A Dark and Drowning Tide - Allison Saft

 


Thanks to NetGalley for the eArc!

I was very eager to read Allison Saft and I'm very happy to say that I loved her latest book and her writing. I'll happily read A far wilder magic that I have in the French edition because it's much prettier than the originals (sorry).

In A Dark and Drowning Tide, we follow Lorelei, a folklorist who embarks on an expedition with five other students, among them Sylvia, her academic rival. But the expedition starts badly: Lorelei finds her mentor murdered in her cabin. Lorelei must see the mission through and find out who the murderer is before it's too late.

Lorelei is not really a likeable character and not always relatable for someone who hasn't lived systemic oppression like she has. Indeed, not only Lorelei isn't nobility as her companions, but she is also Yeva (read: Jewish) in an extremely racist German-inspired world. Fortunately for me, the investigation wasn't the forefront of the story, and neither was the romance. There was a perfect balance between those aspects and the expedition. The creatures were also fascinating as humans could communicate and reason with them (as Sylvia has been saying all along). I also enjoyed the folktales, that resembled so much to our own.

I found the discussion around trauma and grief really interesting as we see how each character deals with it and how it shaped them.  The same goes for the motivations of the "villain": they had very valid reasons and were pretty much right, but of course their methods weren't the best. It raised the eternal question: is it better to change things from the outside or from the inside?

The only caveat I have is that at the end we dont' know what happens to Lorelei's people. But the last lines were my favourite so I'm not that mad because I trust *them* (no spoilers).


Rep: sapphic MC, various sapphic SC, possibly a queernorm society, Jewish MC

TW: trauma, grief, death, blood, monsters, murder, murder attempt, betrayal, war, blackmailing, racism, anti-semitism, torture, colonisation

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