline. Chan tends not to use explicit transitional statements (i.e. "Two weeks later, Character A was still thinking about the events of...."), so the timeline is really tough to piece together. It's harder to determine the impact of different events because the timeline might jump after, but it's not clear.

Onto some things I really loved! The magic system. Again, we don't get an info-dump, but we get to observe how the magic works multiple times, and I found those scenes just stunning. I also really enjoyed the multi-POV, and that our POVs weren't just two lovers--it was an ensemble cast, and it was so enjoyable. And finally, this book is a direct parallel to social justice efforts in the world today. While I did have trouble working through the first half of the book because of the quantity of content, this really impacted me because I could see the events of Tiankawi happening in my home state in the US easily. I found it really moving.

Overall, this is absolutely a book I'd recommend you pick up when it releases. It's a breath of fresh air (pun intended, you'll get it once you read) among fantasy today, and I can't wait for the next one!

I’ve had a lot of time to think about this book and my overall thoughts for it.

It could be that I WANTED it to be this mind blowing, spectacular mythical read. It could be that social media/bookstagram was hyping it up to be amazing. At the end, it did not live up to the expectation. And maybe that’s why I rated it so low.

Here’s what I had issues with: the multiple character POVs, the gaps in timeline, the odd romantic relationship between two characters, the lack of explanation of mythical characters that may not be well known to many readers, and most of all the very long, slow build up of the first half of the book.

The political atmosphere of the book could be a bit ingratiating at times, like rubbing salt in a wound too many times. This reader understood that mythical folk were not welcomed in the world of humans, and the folk wanted change. There was no need to keep reiterating this MULTIPLE times. However, this was the major plot driver to the book.

What I did enjoy: the detailed world building, the mythical creatures, and possibly two of the main characters (not going to spoil all that for you).

I’m not sure if I will read the next book. Nor do I feel that this story needed to have more than one book in the first place.

Always thankful to Netgalley and the publisher, Orbit Books, for allowing me to read this story.