A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft
Lorelei Kaskel, a folklorist with a quick temper and an even quicker wit, is on an expedition with six eccentric nobles in search of a fabled spring. The magical spring promises untold power, which the king wants to harness to secure his reign of the embattled country of Brunnestaad. Lorelei is determined to use this opportunity to prove herself and make her wildest, most impossible dream come true: to become a naturalist, able to travel freely to lands she’s only ever read about.
The expedition gets off to a harrowing start when its leader—Lorelei's beloved mentor—is murdered in her quarters aboard their ship. The suspects are her five remaining expedition mates, each with their own motive. The only person Lorelei knows must be innocent is her longtime academic rival, the insufferably gallant and maddeningly beautiful Sylvia von Wolff. Now in charge of the expedition, Lorelei must find the spring before the murderer strikes again—and a coup begins in earnest.
But there are other dangers lurking in the dark: forests that rearrange themselves at night, rivers with slumbering dragons waiting beneath the water, and shapeshifting beasts out for blood. As Lorelei and Sylvia grudgingly work together to uncover the truth—and resist their growing feelings for one another—they discover that their professor had secrets of her own. Secrets that make Lorelei question whether justice is worth pursuing, or if this kingdom is worth saving at all.
COVER ARTIST: Simon M. Sullivan (design)
PUBLISHER: Del Rey
YEAR: 2024
LENGTH: 368 pages
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy, Romance
RECOMMENDED: Highly
Queer Rep Summary: Lesbian/Sapphic Main Character(s).
*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.
A DARK AND DROWNING TIDE is a rivals-to-lovers queer romance and murder mystery, which spends a lot of time on "rivals" a satisfying amount on "lovers", and just enough on the murder mystery to hold the whole thing together.
Lorelei is Yevani, (i.e. Jewish), having grown up in a ghetto and only been admitted to the university by dint of mentorship by an influential folklorist and academic. As a Yeva, Lorelei is in a precarious position within the expedition. She's "smart enough" to get in, but not trusted once she's there. Her competence is at once needed and suspect, especially once the expedition's leader (and her mentor) is murdered in the night when their journey is barely underway. The small group proceeds, though no one person trusts everyone else now that a murderer is in their midst. Lorelei is trying to lead the investigation and figure out the identity of the killer, but she keeps getting distracted by how exasperatingly lovely Sylvia is.
The expedition is to find a magical spring (the Urspring) at the behest of Wilhelm, wants to form a united kingdom of what are currently several different provinces with their own rulers. It seems analogous to the transformation of the various Germanies into a united Germany. Much of the worldbuilding is conveyed through interactions between the members of the expedition, as they all have very different perspectives on the idea of uniting the provinces into a single kingdom. Even those who agree it would be good do so for very different reasons. The members of the group are apparently united by their loyalty to William. Furthermore, they're all from different kingdoms, and everyone except Loreli knew each other as children. This means that she's an outsider both for being Yeva and for not sharing a specific past with the rest of them.
The mystery elements are the scaffold upon which the romance rests, part of what pulls to Lorelei to Sylvia is that she's circumstantially unlikely (or even impossible) to have been the killer, leaving Lorelei to feel as if she's the only reasonable ally in dangerous circumstances. Lorelei can't trust her absolutely, at least not at first, but she can trust Sylvia to be herself, and that's good enough. I like their dynamic, it fits them and the narrative very well. Things unfold slowly between because they continue to be rivals well into the story. Lorelei also keeps thinking of folktales she has collected. Their placement within the story does a good job of conveying her frame of mind as well as building out the world.
I love the ending, the final few chapters are my favorite part. I like how the various story threads are wrapped up.
Graphic/Explicit CW for blood, death.
Moderate CW for bullying, classism, racism, religious bigotry, antisemitism, alcohol, panic attacks, violence, injury detail, murder, child death.
Minor CW for fire, chronic illness, colonization, war, animal death,
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