tldr: don't judge a book by his cover (derogatory)

the worldbuilding was truly this book's saving grace. tiankawi, one of the remaining havens for humans and fathomfolk in this ever-sinking world, is described as this beautiful and sprawling city, rich with colours and smells that make it burst with life off the page. it's used as a tool to paint the picture of this fictional society: humans at the top, in their shining metropolitan buildings, and fathomfolk scraping by in the slums. it's the background, the injustice of the ways of life, that brews the tension that simmers to a boiling point between these two communities. 

in the midst of this, we follow our main characters, beginning with mira: a half-siren who is promoted to captain of the city guard. i really enjoyed reading mira's pov, i admired her resilience and determination to chip away at the corruption and help the downtrodden fathomfolk. her partner kai, has similar ideals, as a water dragon and an ambassador to the fathomfolk, albeit his goals seem more passive and watered down than the action mira takes. to be honest, kai himself seemed more of a prop at the beginning, a barely there character in mira's pov, but he grew more prominent towards the latter half of the book,

which is why i absolutely hate that they killed him off, but more on that later

. 

another character i liked was cordelia, a sea witch who uses her powers for her own gain. hers was an interesting plot to follow, particularly after finding out

that she is serena, the other pov that is the wife of a prominent minister

. one thing about me is i will always support an ambitious morally grey mother! 

now, onto my least favourite character: nami, kai's younger sister, who is exiled to tiankawi after attempted theft of public property. at the beginning she's depicted as this fearless young woman who is determined to pursue justice and equality for fathomfolk, but as the book progresses none of that actually appears after her first chapter. she's immediately prejudiced to mira, and doesn't apologise to her or kai. it seems like she can't grasp that fathomfolk are being oppressed or why? the thing that bothered me the most is how wishy-washy her mindset was. she'd swing back and forth constantly between being with or against the drawbacks (the fathomfolk freedom fighters of this city). this is shown through her relationship with firth, which i felt was obvious manipulation: constantly she'd think his methods were too violent, both to humans and sometimes even to herself, but when going to confront him she'd somehow forget and fall back into his arms. the way the book ended makes me think that this whole back and forth between them is going to be a focus point in the net book. i also didn't like how nami's pov completely dominated the book, particularly in the middle part, even through an event that was particularly traumatic for mira (

her mother going missing during a riot

).

and the way this book ended? it was so discombobulating and unnecessary,

kai's death aside. i hatedddd how he was killed off t

and after reading a few reviews i do agree with the ending making it seem like the author was trying to find an easy way to end the oppression and inequality. the writing itself overall was also confusing, so many details in the plot was lost to me, i think because the author sacrificed clarity for this vague poetic vibe that did not work. a lot of the time i had to reread a few paragraphs because something abrupt would happen or be revealed and i'd think i missed out on some buildup when no, it was patched awkwardly. 

i'm definitely not picking up the next book on account of not being interested enough in the majority of these characters or where it will lead, after a thrown in hint of a 'bigger bad' towards the end, and i think nami will play an even bigger role, which i will not force myself to read.