The Sunken City

The One With All the Tropes

Sabrina aus Wien am 06.10.2022
Bewertungsnummer: 1800267
Bewertet: Buch (Taschenbuch)

"There is darkness in everyone, Amare," he says at last. "Most of us run from it, hide from it, push it into a box they hope it will never escape. Others accept it. And fewer still, well... they embrace it." Amare Bellamy is a pirate and life aboard the "Moonshadow" is all she's ever known. So, when she is plunged into the sea and finds herself in the middle of an underwater city, where magic is omnipresent but strictly prohibited, she has to rethink everything she's ever known. Especially since she turns out to be the city's lost princess and that isn't even the most life-changing revelation she has to come to terms with... "The Sunken City" is one of the most entertaing YA fantasies I've read in a long time. Pirates, sereia (merpeople), mchawi (witches) - this book has them all. Also, the author has included ALL the tropes - prophecies, found family, a love triangle, arranged marriage, marriage of convenience, enemies to lovers - and I'm pretty sure I'm still missing some. This novel has a lot going on and I thoroughly enjoyed all of it. I loved the story, the characters, Amare's journey of self-discovery, the twists and the way this story also has some elements of time travel to it since it takes place in the early 1700s, but the underwater folk are way ahead of their human counterparts in terms of technology, their understanding of propriety etc. The only drawback is that some things don't make a whole lot of sense to me, especially when it comes to the anatomy of the sereia and the way gravity works in the sunken city, but I'm hopeful all of that'll make more sense in the sequels. "The Sunken City" is the perfect read for everyone who enjoys books about prophecies, quests and self-discovery. Also, witchcraft and pirates - need I say more?

DNF

Goldfish am 11.06.2024
Bewertungsnummer: 2220972
Bewertet: Buch (Taschenbuch)

I really loved the first part of this book and would have given it 4 stars based on that. It gave me high expectations, the narrative was fluid, Amare's character was well built and understandable and I loved the description of the life on the Moonshadow and the idea of the underwater kingdom. That's where the good part ends. From the second part onwards I had no idea what was going on, there was no coherence, Amare's character was an insufferable brat from the moment she entered the kingdom (on her own will) and didn't want to stay. Completely unrelatable to the girl we met on the Moonshadow. The Sunken City is a high tech civilization with all modern technologies, nightclubs, miniskirts and some girl just breaks princess Amare out to go drinking on her first night there, no questions asked by Amare, no royalty standards (are they just simple chaps called king and princess?). I cannot get over the incoherence and lack of wonder by a girl who spent her whole life on a ship with men. The story of her mother being on a pirate ship didn't make much sense to me either...why did Skullhaven care about the human affairs? Why stowaway on a pirate ship? Why were the men on the Moonshadow afraid of witches after they had one on the crew fighting with them? All the important information was spoon fed, apparently not important enough to be asked in the first place by a daughter who finds her long lost dad... Then there were the childishly embarrassing situations she put herself into with Finn... and lots of typos...I felt this was a waste of time really and didn't go on. I'm very sorry for it, the story had great potential and could have been better.