This started off slowly for me. I struggled to feel immersed in the world, with so many terms all thrown together at once, different POVs, names, places. But, I stuck with it and I am glad. Around the 30% mark I feel like things really picked up and the pieces started to fall together in a way that made me want to keep reading through the end. 

Of the main POVs, Mira is my favorite, but I appreciated the depth that came with some of the other POVs as well. Cordelia’s provided valuable insight, and Nami’s time with the Drawbacks was also key. However, I found the storyline with Nami to be the most repetitive and frustrating. It felt like the same cycle of events over and over with her and the rebel group. I will say that the parallels with the little mermaid felt a little silly—it has to be purposeful, and yet did not match the tone of the rest of the book. The pacing was off towards the middle and started to drag a bit but things picked back up at around 80%. 

The ending both wrapped up some of the plot lines and also clearly left way for the sequel. I still have a lot of questions about Nami’s father & mother and the underwater havens, and I hope we see more of them in book 2. This was a very rich, vibrant, surprisingly dark world and I feel like we only scratched the surface of it.