Thanks to Orbit for the ARC!

FATHOMFOLK is a blend of Asian mythology and ocean folklore like The Little Mermaid. I was really intrigued with an ocean-based political fantasy novel, and couldn't put this down for the first 30% of the book. After that, it did fall a little flat for me. I thought it was a little drawn out and the characters and twists were a bit predicatable. I enjoyed the descriptive setting and the lush worldbuilding, and the cast of characters and how they interacted with each other. My favorite part was how this actually started with an established romance that just got stronger throughout the course of the book. It allowed for the element of romance but allowed the focus to be on the politics, racism, and classism at the center of the story. I think with some further editing, I would've enjoyed this one more, but did really enjoy the world and the blend of creatures like sea witches, kelpies, sirens, and dragons.

“Fathomfolk’ by Eliza Chan is a debut fantasy novel set in a submerged city.

Set in the submerged city of Tiankaw, this is a political story dealing with the rising tensions between humans and the fathomfolk, a race of aquatic beings based on a variety of fish, fantastic and real. The world is full of issues like social justice, prejudice and environmentalism. Some would use the turmoil to effect change, both good and bad.

The worldbuilding is interesting, but there are too many plotlines and characters, in my opinion. I found it tedious to follow all the threads, but the story does eventually become more interesting, but it was too late for me.

This was a difficult one to determine whether I liked it or not, as there was just such a jumble of pros and cons.

WHAT I LIKED: Incredible worldbuilding! / Strong themes about the relationship between politics, power, and people / Multiple POVs didn't get confusing

WHAT FELL SHORT: The ending was incredibly rushed and many scenes felt unnecessary / Writing style was sometimes difficut to stay engaged with / A few characters were not developed as much as they needed to be for the emotional resonance to hit

Overall--Will pick up the next book in the series to find out what happened

***Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book to review.***

This was a rough read I didn't really connect with any of the characters and there just seemed to be too much going on. The multi pov I think was a disservice overall following too many characters and never but not being able to care for any of them.

Fathomfolk took a little bit to get into because of the worldbuilding but I did like the continued plot points of finding loopholes within the magic system - Cordelia is an extremely compelling character, and also Kai deserves better.

I might try to read this again later but I am putting it down after chapter 11. It’s just really slow and I honestly do far I don’t care for the characters of the story.
I’ll try it again in a few months and see how I feel about it.

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for giving me an arc in exchange for my honest review

Thank you to NetGally and Orbit for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Pub Date: February 27, 2024

Did not finish at 36%
I did not get drawn in or care about what was happening even though the world was really cool. I was trying to go back to it but I could no longer read it on NetGalley.

I wanted to love this book based on the blurb but it was ultimately a dnf for me. The characters all came off as really annoying and the world building just had way too much going on that made it impossible to follow.

Eliza Chan created an incredibly rich and immersive world, with a unique magic power system, and intriguing characters. I read the book in one sitting and wanted to learn more about the world and stories about every character we came across. I loved the prose and descriptive atmosphere and wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone looking for a diverse fantasy read!

I belive the content of the story is necessary but the execution was lacking. I did not connect with any of the characters which hurts the overall story.

This book was absolutely not for me, The stakes were unclear, the characters insufferable, and the general progression of the story did not make sense to me. While I enjoyed the Asian representation in the book I simply couldn't get past the lack of cohesiveness in the story.

I found the premise of this fantasy novel intriguing, blending East Asian mythology with ocean folk tales in a semi-flooded city where tensions run high between humans and fathomfolk. The story follows Mira, a half-siren striving to protect her people as captain of the border guard, tasked with overseeing the exiled fathomfolk princess, Nami. However, the execution left me feeling disconnected; the plot felt cluttered with too many ideas and subplots, making it hard to follow and visualize scenes clearly. The characters, like Mira and Nami, lacked depth, and their relationships felt forced and unconvincing. While the novel had potential, especially in exploring themes of magic and societal change, it didn't quite deliver on its promising premise.

Thank you Netgalley for the e-ARC!

Another amazing book. Also its special edition made by illumicrate is so stunning. I adore mythology based books and this was another amazing one

This was an interesting story rooted in folktales, folklore, and Asian mythology. It has some undertones of The Little Mermaid, and it's an entertaining read.

DNF

I can tell very early on in my reading journey that this book isn't for me. The writing style and the way the reader is just dumped into the world with no explanation was jarring. The characters were never really introduced and it feels like they're all getting thrown at the reader.

Honestly did not enjoy this book, was so disappointed because I love Asian fantasy books. Beyond the cover there really is not much substance to this book. All three of the main characters I found I didn’t like, and dreaded each of the POVs. Mira I liked the least, Nami was stupid, and Cordelia was a snob.

The worldbuilding had so much potential. But ultimately felt overdone. The underwater kingdom and mythological creatures was what drew me to the book originally but really was just too much info while still being vague

DNF @ 30%.

I hope to come back to this story someday, especially because I bought the beautiful Illumicrate edition.

Fathomfolk has an incredibly interesting premise and some rich writing, but there was almost too much information in the world building. It was hard to follow and I couldn't get the right picture in my head.

I put off sending this review and almost forgot to come back to it completely.

The story had a decent premise and rich world building but, it felt like there was too much going on and the direction of the book felt lost at points. While the development of the world was strong, there were cool creatures introduced that I wish had gotten more detail. It would have made the world and magic much easier to understand and get attached to

The pacing was slow at the beginning of the book which I generally expect for a new fantasy world, but then it almost got too fast? There just wasn't a lot of seamless transitions. Everything felt chaotic. This is marketed as adult fantasy but it did read more YA for me and felt like it needed another round of edits. And if you're looking for romance - it is very much a SUB PLOT.

In the end this just wasn't or me. I struggled thru it and almost immediately forgot about it. It had such potential but just fell flat for. me. It's honestly only the fact that I don't DNF books that I even finished this at all.

Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for an Advanced Copy in exchange for an honest review.

In Fathomfolk, you are following Mira and Nami who are both attempting to fight injustice in their own ways, ways that conflict greatly with one another. This story takes place in the partially submerged city of Tiankawi where humans live in skyscrapers and look down (literally) upon the Fathomfolk.

This story is told from the third perspective and the changing from one character to another very frequently (sometimes mid chapter) and the way it is written made it very challenging to connect with the characters. The conclusion of this book was also very challenging to read. Overall the book felt very disjointed. I wish I felt more positively about this as I was really looking forward to it based on the synopsis.

I look forward to Eliza’s future works and anticipate I will pick up the next book in the series upon its release as I feel like what we know of the world itself is very interesting and I’m curious to see what they do with it.