I just don’t know about this book. Is it beautifully written? Yes. Magical world building? Also yes. But it’s also a typical in-between book with an awful lot of nothings happening, from beginning to end. Add to that the transactional/borderline non-consensual sex where the MC can’t help but climax with a brute she is held captive by, it just sat really uncomfortably with me. I wish I’d skipped this book and gone straight to the third (yet to be released!).

Loved the desolate and dangerously magical setting more than the story/romance in this one.

Deepwater King is the continuation of Claire McKenna's superb gothic, maritime, steampunk fantasy trilogy (see my review for book 1, Monstrous Heart) and the series continues to delight. I cannot get enough of the richly atmospheric setting, a rustic archipelago governed by blood magic and surrounded by stormy seas and sea-monsters that form the basis of both blue-collar industry and eldritch watery religions. The lore of the Deepwater people is so inventive and feels so true to life. Likewise the influence of the setting, customs, and culture is well-reflected in the characters, making them seem like genuine products of their environment and like real and fascinating people from a world that's different (but not so different at all, really) from our own.

In this installment of the series, main character and blood-magic wielding lighthouse keeper Arden Beacon is in a state of grieving, desperately seeking to outsmart and out-manoeuvre the oppressive political body trying to control her in order to fulfill a dangerous vow. Grief and longing are a persistent undertow running throughout this series as people mourn the loss of loved ones, loss of innocence on account of youthful mistakes, loss of one's place in their community and society at large, loss of traditions, even the loss of one's livelihood to capitalistic and technological forces. A strong theme of environmentalism in the face of unchecked resource development is also present. But at its core the Monstrous Heart trilogy is a love story—one of two people from two different worlds whose past mistakes have made them both outcasts, and most of all a love story with the sea.

I eagerly await the final book, Firetide Coast, due out later this year.

This was such a dark and dour thing to read and left me feeling really anxious between reading sessions but boy do I love the setting and Arden Beacon.

I continue to really like the dark, oceanic world of this trilogy but I found this book very hard going. Where the first book had some convincing romance and steamy sex, the sex in this book is incredibly troubling. Strong content warning for sexual assault and coercion.
In the first book I kind of enjoyed being completely dropped into the world with no exposition. In this book, however, the plot completely hinges on understanding the deepwater religion and the differences between different island and mainland communities. Without any explanation I just could not understand why things happened the way they did, and characters suddenly pop in and out with no explanation.

Spoiler

I also just didn't understand Bellis and her powers at all. So she can mind control thousands of people at a time, but somehow misses Wren and Absalom? Also, why didn't they all kill her when they had the chance if she's so terribly dangerous? Why doesn't she use her mind control on Jonah? And what the f happens to Jonah at the end?

This book put me off the rest of the series, and it seems like it hasn't been that popular as my library doesn't have book 3 in any format.

I am in thrall to the world McKenna has created in the Monstrous Heart Trilogy thus far. However, I've found the writing style a challenge, and sometimes a barrier, to being fully immersed. This novel wasn't as strong as the first instalment, but I am determined to follow the series through.