A review by ellenisntcool
A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I genuinely thought I was going to adore and obsess over this book, but I have finished it feeling pissed off and slightly betrayed by the reviews.

To start, these were not 25 year olds on a mission. They all felt like 17-18 year spoilt rich kids who fawn over their friend the coloniser king. I couldn’t keep track of who was who at the start as we were introduced to them all at once and found all of them to be pretty useless, especially Heike and Ludwig as if you removed those two the story would be no different! They’re only there as buffers for the ‘villains’. 

One of my biggest issues is how weirdly pro-colonialism this story was. It was there to build ip the romance between Sylvia and Loreli but it felt extremely uncomfortable as it meant their people were going to suffer for the sake of them being together so they will be rivals to lovers (which was also done very poorly). 

At the end we see those who were planning to rid the king to stop him from colonising even further be portrayed as the villains and punished for their heinous acts, like how DARE they not want their cultures to be erased! Let’s give the coloniser the power he wanted so he can bring us all together for his perfect unified world!!


A very big one star from me overall, would never read another book by Allison Saft.
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