This was described as a whimsical and hopeful epistolary fantasy/romance, so I was drawn right to it (the lovely cover helped). I liked the characters and appreciate how several of them share about their mental health issues in a way that waves into the story. I think the book would have been better if it was edited to be a bit shorter. Also the world building was confusing and could have been tightened up. But, I still absolutely want to read the next book in the series when it comes out. 3.5 stars rounded up.

This book completely took me by surprise and utterly enchanted me! The tale unfolds through a series of correspondence between E. and Henerey, and then between their respective siblings a year later as they try to find clues as to their sudden disappearance. The world is fascinating— humans live in and on the water as there’s no land to speak of besides one single island. It’s both futuristic and historical in feel, think 1800s academia but in submarines and diving suits. I loved it and I’m thrilled there will be a follow up!

This book was about a girl who goes missing due to an explosion under the sea. It is set in a different time period then our current times. However this book was not for me due to the fact that the format was written in letters. The writing itself was high quality. I just couldn’t get behind the writing style.

Thank you Netgalley for providing an ARC of this book. After reading the synopsis and viewing the beautiful cover, I just know I had to read it.

This book is like a love letter to the ocean, deep and full of mysteries you are left with as a reader to discover by yourself. Really enjoyed everything about the story and the wonderful prose. 4 stars.

"A Letter to the Luminous Deep" is a charming mystery/fantasy novel that follows 2 characters journey through the letters they send back and forth to each other, trying to uncover the mystery of how their siblings lives came to a sudden end.

First thing I loved about this novel is the format. It is an epistolary novel, meaning told in the form of letters. What a cool format to read in! Not only do we get letters between the 2 main characters, but they have collected letters from their siblings whose lives came to a sudden and mysterious end, and we get to read through interactions between multiple different characters through this format. It was fresh and delightful to say the least! Each time I read this, I read for 3 hours straight and only put the book down because I needed to sleep. It's one of those books you could easily binge.

What made it so engaging is that you kind of know that something happens at the end where the 2 main characters sibling are going to die(?) or disappear(?) suddenly. You're not sure what happens, and neither do Sophy or Vyerin, the 2 people corresponding throughout the novel. All we as the readers know is that something is going to happen to 2 of the characters, and Sophy and Vyerin are trying to solve it together through their correspondence. It kept me hooked til the very end!

Another thing that was so unique was the setting. We have a fantastical world that basically lives on the water. This world used to be a floating island in the sky, and something happened years before this novel takes place, but the sky civilization came crashing down, and now there are 3 different areas you can live, each with its own unique standards of living. Another part of the setting that was equally intriguing was the underwater house that our main characters had grown up in. I was fun(and a little scary) to imagine a house underwater where you could just see all the underwater creatures swimming around you at all times.

Something this book does very well is its depiction of anxiety, OCD, and mental health. One of the characters really struggles with severe anxiety and obsessive tendencies, and I think the author did a really good job of depicting what that looks like, but also how the main character find help and strength through her sister and her therapist.

Overall, I really enjoyed this refreshing new novel and highly recommend! It quite possibly will make my best books of the year list. You will like this book is you are a fantasy reader who prefers a fantasy world that's not super magic driven, who would be interested in reading a novel told in the form of letters, and who likes a dash of mystery and romance thrown in. This is super fast paced and engaging, and you will not be sorry to have read this!

5/5 stars

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Orbit Books for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much to Orbit Books and NetGalley, who provided an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. 

OMG! Guys, this book gives you a super unique and wonderfully intriguing mystery that comes to a climax at the END of the book!!! 

Firstly, huge props to the author for coming up with a fully unique and whimsical world, colorful and sparkling with new ideas, environments, and societal structure. It was a fascinating read, and I was continually impressed with how much work must have gone into coming up with the worlds and story. 

I didn't realize the entire book was in letter format when I picked this up. I do not like letter format. Furthermore, I highly prefer high stakes and engaging action. This book was more of an introduction to the world and the characters, and setting up for the stunning mystery. However! The beautiful writing, depth of characters, new world, and ability to keep me so curious the whole time kept me reading until the end, which is no small feat for my poor patience. 

So- the cliffhanger. Oh, the cliffhanger!! The whole book I thought 'this is a gorgeous book, but not for me.' Then the book ended, and I knew I was 1000% going to read the next book. What a spectacular and fascinating ending!! 

4/5 stars, and I absolutely do recommend. If you're like me, please keep reading to the end, as it is worth it!

What an incredibly unique story. I can honestly say I haven’t read anything like this in my life. I can see that this book might not be for everyone. It is rather slow paced, but incredibly worth it. The writing is truly beautiful. It was amazing to see the characters in this story develop relationships and friendships through letter writing. I loved that we unraveled the mystery of the story along with the characters. The world building was a little rough since this book is told exclusively in letters and some journal entries. I still found the world the author created fascinating. The story reminded me of so many of my favorite books/movies. The academic tone reminded me of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Fairies. The “vibes” and parts of the story reminded me a lot actually of one of my favorite movies as a child, Disney’s Atlantis! I have always been both terrified and fascinated by the dark depths of the ocean and this story only solidified my intrigue. So why not 5 stars? The main thing was the pacing for me. It was rather slow till about the 50 percent mark. It took me awhile to grasp the world because of the formatting. I also felt that some parts could have been cut to condense the story. Overall though I really enjoyed it and highly recommend!

This was a pretty good book. The writing and world building was a little all over the place and i did not completely love it. But the setting was very unique and I think a lot of people would love it.

Thanks to NetGalley for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It’s a bit difficult for me to rate and review this book. I had rather high expectations, and although it had a great many wonderful qualities there was also quite a bit that did not end up appealing to me. I felt sometimes that the plot was overly “busy”, and think that maybe it would have been beneficial if parts of it had been whittled down. The prose is often overly verbose and long winded. I can’t fault the author on that too harshly, as it’s clear that this was used as a sort of world building devise to show the importance of academia in this universe. But it does make the story a bit hard to get through at times.

That being said, it is definitely a unique and original story and that in itself is highly commendable. I enjoyed reading about this mostly underwater world, specifically the scenes depicting The Deep House. I loved reading about the relationships between both pairs of siblings as well as the growing friendship between Sophy and Vyerin. It will be interesting to see how the story progresses with the next installment.

A Letter to the Luminous Deep is easily one of my favorites. I cannot wait to go back and re-read it to catch all the little clues and hints I missed the first time around. This is an epic story of grand proportion in more ways than one. I felt every range of emotion under the sun, or in this case, under the sea, while reading this book. It filled me with joy, with pain, with sorrow, with giddy glee and romantic hope. there where times when I was reading where I wanted to lay on my bed and kick my feet and giggle like a schoolkid with a new crush. there where times when I wanted to stand up and hurl my phone across the table, as if the source of my frustration was sitting in front of me! (You know what you did Arvist!) all the while I was deeply immersed in a fantastical world of coral, bioluminescence, and mysteries. my only regret reading this book, is that now I have to wait for the second one!

Follow the lives of E. and Henery through the eyes of their siblings, who are trying to piece together the mystery of their disappearance. Told through a series of letters, scholarly articles, and missives, we learn how the people in this fascinating world live their lives underwater in a world unimaginable. while one sister explores the deepest reaches of the ocean unexplored, the other remains home and attempts to uncover secrete things much closer to home. the letters between two sets of siblings uncovers a strange collection of odd coincidences that only pile higher as the story goes on until just like that the clues add up, and suddenly they have answers they aren't sure they were ready for.

If your a fan of books such as Emily Wilde's encyclopedia of Faeries or A Natural History of Dragons. if you like slow burn romance, cozy fantasy, deep mysteries and character driven plot, this is the story for you.

First I’d like to thank Orbit UK and NetGalley for my first ARC Read. Sylvie Cathralls debut novel is due out in April 2024.

If you like Epistolary or Victorian style novels, this is for you.

I’d also like to say that I don’t think it’s fair to say if you DNF a book, you can leave a review. You should remove it from your shelves completely. If I’m being honest, this book was hard to get into because I don’t like either of those style books but I style stuck with it and I enjoyed it and it ended with a real cliffhanger.

Pros:
💡What a really imaginative idea. Truly something I’ve never read in all my years of reading.
👱🏼‍♀️Diverse and inclusive characters. It was refreshing to read about a character with OCD and Anxiety that was not a hindrance to her family and friends.

Cons:
✍️ This book had so many words, at least one parenthesis on every single page if not more and a p.s, p.p.s, etc. In addition to very long words. So many of them being over 8 letters long. It could have used a heavy edit and still been just as good in my opinion. Better actually because it wouldn’t have been quite a daunting read.
👬Without a prologue, this book made it hard to just jump in during the day. Most of my books I read a little thought out the day. However this was a bit of back and forth and you had to figure out what was going on so you couldn’t just put it down whenever.

Ultimately I still enjoyed this book and glad that I stuck with it and read it. The cover art is beautiful and the unique story will stick with me for years to come.

A Letter to the Luminous Deep is a fantasy story that like the ocean, was mysterious, difficult to grasp, and imaginatively deep. I didn't quite understand what was happening as there wasn't any context or world building at the beginning of the story. I was plunged right into the depths of a story that I didn't understand with very little background information. The concept was very unique as were the fantastical elements, so there wasn't anything to balance this within the story.

I didn't enjoy reading this because it was weird and not magical like I was thinking it was going to be.

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A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall
A Letter to the Luminous Deep
by Sylvie Cathrall (Goodreads Author)
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I haven't been speechless over a story in a while and this is one of those times where a book has blown me away. A Letter to The Luminous Deep is an epistalory novel that takes place in a Scholarly world adrift on the ocean.

Firstly as it is an epistalory novel, it takes awhile to really get into it as a large part of the start is spent on world building (and what a fascinating world it is) and introducing us to the main characters that the letters revolve around. The story takes place in the early 1000s after the mysterious disappearance of "E" (see how long it takes you to guess her real name; it was at the 15-20% point into the book for me) and Scholar Henerey who was with her at the time.

E's sister Sophy, and Henerey's brother Vyerin, who are both charmingly adapt at communication (though remain platonic as they are both already married to others!) have contacted each other in the hopes of understanding the true nature of the disappearance over journal entries and shared letters that their siblings have written to others and each other. What appears to be a cozy magical fantasy at the start soon turns out to be a bigger story and mystery made of the sum of all its parts.

The Cidnosin family comprising siblings Arvist, E. and Sophy, are the famous inhabitants of the Deep House, the only livable underwater enclave. E is a recluse with maladies of the mind (generalised anxiety disorder?), a caretaker of the Deep House who has sought to discover the mysteries surrounding the house. Sophy is a Scholar of Navigation undertaking a mysterious underwater mission with her colleagues in the deep trenches only to discover that her mission is not what it seems. Arvist is a silly egotistical Artist playing up the fame of the Deep House to establish his reputation and career. But each path the siblings take, all unknowingly diverges to the same journey.

I would say the real joy of the story is discovering the Mystery yourself, without any spoilers or hints of what is to come because it gets mind-blowing once you're three-quarters of the way through the story.

I fell off my seat when I reached the end, knowing that I had to wait for a next book when this has yet to even release. If you like strange fantastical worlds that you have to imagine to understand, complete with cozy letters and magical realism - this is for you.

Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the ARC.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book. After seeing the gorgeous cover art and reading the description, I immediately had to put in a request to read it. I am a huge fan of any novel that uses epistolary story-telling - and an underwater setting? Count me in!

I thought the world-building (albeit entirely through the written letters by the characters) was wonderfully done and the story had nice pacing. There were moments where the academia portion of the story 'lost' me a bit, as it could be really really descriptive. But, I thought the underwater take was fresh.

I would recommend this book and would encourage people to give it a try - they may be surprised with how quickly they finish it. :)

Thank you to Netgalley, Sylvie Cathrall, and Orbit for the eARC.

Oh, this one is going to be divisive. I admit I was drawn into requesting this after glimpsing that gorgeous cover and title, and after skimming the description, I thought I'd fall in love with this. My criticism lies in the execution of this world, as it likely will for others who don't like this. It's told entirely in letters (which the description makes clear, and I was aware of, to clarify.). This means that the quality of the writing in the letters drive the novel's storytelling, and for me, it fell entirely and completely flat. They were dry, voiceless, and lacking intent and tension. While a different novel completely, I love the small letter sections of DIVINE RIVALS, which I felt was a fantastic use of voice, tension, and lore woven into the narrative. Those novels are entirely different and also include prose, but my point remains: how much the actual way the letters were written matters so, so much. This book is compared to EMILY WILDE, and while I see what the publisher was going for (in fact, that comp was one the reasons I requested!), I felt that book exceeded this in almost every way.

Most of this book was very slow. That might be all right, but if I'm going to read a book that's this slow (which I have, and enjoyed! Slow books are good!), then I'm going to need to care about some other aspect of the work, likely the characters. But it just didn't work here. I found it hard to really be able to dig into the characters or be able to connect with any of the letter writers; they all sounded the same.

That's the critical part out of the way, and the reception of this book will mostly rely on people's reactions to the unique storytelling device. For a debut, there are others I'd recommend in the genre over this, but this still offers some really interesting things: the worldbuilding was quite interesting, the mystery of it all intriguing, and offers a solid look into mental health representation, which I was pleasantly surprised by.

Ultimately not for me, but I am sure it will find the book's intended niche.

3 stars. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC.

This felt very much like Emily Wilde’s Encylopaedia of Faeries if it were underwater and in an epistolary format. I enjoyed most of this, however some of the scholarly explanations felt overly long and lost me. I enjoyed the characters, especially Sophy. The mystery was fine but didn’t especially grip me. It was just fine all round. I’d recommend this if you like epistolary novels. I’m curious to see how this appears in physical format.

Even though I'm not a huge fan of epistolary narration, I couldn't resist the comparison to Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries. That's sort of a fair comparison, although I think the advantage that Emily Wilde has over this one is that we're only reading one perspective for most of the book (and it's very clear when it briefly switches) and because of that, the story had more clarity.

Here, it was confusing and tricky to remember whose letter I was reading. All four characters—E., Sophy, Henerey, and Vyerin—sound very, very similar, and then there are letters from other characters thrown into the mix. I could enjoy the prose, but I can already tell this book is going to get in its own way. DNF at 12%.

3.5/5 stars

A Letter to the Luminous Deep is an enthralling, enchantment of a read that fully submerges you into a world unlike any other.

Not only was the world-building exquisite (or shall I say luminous haha) the slow build of tentative romance was immaculate and showed how love can bloom in the most unexpected places. Along with the notion that you can share similarities with someone, no matter how different from you they may seem to be.

The mental health representation of E. was done so incredibly well. As someone who also struggles with severe OCD and anxiety, similarly to both E. and Henerey, it touched my heart and made me feel seen in a way that resonated with me. 

The tight-knit family dynamic also had a smile bloom on my face anytime Sophy and Vyerin would recount an event or memory, showing how much they cherished their siblings. 

In the way this was written, in an epistolary manner, it may be more difficult for some to get into than others. The writing itself was beautifully poetic, but, at the beginning I found myself questioning whose perspective I was reading from quite too often. It took some time for me to acclimate and get invested in the story.

Ultimately, I’d recommend anyone to give it a chance. You may just find yourself curious to learn more about the luminous deep the further you immerse yourself!

* Thank you to the publisher, Orbit Books, and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this ARC. This is my unbiased opinion and is given with free will. *

I enjoyed this book and got attached to the characters by reading their own words. It is a bit high bar and not a light and easy read. But it was enjoyable!

Not only was this epistolary as enchanting as the letters it contains, but I found myself unable to put it down, wanting to see how this mystery unfolded. From complex worldbuilding to in-depth relationships portrayed via letters to Anxiety and OCD rep, this was a wonderful read!