Audible Summary
It’s nice to read books that are about people who understand what it means to love themselves in a healthy way and love others with understanding and depth.
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Saskia Maarleveld
Narrator
11.8.2024
Just What I Needed
Chapters 20 thru 29
This was much shorter than I would have liked it to be and only because I just loved the characters so much and wanted to have much more adventures with them and in the world Saft has lovingly crafted.
Given the mood of the world right now, it’s nice to read books that are about sane people who understand what it means to love themselves in a healthy way and love others with understanding and depth. I think it’s even more important as the end of the world looms, to find ways of healing, forgiving, and growing stronger. It is more important than ever to discover the wonder and uniqueness of those around us and learn to celebrate that instead of fearing being diminished or overshadowed by the things that make people different from us.
Like Saft’s book I’m aware that this desire is pure fantasy and that the reality of things is that the world we knew is gone forever and soon … well … people like me won’t last long in this new world. So, I think, that is why this book was a nice change and a welcome experience.
Story this session: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars
Narration: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars
11.5.2024
Expected and Unexpected
Chapters 12 thru 20
I love when a book both goes the way I expected and then also manages to surprise me in some wonderful way. It doesn’t happen often.
When I listen to books I tend to be really unenthusiastic about them. I read many more books than I post about on my blog but frankly a lot of them are just … meh … kind of standard stuff that I really have nothing to say and I don’t remember them a day later. They are nice to sleep to but they don’t keep me awake because they’re so riveting. All stories seem very much the same and not just in the same genre, just generally. It feels like I have read every book there is sometimes or maybe that no one has any kind of original ideas anymore … or at least no original ways of writing about unoriginal ideas.
By the time the story was clear and the characters were introduced I knew what kind of typical, tropefilled story I would be in for and that was fine with me. What I liked about Allison Saft’s world is that it was real and relevant and beautiful but also fantastical, political, and intriguing at the same time. There are not a lot of original concepts in this plot as far as what she is trying to say about the world, about men in power, about women with power, about women finding power, about grief, about pain, about selfishness, about love … it’s all the same stuff you’ve read before and the messages are not mysteries about what is wrong and right and how to treat yourself as well as others. It always comes down to how these sane, clear minded ideas are written and how the characters deliver what you already know.
Similarly to how I talked about the gritty crime novels I like – the Jack Logans, the Kim Stones, the DCI whomever stories – the cases are not always unique or even interesting but what keeps me coming back again and again is the TEAM that works together to solve them. Their chemistry, their development as characters, and their unique voices that drive the story forward. A Dark and Drowning Tide is the same … I know where we are going and I know what Saft is saying loud and clear. I see her message coming from a mile away and I don’t mind it because I love the world she has created to place these wonderful characters in. Again, no surprises here. The enemies to lovers, ice queen, who betrays who stuff is all what you probably expect … it’s the WAY it is done and written that I was pleasantly surprised by.
I have a feeling I know how this is going to end and I’m looking forward to it.
Story this session: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars
Narration: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars
11.4.2024
Took A While But …
Chapters 1 thru 12
I have been trying to listen to this book for well over a week but I kept falling asleep after chapter 2 … and not because it was boring. I just have been really exhausted lately but I wanted to start something new now that my audible credits have renewed.
It’s taken me a few days to get far enough into it to really be able to start a react page. I wasn’t sure I was going to continue with this but I stuck it out and I have to say I’m kind of glad I decided to.
I am a fan of Saskia’s voice work and I chose this book purely because she was narrating it. I had no idea what it was about but it looked interesting and sapphic from the cover. It is sapphic but not in one of those overly obvious and trashy kind of ways. This is a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers (I think) kind of story.
There’s the ice queen trope in this as well which sometimes bores me but I like Lorelei as a character so I don’t mind listening to her journey. She reminds me a lot of me in many ways especially her struggles and the oppression of her culture and people and how she has to navigate that while trying to fulfill her dreams in a world that despises her existence.
This is a story all about scholars and academics and a quest to uncover the truth of lore and I ADORE stories like that. Plus it has the added bonus of being a bit of a murder mystery with the whole “And Then There Were None” kind of feel; a bunch of people on an expedition, someone is murdered, a lot is at stake.
I love the world Saft has built. It is easily recognizable as being a world we know but it has wonderful fantasy, magic, and unique elements that take it into a whole other level. As someone with aphantasia, fantasy books are sometimes a chore for me to read because I can’t imagine things that don’t exist. Saft’s world is familiar enough that I can feel like a part of it but also don’t have to conjure things purely from my non-existent imagination.
I’m absolutely intrigued and can’t wait to dive back in tonight!
Story this session: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars
Narration: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars
