I read an eARC of Into the Sunken City by Dinesh Thiru. Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins Children’s Book.
Honestly, this book was not for me, but it could be for you.
The book is about Jin, a cynical nineteen-year-old who lost her father in a diving accident and now has to make enough money so she doesn’t get conscripted into the Navy (basically they “tax” anyone not in it) so she can take care of her fourteen year old sister. One way she could do this is by “diving” as she lives in a world drowned in water and there are hidden treasure within the deep sea just waiting to be found, but after her father’s death, Jin finds herself unable to put on the suits and dive.
She decides just before her ex-boyfriend leaves on conscription to dive and get something to get the money she needs, but it goes bad. Thankfully a strange woman who won’t give Jin her name, shows up with plenty of gold and who also promises to help her dodge having to conscript. Only thing is, she has some weird rules like looking out for a man.
Later she talks about going on a dive, somewhere only she knows about, where there’s a stash of gold just waiting to be brought up to the service, and maybe even enough that Jin can finally see the sun.
As I said, the story is interesting, the pacing is good, and the characters fun. The problem is that I wasn’t a fan of the writing style. Part of it is that, especially at the beginning, Jin would think back in detail about things that happened in her past, before abruptly starting to talk about what was happening in the present, but since the book is written past tense throughout, it was whiplash going from one to the other with no real cues beyond pronouns or her suddenly talking about being inside, and then I’d have to figure out how much of what I’d read had been in the past, and what was supposed to be happening in the moment.
So, a book to check out, either at your library or to read about a chapter of before you buy it, but I think this book can definitely find its audience.
Magical Fairy Tale 