Book Review | Beneath the Burning Wave

On the island of Mu, twins are killed at birth to avoid fulfilling a prophesy that foretells the island’s ruin. However, a pair of twins named Kaori and Kairi miraculously survive. They are polar opposites, and as their rivalry intensifies and rocks the island, they must either fight against or succumb to their destiny.

At first glance, the blurb for Beneath the Burning Wave by Jennifer Hayashi Danns sounded really interesting. However, the story’s execution failed on both a technical and thematic level for me.

First off, the writing is choppy and bordering on incoherent. I think the writer wanted to give the narrators a distinctive voice, but the grammar rules of the Mu dialect aren't consistently applied. For instance, at one point Kaori narrates, "I hunt snake; mu hunt boar" even though the plural of "snake" is written with an "s" throughout the novel.

Also, on a deeper level I feel like this book undermines its on themes. The island of Mu is supposedly a gender fluid society where "gender is as fluid as the crashing waves," and yet the islanders are entirely obsessed with delignating themselves by reproductive roles, and those who are cable of getting pregnant are simply referred to as "carriers." This felt like such a regressive way to handle things.

All and all, Beneath the Burning Wave completely missed the mark for me. There is speculative fiction that wonderfully explores and transcends gender like Octavia Butler’s Lilith's Brood trilogy and Ursula La Guinn’s Left Hand of Darkness, but sadly, this book is not one of them.

Thank you, NetGalley and One More Chapter, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book Details:

Publication Date : August 4, 2022

Publisher : One More Chapter

ASIN: ‎B099Q9V2WT

Pages : 299

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