2.75 (rounded up)
—————

Inspired by mythology and folklore, Fathomfolk handles themes of rebellion, love, and the misunderstanding of diversity.

Phew, I have mix thoughts on this one. This book has such a solid premise and I love reading new books based on mythology, especially mythology I’m unfamiliar with so I can learn new cultural tales and themes. Plus that cover is amazing! But this one just didn’t live up to my expectations.

The world building was hardly there. You get little bits throughout the story, but never enough to fully understand this civilization. I wanted to understand more about where I was in the book. With a little more knowledge, I could have really enjoyed the book more, because I did enjoy the bits and pieces I got. The ending felt like a flop because there was no buildup or climax to the plot.

The plot was a little boring, not helped by the incredibly slow pacing. I was 25% of the way in before I had any idea of what was going on. I found the events to be pretty drawn out, heavily leaning on the characters to bring along the story but this one definitely needed to be more action and plot driven. Leaning onto these characters prohibited the world growth quite a bit and left me wanting more from the plot. This is heavily political with a lot of loose ends I wanted wrapped up, despite a second novel coming. I did enjoy the use of multiple POVs to help get a well rounded concept of the events. The ending felt like a flop for me because I didn’t see any buildup or climax to the plot.

For something so heavily character driven, I wanted to like the characters more than I did. I enjoyed Mira to a degree and understood her career driven personality. But I found Nami and Kai to be self involved and a little stuck up. Cordelia I just didn’t enjoy at all. Her storyline felt very Little Mermaid. The only character I truly enjoyed was Trish. They’re well flesh out characters, well written, just not enjoyable for me.

While this definitely had some positives to it, I just felt a little underwhelmed by the book as a whole.

Really Enjoyed It, 4 stars

This book was a hard book to rate. I was honestly loving it and having a fantastic time up until the ending. The last 15% or so honestly didn't make much sense to me and just threw me for a loop. So I'd say that it was a 4.5 or 5 star for the majority of the book and then the ending is what brought it down.

Fathomfolk is a really cool premise of a world in which there are humans and fathomfolk, aquatic creatures of legend and folklore from East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Europe, all living in a diaspora city after basically all the land has been covered up by water. There are some very intense prejudices and institutionalized racism at work within the city with fathomfolk being considered dangerous and less than, but who are also a big part of what keeps Tiankawi running. We follow Mira, a half-siren, half-human border guard of the city; Nami, a water dragon who has been exiled from her underwater community to live with her brother, the Fathomfolk ambassador, and Cordelia, a sea witch who is determined to pull the all the right strings in the city to reach her own, personal goals.

I thought that the setting was fantastic. I loved all the different mythologies that were all blended together in a melting-pot type situation. I thought it was a lot of fun to think about how the different peoples would work together and view each other. I don't know that the worldbuilding was super deep or rich, but it was a lot of fun, and it gave me what I wanted.

I also had a good time with the characters. I think that they definitely started out as fairly flat, but I still enjoyed following them, and I was able to root for them. I think that the most well-fleshed out was probably Nami. I don't know exactly how old she was supposed to be. Maybe 18-19? But she initially read like a 15-16 year old. I was super annoyed with her at first, but I ultimately really enjoyed her character's journey. I felt like we saw her grow up and mature a lot throughout the book. I also appreciated that she took ownership of the mistakes that she made. It was thorugh her character that we got to see a lot of the revolutionary movement to take back Fathomfolk rights and that ended up being one of the most interesting narratives of the story - how far is too far, and what is the best way to fight for rights? I enjoyed that storyline quite a bit. Mira was probably the least well-developed, but I still enjoyed following her. Cordelia was the most interesting right off the bat, and I loved that she was a sea witch.

Overall, it had pretty decent pacing, and it was a book I was excited to keep returning to. I don't know that the ending made very much sense to me, and it sort of felt like a very abrupt end. I am hoping that in book 2, some of my issues with the ending could be alleviated, but it just all felt rather random and rushed with what we got in the rest of the book.

So overall, I had a great time with it, but the ending sort of brought it down. I am hopeful though that if the two books are read together almost as one thought that it might alleviate some of my issues with the ending.

Fathomfolk releases February 27, 2024. Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit books for an eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Maybe I'll finish this one day: the concept itself is cool but there are a lot of POVs and I don't find any of them interesting enough to continue the book. I picked it up because the cover it beautiful but it seemed like it wanted to be too many things

3.5 stars. Fathomfolk is a unique and enchanting tale of a city where ocean dwellers and humans intermingle, and political unrest is brewing.

This tale is told from multiple POVs, which I think give the book a nice well rounded feel. We are able to experience Tiankawi from many different angles and perspectives. We have Mira, a half-siren Fathomfolk that has been born and raised in Tiankawi and has risen in the ranks of the border guards. Nami, the rebellious water dragon sister to Kai, Mira's partner and Ambassador. We also have Cordelia, the scheming sea witch who can change appearances and a skilled apothecary. Each perspective brings new and unique views of the city, and how they approach the rebellion and political and class unrest. The worldbuilding in this book is incredible, there is so much detail and I loved the East Asian and Southeast Asian influences throughout.

Unfortunately, the story did not grab me as I had hoped it would. It took me a long time to get into the story. While I normally appreciate the different POVs, I had a hard time really seeing the overall narrative and where the plot was heading until about halfway through the book. The story also felt a little more YA leaning than Adult. The political plotline was really interesting, but it just felt like it took too long to get there. The romances were nice but I did not connect with the characters as I had hoped I would. I just struggled with this book. Though, as this is the first book in a series, I can imagine that the next book would pick up fairly quickly. The ending was explosive, and things moved very quickly and left the story open for the next book. Overall though, this was a richly imagined and unique fantasy that promotes acceptance and social justice.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and to Orbit Books for the electronic advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Fathomfolk took me a while to get into. This is a crazy world, and it was hard to understand at first. I had a hard time completely visualizing what everyone and everything looked like.

The story is very political. There’s a lot of plotting, planning, and stabbing people in the back. It is in third person and switches between three different characters. It was a bit hard to keep track of all the characters and who was doing what.

However, even with these things, I still found the book to be incredibly well written. The author has come up with such a crazy unique idea. The world was fascinating, and all of the intricate story lines were woven together well.

I would be interested in reading the next book and seeing what happens next.

Although it was hard for me to get into, I still think this is a great story and very well written. The writing style was just not a hundred percent for me.

This book was hard to get in to at first, it was slow and difficult to picture… but once I got in to the story I really enjoyed it. The characters were complex and I loved the relationships between them. I’ve read a lot of dragon books but this felt very unique

A gorgeous story. I found that as I was reading it was the kind of story you don't want to put down because you simply want to know what happens next. The imagery and descriptions in this story made it easy to envision everything happening even with characters being species I've never heard of before.

This story is incredibly thought provoking. It is a reflection of our own society and the impacts people feel from being in the "lesser" group. Likewise, this story delved into the different ways people work to overcome those challenges and the methods to create change in the world they are living in. One of our primary characters battles internally between these different methods and how to find the balance to make the impact they feel necessary.

This is an epic journey of twists and turns leading your through both internal and external battles. From incredible and vivid descriptions to characters you both love and hate to the story as a whole. I cannot wait for the next book to become available.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. The multiple points of view made things confusing and really hard to understand. Not to mention the author doesn’t warn you before switching POV’s. Even introducing new characters in conversation, it’s like she’s assuming that we’ll know who this new person is and what their role in the storyline is. Speaking of storyline — I don’t even know what the storyline is because I’m so confused. All I understood was there are disagreements on integration of Fathomfolk and humans and that humans are ultimately taking over Fathomfolk land? I just couldn’t continue on with the story to grasp the full extent of it.

Anyway, I had high hopes for this because it did actually sound interesting to me and the cover is really pretty and caught my eye. I also love supporting AAPI authors, but this was just too confusing and the writing was all over the place. I’m disappointed to be DNFing this.

DNF

Sucked in and disappointed by another pretty cover.
This should have been amazing. Gorgeous cover, interesting concept, but wow is this boring. Theres a lot of info-dumping and introducing too many characters that should be interesting, but just aren’t.
I feel bad, but life is too short for books I have a hard time making myself read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to preview the book. All opinions are my own.

I tend to love non Western inspired fantasy, so this was easily one of my most anticipated releases for 2024. I appreciated the themes explored in this novel, which focused predominantly on class.

However, in terms of the execution, this one did not work well for me. The magical creatures and the general tone of the story created a feeling of whimsy that felt counterproductive to the messaging in this book. I wanted a story with more weight and emotional depth.

In the end, perhaps this book is simply not for me. I would better recommend it to loves who prefer cuter fantasy stories with heavy romantic subplots.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

The concept of this book was intriguing, but the delivery was not there. The world building was the strongest aspect of this book. I really felt like I was there. The food descriptions were fantastic and definitely had me looking up recipes to try. I liked how well researched the different creatures were, both from Celtic/Gaelic and Asian mythology. Though I will say it was a bit overwhelming to have so many elements when it came to the races of the fathomfolk while the characters we follow didn’t have true purpose. The characters didn’t have real motivations that moved the plot forward and after reading this I still don’t understand the point of it and how it intends to be a series. Honestly I believe this book needs major editing before it’s published. It read very juvenile.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Orbit Books for my copy of Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan in exchange for an honest review. It publishes February 27, 2024.
To be honest, this book just wasn't for me. However, I think that if you enjoy fantasy and lore and good world-building, you will be very intrigued by this book. The writing and world-building is very well-done.

The world that was created in this story was fantastic, and I really liked learning about the ins and outs about how this society functioned/dysfunctioned within the reality that they have been forced to live with, and the conversation about there being multiple ways to try and change the system that you live in.

Pacing was a little bit over the map, with the beginning moving quite slowly with the world building (which was great) but then the last quarter of the book felt incredibly too quick and the resolution just sort of stopped. I know that there are more books coming, but the ending just kind of magic wand waved over what was a very hard systemic issue within the world that was built, and then just ended without any external fallout within the world (aside from the main characters). I also wasn't expecting such a hard turn into pulling so much inspiration/plots directly from The Little Mermaid - it was fine, but a little disappointing that so much of the original worldbuilding just ended up with the "Ursula the Sea Witch Stole Ariel's Voice" plot.

In the end, I think this may have been a case that I'm not the reader that this was intended for. It was OK, but not a hit for me, and that it is a little confusing about who the intended demographic is. The prose simultaneously feels like romantasy without the romance being the main plot, but also YA, with the characters being adult in age to fit that range.

Fathomfolk has an exciting premise and a beautiful cover, but I was disappointed in the actual story. Chan gives us an interesting modern world where humans live alongside fathomfolk in cities built along the rising waterlines. It is a scathing commentary on everything from climate change to immigration. Humans have made the water unlivable for those under the sea, but treat the very people they have displaced as second class citizens, othering and blaming those victimized, while needing them as a workforce. The thinly veiled commentary on current social and political problems within a fantasy world worked for me, and here I thought Chan has powerful moments of critique and introspection, if a little heavy handed.

Unfortunately the weaknesses of the story are the plotting and the characterization. Sadly it is kind of a mess. I think the book just tries to do too much, giving little mermaid vs Ursula vibes in the midst of such settings and themes doesn't quite work for me, and the characters remain flat and feel like they should have more depth (and more common sense) than they display. As with the book itself,I really wanted to like most of the characters and felt for them, but one by one they break down into stereotypes and their dumb decisions drive the plot more than they make any sense.

But the ending is where I really struggled to make sense of where the story was going. . .and made me question whether I even want to read on this series. I won't spoil, but it left me. . . confused.

Overall Fathomfolk is not a bad story, it just isn't a very good one either and I was hoping for more.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early e-arc for review

First off--What a gorgeous cover! Love it! I was picturing an animated film full of vibrant colors while reading this.

I really enjoy the lush, imaginative world in which the story takes place. I appreciate the discussion on environmentalism, discrimination, immigration and class disparities.

The "romance" is a little bit cringey but not a major focus of the story except for how it contributes to Nami going along with things she might not have otherwise.

I have mixed feelings about the ending, which I can't get into without major spoilers.

Overall it kept me interested to see how it would all turn out and I will likely pick up the sequel.
3.5 stars

I have mixed feelings about Fathomfolk, I think it has a lot to say and I love when fantasy books dive into topics like classism, diaspora, discrimination, environmental impact, etc. And these are all themes Fathomfolk doesn't hesitate to talk about! The multiple POVs are well crafted to reflect different perspectives and how different identities and environments can impact that. Once I got into this, it was good!
The problem was just that. Getting into it. I found myself not looking forward to picking this book back up in between breaks, so it took much longer to finish. However, the final chapters? I have hope this is a series that gets better now that the worldbuilding and characters are established.

My thanks for the ARC goes to NetGalley and Orbit Books. I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Genre: Fantasy, Political Fantasy, Asian Fantasy
Subgenre: Romance
Themes: Racism, Conservation

Fathomfolk has some Little Mermaid vibes but for adults.
It took me a bit to get into the world and care about the character. However, I think this was a me problem because I hadn't expected it to be so complex with so many POVs.

Society is pretty cutthroat in this one. And the theme of racism within the society is in the forefront.

I think if you love details and want a new Asian Fantasy book, this will be your jam.

Happy reading!

Unfortunately this book did not work for me. I DNF'd at 20%. It was taking way too long to set up the main plot and I did not care enough about the characters to keep struggling to get there. I'm disappointed because this was one of my most anticipated reads of the year.

Oh man…
I judged this book by its beautiful cover, but was sorely disappointed. At first, I was excited that Fathomfolk was written by a female, Asian author and was Illumicrate’s March 2024 pick. And then I got approved to read the eARC… I’m so sad to say that this would’ve been a DNF for me had it not been a NetGalley book.
If you like books about racial tension and prejudices, disparities between the rich and poor, and politics, all disguised in a fantasy world of humans and water creatures, then this might be the book for you. However, for me, I had zero interest in the plot/story, the world building, or the characters. Idk why but nothing about this book (other than the cover artwork) drew me in and I just didn’t understand why I was reading what I was reading. The chapters jump between the different perspective of the various characters, which ordinarily is totally fine for me and I see it often in fantasy novels, but idk what it was about this book that made it difficult to focus. At the end of the day, it wasn’t interesting and it dragged.
I usually write more comprehensive reviews but I don’t have much to add. (And I feel terrible for saying all of this, especially since I know it takes so much time, effort, and courage to write and publish a book! I’m sorry!!!!)

the amount of racial pickmeism and antirevolution sentiment packed into this book is truly insane. "all violent resistance is evil and bad because what about the innocent white people that will die :(((" give it to god. we get enough of this rhetoric from white people, so i truly do not get why you're contributing to it as an asian.

— worldbuilding : ⋆⋆⋆

i always love asian inspired fantasy worlds, and this was so gorgeous. the magic system, the different species, how this military/government function should have had more elaboration (isn't a kumiho a nine tailed fox?). there were also different mythologies mashed together, which i don't know how to feel about. and the whole thing with the dragon pearl is so friendship is magic core i can't believe it's in an adult fantasy.

— plot : ⋆⋆

there's a lot of plot, so at least it wasn't boring? less confusing than the worldbuilding, but i cared about it much less, so. i was genuinely only reading for the setting after halfway through. have nothing else to say because i despise the resistance storyline, as mentioned above.

— writing, pacing, structuring : ⋆⋆

way too much information crammed in, yet nothing of substance is ever said. apparently this book takes place through several months, which makes sense with how much happens and how the characters' relationships progress but with the way it's written, you would think everything happened in two weeks. it's very jarring.

i like multipov books fine, and three povs is hardly too many, but they are barely distinguished from each other in their thoughts or dialogue.

— characters : ⋆

the excellent thing about this book is that it made me like wren from girls of paper and fire. 14 year old me hated her for being a serial mass murdering revolutionary, but you know what? she had spine. better her than any loser in this book. cordelia, at least, has the self-awareness to be an antagonist. you're supposed to dislike her and her race traitor behavior. mira on the other hand... only so much of her i can take. half the book is just "woe be me. i am too white for asia and too asian for the white people :( so i will completely erase any asianness i have in me for the whites who will never like me regardless." and when she finally stops with the biracial tears act, she still manages to be anti resistance, so she never does anything for me at all. nami, the only character of any merit, gets cold feet at any action and is portrayed as a deranged radical, and her redemption is her betraying the resistance. exactly what rhetoric is this book promoting??

— romance : ⋆

not important to the book or to me, but i just really hated kaimira 🤍.

— personal enjoyment : ⋆

well.

— overall rating: 10/30 • 1.66/5

advance copy received from netgalley in exchange for a review.