I loved the idea of this book, but sadly it didn't work for me! I found the letters hard to distinguish, and the odd names made it harder. The writing was beautiful, but also a bit dense for my tastes. I did enjoy the anxiety rep from E. and the underwater setting. I really hoped the story would pick up,
but unfortunately this one would be hard for me to recommend.

Ugh I wanted SO MUCH to love this book! There were parts of this book done so well but parts that made it so hard for me to get into.

The premise of this book had me so interested. And I do love the epistolary style. However, the language used throughout this novel was SO formal, it was just hard for me to get in board with. I also agree with other reviews I’ve read stating that the characters’ “voices” weren’t very distinct. There wasn’t really anything special to tell them apart.

I do think the world building was done well however. The imagery I have in my head from the descriptions in the story seems magical. Unfortunately I just couldn’t get into the story and characters as much as I wanted to.

Thanks so much NetGalley and Orbit Books for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

I really enjoyed the story here but it took awhile to get used to the format of the book with reading through letters. I definitely felt invested in the characters and their story and can't wait for the second book

This is a beautifully written epistolary fantasy that was inspired by the Victorian era. The characters in the book write in a historical, scholarly voice which sometimes I have a hard time getting into in other books, but this book is written in a way that is easily digestible. The storytelling is very captivating with how the characters are writing back and forth in their correspondence. The writing styles are sometimes hard to distinguish between the characters, but the writing in general was absolutely beautiful.

The pacing is pretty slow throughout the whole book, but I don’t think that takes away from the enjoyment. I personally like slower paced books at times, and this one had such captivating writing that every sentence was worth the journey. The character’s interactions through the letters was very enjoyable which really tied the book together and made for an interesting read.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing the eARC!

I was so excited to get approved for this on NetGalley. I’m mean LOOK at it, it’s beautiful. A beautiful, charming, cozy, underwater novel.

Okay so hear me out, I didn’t realize that the entire book is written in letters between a few characters. (Lots of parenthesis and exclamation marks)!

The formatting is a little awkward on Kindle. For that reason, I’d recommend the physical book or audio instead.

The cover art is stunning. STUNNING!

E. witnesses a new type of fish and reaches out to Henerey for his expertise. We see her initial correspondence to him before finding out they went missing. A year later, their siblings are looking to discover what really happened. Through their letters back and forth, we get a view into their search.

The tone is semi-academic and very intellectual, since they’re researchers. But it’s also a really sweet, beautiful story.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for my advanced digital copy!

This book was such a joy! When I started, I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did due to the letter-correspondence format and wasn’t absorbing a lot of the information as a result. Then I found myself thinking about the characters & mystery after I put the book down & was excited for my work day to be over so I could descend back into the waves of the story. And it ended on a cliff-hanger!! Now I have to wait to know the answers to all my questions!

I am a marine biologist myself and that was the reason I was so intrigued by this book. I wish I could live in the world that Sylvia has written! It is the magical, ocean-centric world of my dreams, filled with ocean loving researchers and enthusiasts. I was overjoyed to read the characters excitedly discussing planton and other marine life. And I quite enjoyed the subtle discourse and criticism about academia. “Research for research’s sake” is something I personal discuss a lot in my life working in marine conservation, and I often chat with colleagues about academic pressure as well as the barriers academia creates for many people.

My only wish with the book is that I want to know more about the world! Due to everything being written in letters and Victorian-era language, I feel like I am still a bit lost on the world in which the story takes place.

I loved the queer representation in the book as well as E’s anxiety (that is how I perceived much of her character and related to immensely as I have a severe anxiety disorder).

Cannot wait for the second book!

I received a free ARC via NetGalley for this book. Thank you to the publisher and author!

“It has been well over a year since I last spoke to a stranger (one of Arvist’s visiting friends, back when he was finishing his Apprenticeship–I said “good day”, attempted to flee, knocked over a vase containing what appeared to be one hundred paintbrushes, and then spent the next three days in my room weeping over my great humiliation)”

I don’t even know what to write. This book was beautiful and perfect. Remarkable even (you’ll get that reference when you read the book 😂).

“Do know that up until the very last hour you can always write me to decline–or paste a sign on a window that simply reads “HENEREY, NO””

I loved the format of it - that was a brand new way of storytelling for me and I found it really fun. I felt like I was a part of the story, reading the letters, the back and forth, it was such an immersive experience!!

“In your absence, I have many possible pastimes to which I can affix my attention–natural history, baking, and even my sketching. I have taken a break from reading, however, as it sent me into an existential crisis as usual–there are so many books and so many ideas in the world, and how can I hope to understand, learn, or discover even a fraction of these wonders in my short life?”

“In fact, in reflecting upon the entire affair, I find myself scrupulously reviewing my every word and action over the course of the evening.”

Mental health is a big theme in this book, anxiety being one I relate to very strongly. I would say social anxiety was a huge theme, both for E. and Henerey. I thought it was portrayed beautifully, the spiral to E’s worries, fears, and thoughts, Henerey’s reluctance to socialize, E’s agoraphobia (or at least that’s what I got from the descriptions), it was all done so well.

“And I dare not even make a fair copy, because accessing rare volumes requires me to go into the Reading Room–which, despite the title, is more of a social gathering space than a room in which one accesses restricted books. There is only one small viewing table around which everyone must crowd, and you are forced to converse with your fellow readers the entire time. Even though you are supposed to be reading. Alas.”

I will definitely be recommending this book for its mental health rep.

“Do you think he is now back on his research vessel laughing about my oddities with some far superior individual with whom he would much rather spend his time?”

There were so many thoughts that E. and Henerey had that I went “same.” Her agonizing over past conversations, looking into conversations she had and questioning everything, I feel that constantly too, so it was so nice to see here.

“Even stopping in briefly for a mandatory appearance at the dinner parties our parents used to host when I was a young woman in my early twenties made me sick to my stomach, and I would spend days afterwards replaying and rewriting each word in my head until I was certain that I behaved abominably to everyone I encountered and that they would soon shame my name throughout all of Society.”
____________________________

Excuse me it is 1am and I am now just finding out this is not a standalone and now I have to wait for eternity and what was that ending😭

This was beautiful. Review to come once I have a Brain (you’ll get that once you read this 😂) and go to sleep.

2.5 ★

A sweet story, but unfortunately not my cup of tea.

I was drawn to this book by the gorgeous cover and whimsy description. Thank you Orbit Books and Netgalley for the eArc for review consideration! All opinions are my own.

This story takes place in a sort of whimsical, magical underwater reality. It’s a mix of magical realism, academia, mystery, and a dash of romance. It follows E. and Henerey who are scholars/adventurers. Both are a bit shy and feel like outsiders amongst their peers; they strike up a quick friendship as penpals. When they disappear unexpectedly, E’s sister and Henery’s brother work together to piece together the mystery.

This novel is put together entirely of letters back and forth between characters (and the occasional diary entry). I was worried about this and losing out on descriptions and understanding, but I do think it was done really well. It was easy to follow, despite keeping track of different timelines and characters between each correspondence. The letters were extremely detailed so I didn’t have trouble grasping what was going on. That said, I wish there was more world building because I am left a bit confused about this underwater world (how it came to be, what exactly the magical elements are, etc). I don’t dislike the characters, but don’t feel myself particularly invested either.

I found myself quite bored and thought the pace was really slow. It started to pick up for me only at about 75% of the way, when we finally started to get a few answers. That said, I’m excited about the direction of the story. I may or may not pick up Book 2 to see where it leads, since it was finally beginning to get interesting.

If you enjoyed Divine Rivals you may want to give this one a try!

Content warning: death of a parent, grief, mental illness

For the publisher- I do think there are two mistakes for dates. Loc 3640 and Loc 3809 should both be 1002 I believe.

5/5 stars
Recommended if you like: light academia, fantasy, mysteries, epistolary narrative, mental illness rep, LGBTQ+ characters

This review has been posted to Goodreads as of 1/29, my review blog as of 2/22, and to Instagram as of 2/29.

This book starts out relatively slow, and even when it picks up this is a character-driven novel more than a plot-driven one. I've seen it likened to Emily Wilde's, which I would have to agree with, and imo the pacing is pretty similar between the two. With that said, I think the pacing benefits this kind of novel and I enjoyed the unfolding of events and character relationships over the course of the book.

Likewise, this book is written epistolary style, so through letters and journal entries, which I've noticed becoming more of a thing recently. I think it's a really interesting way of telling a story and think it's a great way both to get to know a character and to introduce narrator unreliability (Henerey himself even points out that he purposefully will not write certain things down since he does not want them to be read). I think the way Cathrell utilized the epistolary narrative style for this novel was brilliant. The events that occur are, in and of themselves, a mystery and by having those events told via letter, the mystery is compounded through two layers of characters revealing things. It's a super interesting way to go through a mystery novel and I feel it added to the experience and the suspense. We already know the ending, but E. and Henerey nor Sophy and Vy nor us know how that ending happened, and only the latter two groups are going into this mystery with the knowledge of how it ends.

The world in this novel is quite interesting. It's a mostly-aquatic society that had to rebuild after falling out of the sky 1000 years prior in an event known as the Dive. It seemed to have decimated technology, land masses, and a good portion of the population, though society is now flourishing on it's three "campuses," each of which have slightly different cultures and seem to prize different virtues. I liked getting the snippets about the world and how it functioned, as well as getting to know the names for the animals of the world (some of them are familiar, most are variations on what we would know, such as the "toothed whale"). I look forward to learning more about the world in book 2.

The book is pretty evenly split between E. and Henerey's correspondence and Sophy and Vyerin's, leaning more toward Sophy and Vyerin's. I liked seeing the two sets of relationships grow, with E. and Henerey becoming romantic while Sophy and Vy become friends and help each other heal from the loss of their siblings. I also enjoyed seeing how each group put the puzzle pieces together and the ways in with Vy and Sophy are able to add some additional context both to the mystery as well as to their siblings' lives.

To start with, E. is afflicted with a "Malady of the Brain" with makes her extremely anxious and gives her OCD-like tendencies and thoughts (i.e., she repeatedly checks portholes and airlocks to ensure the Deep House is secure, feeling as though the house will spring a leak and kill her otherwise; she also has major intrusive thoughts), and ensures that she has spent most of her adult life within the confines of the Deep House. Despite her anxiety, she pens the letter to Henerey that gets their relationship, and the mystery, started. E. is remarkably inquisitive and seems to have a broad depth of knowledge in multiple subjects, not least ocean life and fantasy novels (two things she and Henerey bond over). I enjoyed getting tidbits about her childhood and seeing her open up to Henerey and their shared intellectual pursuits.

Henerey comes across as a mix of level-headed and endearingly enthusiastic (and nervous). He takes E. seriously from the get-go and the two are intellectual matches as they talk over the ocean, life, and novels. It's clear that Henerey is excited to have made a friend and I liked how much he cared about E.'s interests and opinions. I do feel that we didn't get to know him as well as some of the other characters, so I would like more insight into Henerey if possible in book 2 (Vyerin will def be in it, so hopefully he can provide more insight).

Speaking of, Vyerin felt very realistic to me. He still clearly misses his brother and is grieving his loss, even a year out from when it occurred. This has prevented him from doing much reading into Henerey's personal affects, but as he and Sophy converse via letter, he's able to reconnect with his brother through those letters and begin to both heal and become invigorated for the mystery central to the novel. While Vy seems more 'stuck' in the grief cycle as compared to Sophy (not to say Sophy isn't grieving still too), he's also able to be humorous at times and I enjoyed his quips, as well as the moments when he revealed more about his husband and children.

Sophy seems to have moved a step or two further in the grieving process than Vy, but she too still deeply misses her sister. She comes across as very determined, and even though she isn't in the career position she was in when E. died, she's still very academic in nature and approaches things in a very systematic and logical manner. I particularly enjoyed Sophy's letters because they gave insight not just into the E. and Henerey affair, but also into the Ridge Expedition, which was a major scientific expedition Sophy was on when the whole thing with E-H was going down. The expedition was alluded to have ended abruptly and to have returned few results, but imo it's clear from the get-go that the mission somehow ties in with what happened to E. and Henerey as well as into the book's central mystery.

Overall I greatly enjoyed this book and found myself immersed in the characters and the world. It's definitely slow paced but I think it works for the story and the narrative style. I absolutely love the epistolary nature of the story and the way both the story and the mystery unfolded in dual 'timelines.' I'm greatly looking forward to the sequel!

I finished this and have been struggling to write a review because I keep thinking about it and I'm not sure what to make of it. Spoilers below because I don't even know how to talk about this without spoiling elements.

This is such an ambitious book, with a very complicated structure. The book is in epistolary format, with every word of text made up of letters, journal entries, transcripts, newsletters, scholarly pieces, and other written documentation. This removes a level of urgency from the story, since everything is in the past tense, and at times feels a little contrived. Overall, I think the format is unique and I enjoyed it. There are two timelines--the "main" story, which starts with an academic correspondence between strangers E. and Henery, develops into a surprisingly sweet love story given the format, and ends with their mysterious death/disappearance. (This is not a spoiler--it is the premise of the book and you know that arc from the first chapter or two). The second layer, a framing story, occurs six months to a year after the main story, and it is a correspondence between E.'s sister Sophy and Henery's brother Vyerin as they mourn their siblings and dig through their various correspondence and documents to figure out what happened to them leading up to their final days.

I am generally a fan of framing stories (see: The Bone Witch, The Name of the Wind, where the framing stories are some of my favorite parts) but I am not sure I loved it here, where the framing story was essentially commentary on the main story to add additional context. A lot of the comments were quite... twee? precious? and the feel of the character voices was too similar to that of the main story which made everything feel a little samey-samey. I would have preferred the framing story to start off the book and then less periodically drop in, though you would lose the developing friendship between Sophy and Vyerin. The pacing was just so incredibly slow, and the prose so incredibly flowery throughout, that even though I was enjoying the story I also felt like it took me forever to read it (in not a positive way). Writing this out, I actually think most of my quibbles with the book are within the framing story/main story balance.

The genre: what genre is this book, exactly? In the first 70% of the book, I would have said that this was a straight climate science fiction. Set in a world that could be earth 2000 years in the future, with a society that experienced a great climate disaster 1000 years ago and all had to Dive (with a capital so you know it's serious) to the depths of the ocean. The planet now has almost no land mass and society is entirely floating or submerged, with random machinery occasionally discovered from the pre-Dive period which is rusted and not functional. The society is highly manners based and queernormative, with both extremely advanced technology (they can travel in bubbles to the bottom of the ocean floor and survive down there for weeks) and also very primitive (phones don't exist, the internet doesn't exist, and a version of telegraph appears to just be put into place during the timeline of the book itself, hence all of the paper sources). But then we hit near the end of the book and introduce... prophesy, maybe? a mermaid? some sort of alternate dimension or space travel or SOMETHING which could still be science fiction but also could be fantasy? For how long this book felt, I am disappointed that it wasn't a stand-alone or that we didn't get at least some semblance of answers to some of those questions, instead leaving it on a cliffhanger.

The prose: unbelievably flowery. Whatever you are imagining, double it. It has almost a Regency-era vibe with the concepts of courting, of not being able to address people in letters informally, of painstakingly going back and forth over whether to write "dear" in an address or "Henery" instead of "Scholar Clel." Some of this is actually quite charming, with a series of competing scholarly "schools" or communities having different social norms and that leading to some light teasing here or there. But it also led to a number of characters lacking an discernible voice of their own. EVERYONE speaks in hyper formal self-conscious twee academic speak with parentheticals and asides and post-scripts everywhere. Everyone.

I think generally, a lot of people will hate this book, or DNF it, or absolutely love it. Did I hate this book? Certainly not. Did I love it? Maybe? I am honestly not sure. I have strong feelings about it. There is a high barrier of entry both in figuring out what is going on with the structure, with the prose, with the characters, with several central mysteries within the book. I also felt like, due to the cliffhanger, it lacked that very satisfying feeling you get with a confusing book when everything finally comes together at the end, and that was a bummer. At the same time... I can't stop thinking about it. To me, it's hard to say a book isn't a great read if it makes me keep thinking and wondering about it. I also plan to pick up book 2 when it's published. So I am tentatively putting this at a four star, knowing that the sequel or even just more time away from it could easily push that up or down.

This story suffered a bit for its structure, but overall was a sweet, whimsical ride.

We follow two sets of correspondence: those of E. and Henery as they catalog mysteries of their underwater world, and one year later those of their respective sister and brother, Sophy and Vyerin, as they search through the old letters for closure about the original pairs sudden and explosive disappearance.

The whimsy and atmosphere of this book was lovely, making you feel as though you too were ensconced in an underwater world full of scientific discoveries to be cataloged. In addition, the characters were sweet, and though I found E. and Henerey to be slightly flat, the development of Sophy and Vyerins relationship from awkward strangers to dearest friends was heartwarming. I truly love seeing platonic love and it’s importance highlighted like that.

I did find that the epistolary (letter based) format of the book felt a bit contrived at times. This is a fantasy book set in a completely unfamiliar world, and in order to put in the necessary world building, the characters often end up writing things to one another that both would know, and would be a bit strange to include in a letter (think, for example, two people in the United States feeling the need to confirm that they are both aware of the existence of Canada and that the countries share a large border). Additionally, in order to prolong the mystery that is central to the plot of this book, there is a fairly sizeable chunk in the middle where the characters actively avoid progressing the plot (writing to one another that they need time to process, or that they would like to investigate something else before reading a climactic letter in order to prepare for the emotional toll). This had the effect of making the story drag for me, as it almost felt like the characters themselves were actively trying to draw out the page count

Overall a charming, atmospheric, and sweet read, though slower than I’d have hoped.

Thank you to NETGALLEY and OrbitBooks for the free eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to love this, It sounded so cute. Letters, a mysterious disappearance, a love story.
However i could not get myself to want to read this. I DNF'ed at 20%
I enjoy letters in books, but this was just letter after letter with nothing else, all characters letters sounded exactly the same, making it difficult at times to follow especially when they are sending past letters in-between the current ones.

Thank you to netgalley & the publisher for the chance to read this E-arc!

I really enjoyed this one, though it was complicated at the start. The world building was rich, and I like the idea of it all being through letters, because it feels as though we as the audience is coming onto something that wasn't originally meant for our eyes to see. It feels personal, and I loved that.

3.5 🌟 Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for this e-arc! While I felt the book got off to a slow start, I really enjoyed it overall and feel it sets things up nicely for the next book in the series. I enjoyed the underwater world in this fantasy! I am very much looking forward to reading the next book!

5 stars. The first word(s) that comes to my mind when reflecting on my read of A Letter to the Luminous Deep is "wow". The second, is "screw you Arvist." A letter to the Luminous Deep is an epistolary story that focuses on two individuals connecting (through a series of letters) after they find out their siblings mysteriously disappeared together. I love the epistolary format of story telling. There's just something so unique but also more personable about it. ALTTLD is described as a Fantasy, but in my opinion, I think it leads a bit more on the Science Fiction spectrum of things. In fact, it kind of reminded me of Annihilation by James Vandermeer. But also mixed with Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. So basically, a pretty epic combo. The writing was SPECTACULAR. Cathrall's descriptions of the ocean and explorations were just so vivid and flowery and special, I felt I was there, in the ocean, looking at these things in person. I'm not sure what time period this is supposed to reflect. In some ways, it feels a little less technologically advanced than the current time period, but in others, you literally have people living in a house at the bottom of the ocean, so... who knows? But I mention this because the characters' discourse reminded me of a historical romance. I've seen some people say this one is slow, and you know what, maybe it is? But who cares? I wanted to spend as much time in the ocean, reading about E and Henerey falling in love, which was just the sweetest thing ever. And there was also a bit of a mystery which propelled the story forward in my opinion. I highly recommend this and will 100% read the follow up.

Thank you so much to Cathrall, Orbit, and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars.

What I liked:
- vibes. epistolary + underwater + soft academia is a good combo.
- Anxiety rep is spot on. I'm not sure if E. is supposed to be read as autistic, but she certainly seemed like she had my flavor of autism.
- The world was so interesting! I would definitely read prequels about how the three campuses got established.
- Platonic friendships!!!

What I didn't like:
- I wish there was a resolution of the plot that didn't require a sequel. It would've worked well as a standalone with a sequel hook, whereas the pacing was good for most of the book but was too slow at the end.
- She's not a short book. I happen to like the slow pace, but it was long.
- The characters' voices sounded really similar, which is weird because I could feel the differences they were described from other points of view.
- Too many Unnecessary Capitals

DNF

I truly tried my hardest to read this book since the blurb intrigued me so much & the cover is lovely, but for the life of me I just couldn’t focus on the story. I usually love anything written in this type of style, epistolary, but the writing and pace just didn’t captivate me. Nothing grabbed my attention enough to retain it…It is rare I DNF, but I had to for this one.

DNF

I couldn't get into this book due to the style of it. Letters just isn't my thing, especially when it is the majority of the book.

This book caught my attention from the gorgeous cover. I thought the synopsis sounded sweet and cozy but what I didn't get from the synopsis is, this book is entirely written in letters and journals. I had thought maybe the letters were just sprinkled in but no. I also didn't realize this was historical. That made the letters very formal and dry. I unfortunately dnfed this book incredibly early on because I couldn't read one more letter in the formal tone.

Pushed myself to read this one. I really wanted to like it but it's just not working for me. I was really curious about the style of writing and the mystery of E. and Henerey but I'm at 21% and it's just not exciting. I feel like the pace of the story is really slow. I'm still getting to know the characters and feel like I have barely gotten to learn much about E. or Henerey. I'm just overall not enjoying it like I wanted to. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC but I can't push myself to read more.