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Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for allowing me to read this ARC!
Content Warning: murder, death, violence, racism, antisemitism.
Lorelei Kaskel is fighting for what she wants. Quick-witted and unfriendly, Lorelei is the beloved protege of a brilliant folklorist who has been entrusted with finding a fabled spring -- supposedly the source of all aether, magic -- at the request of Brunnestaad's King. But Lorelei is forced to contend with things beyond her imagining on this expedition, and worst of all, she's stuck with six eccentric nobles who are determined to make her life hell. Amongst them is Lorelei's greatest academic rival, the girl she detests for having everything: Sylvia von Wolff. But when Lorelei's mentor is found murdered, she finds that Sylvia is the only one she can trust, and it's up to them to discover who the killer is in the hopes of stopping a bloody coup. Pushed together by forces beyond their understanding, Lorelei and Sylvia grow closer as they learn that all is not what it seems amongst the nobles who all claim to have the King's best interests at heart, and their discoveries threaten to change life as they know it.
Much has been said about Saft and her talent, and while I've always kept a distant eye on her, I've never read any of her work until A Dark and Drowning Tide. You can consider me fully in the fan club now -- it's been a long time since I've read something that so completely and totally captured both my imagination and my heart. There is a plethora of talent here, just bursting with potential, and you get the feeling that Saft is just beginning on a long and beautiful career.
Lorelei and Sylvia are both rendered in such wonderful, detailed strokes -- they both feel so fully fleshed out, as though you could actually meet them and they would be totally believable human beings. There is a bit of an ensemble cast here with the other nobles who are a part of the expedition, and while some of them do suffer a bit from being a little more one-dimensional, I think Saft succeeded at creating an interesting brew of personalities that keeps the tension constantly growing. Of the rest of the cast, the standouts are probably Ludwig and Johann, who are total opposites and yet both manage to be fascinating. I'm also partial to Heike, but I think she suffers from a little bit of underdevelopment in comparison with the others.
Saft's writing is extraordinary. She has a way of crafting beautiful sentences that feel somehow both poetic and yet not stiff, natural, and all I can think is that rather like her main character, Lorelei, she must have some source of magic inside of her that helps her to create them. The worldbuilding, too, is exceedingly well-done, full of beautifully horrifying creatures who only serve to add to the story's atmosphere of fantastical otherworldliness.
At the heart of this story is Sylvia and Lorelei's budding relationship. The depiction of their attraction to one another is so intense, so full of longing, that I sometimes had to put the book down just to process it. It's yet another testament to Saft's ability to weave and build characters who are full of emotion and authenticity, and I think she does a great play on the enemies to lovers trope here. Her portrayal of the issues of class and race, especially in relation to how Sylvia and Lorelei perceive each other, feels sharp and spot-on.
Highly recommended. I can't wait to see what Saft writes next!
