Book Review | Fathomfolk

Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan paints a vivid and richly imaginative oceanic world filled with sirens, kappas, and kelpies galore. The story takes place in the half-submerged city of Tiankawi where humans live in skyscrapers—literally looking down on aquatic mythological creatures and dumping toxic industrial waste into their waters.

Now, the storyline itself is told from 3 POVs:

- Nami, the sheltered daughter of an affluent dragon family. However, when she's caught trying to steal (well, technically reclaim) a dragon pearl from the human government, she's banished to the city of Tiankawi where she becomes entangled with a group of rebels.

- Mira, a half-siren and the newly appointed captain of border patrol, but after rebels sabotage a city festival and as tensions rise between humans and fathomfolk, she finds herself torn between divided loyalties.

- Cordelia, a sea witch who is plotting behind the scenes.

At first, I was really excited to read a book that explores themes of environmentalism, immigration, and identity through a fantasy lens. I honestly wanted to love this one. However, how the story handled racism against the fathomfolk felt messier and messier as the story progressed. For instance, the rebel group that’s fighting for the fathomfolk are villainized throughout and the ending was so incredibly frustrating and felt like such a cheap cop out to me.

All in all, the setting is truly what shines most for me in Fathomfolk and it had so much potential, but baffling narrative choices soured this book for me.

Thank you, Orbit, for sending me a review copy.

Book Details:

Publication Date : February 27, 2024

Publisher : Orbit

ISBN : ‎ 0316564923

Pages : 448

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