Deepwater King is the second book in The Monstrous Heart Trilogy. Within its pages is a story of magic, sea monsters and intrigue. Arden is a sanguis, descended from a family who can ignite flame with their blood. After the events of the first book, she embarks on a difficult quest to fulfil a promise and escape the fate that has been planned out for her.

I found the first book confused in what it wanted to be and the story it wanted to tell. Going into this book, the plot felt stronger and more focused, with a clear set of characters. Unfortunately, while Arden is a fairly strong character at the start, she kind of loses the plot about half-way through; her obsession with the love interest, Riven, taking over any personality she might have had. Luckily for the book, the secondary characters, led by the delightful Chalice, make up for it.

We get to see more of the world in this book and learn a bit more of the magic. I’m still not quite sure how the magic system works, but I do feel like the lore is starting to fall into place and fog is lifting. I really enjoy the sea setting complete with sea monsters & isolated islands blended with industrial tones. I did find the way that the author chose to present an example of Arden’s other blood-gift a bit frustrating: more awful men obsessed with and lusting after her, unnecessary sex and yet it served to only confused me more as to how the gift worked.

At about the half-way point, we get to see some other character’s perspectives and these were my favourite parts of the book. I really enjoyed these pages and when the perspectives ended, it felt too soon. I do feel like the author was missing a trick by not focusing on these characters instead and having Arden as a secondary character/sub-plot. It was great seeing more of Bellis and those around her, and the world they’d created for themselves, and how each tried to survive.

There were some good parts of this book, and it does make for entertaining reading. It has an intriguing world and some good characters, but is lacking in places. I feel like the series would probably be enjoyed more by those who like romance-focused fantasy, such as Sarah J Maas’ books rather than V.E. Schwab which is what it’s being compared to. I don’t think it was quite the series for me, but, if the first book was something you enjoyed but weren’t fully sure about, it’s worth giving Deepwater King a go. And, if you loved Monstrous Heart, you are bound to love this book too. 

I got this book as an eARC from netgalley in return of an honest review.

When I saw this book advertised I was first intrigued by its cover and then the indication it had for covering the sea, sea myths and legends and was advertised as fantasy.

After reading the first book in this series, Monstrous Heart, I wanted to see how the story would continue in this second instalment.

This second book, too, was a stimulating read. But not so much for me as an avid fantasy reader, but for me as a writer. As this book offers ample opportunity to make up your mind what works in a story and what does not work and how to mix genres or maybe not.

From what I can see, this book works for some readers and they like it a lot, for others, like me, unfortunately, in the end this book did not really come together.

Possibly the main reason is that this book is not really fantasy. There are so many genres coming together in this story and each one holds some strands within the book but makes the book in the end more of a compilation of various strands than a whole. 

It is as much fantasy, as romance, as contemporary, as gothic steampunk, exploring female longing, fixation and sexuality in a way I have not ever seen written about before in fantasy.

When I later checked on the author's website, I found that she summarises her books as writing 'Strange romance, dark SF and epic fantasy'. And this possibly makes the point quite nicely.

At the beginning of this second book we finally get some background information on how this current world came into being. there are many bits and pieces that feel like our current world, but then there are these added magic elements that turn it into something completely steampunk fantastic.

After this beginning that felt like solid fantasy writing, we then dive into the deep end and go to the darkest of dark places, where it seems the dregs of humanity are merely or not even scraping out a living in an entirely polluted environment, physically as well as emotionally and mentally and where we are wading through morally deep dark waters.

And then we follow the main character Arden onto a mad dash through these islands, that she does not seem to know at all, and yet, the moment she is there she seems to know everything about them, and that is where this book started to fall apart for me.

Also, Arden's motivation for her journey to this abysmal place is still somewhat a puzzle for me, the love that came in the first book was too instantaneous for me and her character too inconsistent than what she does in this second book does make sense.

The only explanation I have come up with is that she gives into an urge within herself that cannot rationally be explained but has to be followed all the same.

I was looking so much forward to meet this deepwater king and the mythology created for it, but oh boy, was I disappointed. Nothing is as it seems in this book and that may well be true.

As with book one, I nearly DNFed this book at around 20% but somehow made it through. And then the book trailed for quite a while.

When Chalice resurfaced into the story I was disappointed, the pacing and timing was not right and Chalice's story got summarised in a few paragraphs and was done with. This felt like the story was being cut short. In addition, the relationship these two women have is something beyond my understanding.

I had hoped to get some deeper insights into Arden's and the other magic that is at work and play in this world, but the magic system did not get further explained or further elaborated, and so this part of the world building remains in a rather misty place where one constantly wonders what this all is actually about and how this magic now really works.

What I also struggled with was the language. Using old words, that is words, that were in use a few centuries ago in parts of the world at that time in order to give the story a specific flavour is not sufficient. As in book one, it felt to me that most of these old words just had been put in due to their obscurity but not really due to a precise and clear understanding and sense for the language and world building. 

I was thankful throughout that I got to read this book on kindle, so my dictionary was always only one finger tap away and I could check out the obscure words easily. Otherwise, I most likely would have DNFed this book.

Specially at the beginning I found instances of negative stereotyping where the authors own prejudice showed quite clearly and got reinforced by being represented as negative. And that is not something I want to find or read about in a novel.

And then there are the references to what seems to me an absolute random compilation of aspects of our current actual world where civilisations, myths and geographical areas are brought in. They are so all over the place, they just do not make sense.

What I missed in this book were the prehistoric animals of the sea that were so unique in book one. In book two they mostly disappeared or you can say, got reduced to a representation as the cloak Arden wears is made out of their hides.

What I loved were the scenes towards the end when we get into the more mythological places of the story. There, the author conjured a paragraph or too, painting a picture that was just genial.

So, in short, should you consider to read this book because it is fantasy, then you might be rather disappointed. But if you are interested into reading a book that is different and rather unique, then this book might well be for you.

There, too, should be trigger warnings for this book, it would behove it well.