"The most basic rule of water: better to be above than below"

I started out thinking I was going to be really good- I never thought it could reach five star level, but it started out as a four, then maybe 4.5, but then it started going downhill from there. I had considered briefly reading The Count of Monte Christo before picking up this reimagining (but knew it probably wasn't going to happen) but I still wonder if that would have impacted my enjoyment of the story any more or less. I don't know how faithfully it follows the original, but Scavenge the Stars had some plot points that just seemed out of character with the rest of the story.

Ok, let's discuss what I was alluding to but skirted around in the first paragraph- there is a division in this book that is split probably around the 30-35% mark- if you've read the book you probably know what I'm talking about

when we find out that Countess Yaama was Amaya all along

I thought everything before that mark was really inventive and smart interesting enough that I had a real vested interest in moving forward, mostly with Amaya's chapters. But then said event happens and... basically, it all goes down from there. The plot becomes little more than meandering, and what does happen, especially in Cayo's chapters, is pretty boring.

Also after that event happens the mood of the story basically does a 180. This was pitched to me as a pirate book first and foremost, yet basically all of those elements are left by the wayside and what we are left with is not the sea but land, a city called Moray. And while we're on the subject, the worldbuilding was shaky at best. Sim would often just randomly throw out names of places or titles (particularly with the Rain and Sun empires, but other things too), but just saying these things does not build a world- you need to expand on them and flesh them out so that they are more real in the reader's mind, which, unfortunately, Sim never accomplishes here. And even within the city of Moray itself- it felt like any generic fantasy setting. There were your typical high born wealthy people, and then the "seedy underbelly" of the vice sector with a caricature of a villain.

The characters themselves had some flaws, but overall I liked them. I much preferred Amaya to Cayo- her actions and personality were very much realistically shaped by not only her time on the Brackish but also her upbringing in Moray. I felt that Sim did a good job of making the reader empathize with Amaya and her mission, even if we can see from the beginning that not everything is as it seems. Her desire for revenge was I thought sort of strange- sure something horrible was done to her but it wasn't something personal- it happened to thousands of other children. This combined with her constantly shifting target for revenge left this plot point sort of... aimless. Her interactions with Cayo were probably a little more awkward and clunky than they needed to be.

Cayo on the other hand was a decent character, but as far as his actual plot line goes.... boring, boring, and more boring. I could not have cared less about his engagement to Romara or his half -baked romance with Sebastien. I'm sure both of these will be explored further in the next book but I'm sure as hell not reading it. Also, I am SO OVER the trope of having a mysterious disease where there's really something more going on. We've seen it once, we've seen it one thousand times. Overall, it often felt like he was adrift, contrary to Amaya's observation that Cayo was "firmly rooted in the ground, a tree with his roots stretching down anchoring him to the earth" (paraphrased). Cayo is constantly being pulled in every direction with little opposition, this only made more clear by this pull towards the Vice Sector, despite wanting to quit gambling.

And the reveals... there was one big one that I didn't see coming, but other than that it was all pretty basic. You could probably figure it out even if you haven't seen the basic YA Fantasy formula before (obviously Cayo's family and Amaya's family are more intertwined than they first expect), but knowing specifically what tropes it falls back on allowed me to figure it out pretty early on. Manipulating the timeline was a pretty genius move that contributed to my shock at the first reveal, but everything with Kamon and the Slum King and especially Boon was obvious from the beginning.

Ultimately, I think this book would have worked better if we had focused more on the circumstances Amaya finds herself in at the beginning of the book, on the debtor's ship. It seems then that the book has a really clear direction, but after that it's sort of all over the place, restless like Cayo. A revenge fantasy? An allegorical novel dealing with socio-political injustice? An adventure mystery? An explanation on why counterfeit money is bad? It was all over the place, and tried to be too much at once.

Needless to say, this did not hold up to my expectations. There was some really great representation with race but also diverse sexualites/gender identites- Amaya is demisexual, Cayo is bisexual, and there are side characters (who I think are going to get more screen time in book two) who are asexual and ftm trans, respectively. But unfortunately, good representation is not enough to save a story with a meandering plot, shoddy world building, and subpar characters. Originally I was going to give this three stars just because I so loved the beginning, but in writing this review I've realized more of its flaws and unfortunately have to give it a two, maybe 2.5 if goodreads allowed that. I know a lot of people loved this book and that's great, but this just wasn't for me.