Thursday, February 2, 2023

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Soul of the Deep by Natasha Bowen

 



Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC Audiobook (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on September 27, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.


 Soul of the Deep is the sequel to 2021's Skin of the Sea, which combined West African Mythologies, the real life world of slave-trade era Africa, and elements of the Little Mermaid into a really enjoyable piece of YA. That novel worked really well with its strong lead characters, particularly Mami Wata (mermaid) girl Simi, who saves a boy (Kola) thrown overboard from a slave ship and is forced to go on a quest to prevent a dangerous Orisha from causing devastation through his greed. The story was wonderous even in the dark times of this setting as it showed off various creatures from West African Mythologies and ended on a really strong cliffhanger, even if that ending was a bit abrupt. So I was excited to see how it was followed up with this novel.

Soul of the Deep is a solid successor to its predecessor as it continues the story of Simi as she is forced to face the consequences of her actions, ones which threaten the entire world for reasons she could never have anticipated. The story's characters remain excellent, particularly Simi, as she deals with how conflicted her heart is between her duties to various Orisa, her love of Kola and her care for other people, and her need to try to fix things. And this time the turn through West African Myth is darker, as the antagonists are the Ajogun, the anti-gods that herald destruction, and the beings that the protagonists encounter are darker accordingly...and these creatures and beings are really well done. At the same time, the story again ends on an abrupt swerve, even if it makes sense, and relies on one ridiculously obvious and overdone kind of plot twist that makes this novel just a shade behind its predecessor in quality.

More after the jump - Note: SPOILERS for Skin of the Sea are inevitable below, as this book picks up after its ending twist:
---------------------------------------
Months have passed since Simi made the fateful decision to sacrifice herself - to pledge herself to Olokun, the Orisa condemned to the deepest parts of the Sea, in order to obtain his help to stop the trickster Orisa Esu from harming all she loved. Now she spends her days trying to find offerings that will satisfy the insatiable Olokun...when she isn't helping the Orisa gather the bodies of those fallen overboard from the Slave Trade, just as she one collected the souls of those unfortunates for Yemoja. And all the while she pines for the sun, for her fellow Mami Wata, for the humans and others she met on land....and Kola most of all, the human boy she saved and began to love.

But fate will drive Simi away from the depths of the Ocean once more, as her actions in stopping Esu, and in using Olokun to do it, may have released an even greater danger: the Ajogun, the anti-gods of death, destruction and misery, whose return to the world means the end of all. Only the offerings of Esu can keep them imprisoned...but Simi's actions have kept Esu away from this task, and the Tapa tribe, led by an ambitious woman with magical power, has begun to channel the powers of the Ajogun in hopes of conquering the people Simi once was part of and cared about...and are hastening the Ajogun's return in the process.

To stop the Ajogun and save those she loved once more, Simi will need not just to reunite with those she grew close to, and to Kola, once more. She'll need to do the unthinkable: work with the trickster Orisa who once tried to destroy her and her friends in his ambition and greed, before the Ajogun are released and it is too late to seal them away once more.....

---------------------------------------

Soul of the Deep continues Simi's story after the stunning cliffhanger of Skin of the Sea, with Simi having sacrificed herself, and her chances at happiness with Kola, his family, or even with her fellow Mami Wata and Yemoja, all to save the day by pledging herself to Olokun. Most YA readers will be unsurprised to know she doesn't stay pinned to that fate and that she will in this book reunite with both groups, particuarly Kola, the boy she has feelings for, and of course that does happen here - and the book to its credit doesn't make the reader wait too long to have it happen.

And while that element is predictable, as well as other character elements, the book does a good job with it all playing out and with its character development. Simi's struggle between all the people and places to which she is pledged, and her TREMENDOUS guilt towards all the pain that has been at least tangentially caused by her actions, makes her a tremendously sympathetic heroine, even as she does need to learn not all guilt should lie with her and that she can't quite do everything alone. Other characters like Kola similarly have changed with the addition of new responsibilities and hurts as a result of what has happened due to the last book, and how the book has them and Simi interact is really well done.

Also realy well done is how the book uses its setting, slave trade Africa, where the Oyinbo (White Slave-dealing Europeans) are a constant threat, where certain African tribes are making use of them and aiding them while pillaging the other tribes they think of as weaker, and where innocents get caught up in horrifying fates. Most of this book features a conflict between such tribes, as one tribe is led by a leader who wants to prove her power and worthiness (especially against ignorant male leaders) via the power of the Ajogun, the demonic-like being of the Yoruba religion, who form the antagonists of our story and that's really well done. Similarly, the use of other creatures and beings from African myth is again extremely fascinating and well done for a second time around...even as those creatures and beings are now far darker than the usually pleasant versions we saw in the first book. The result is a setting and plot that generally works really well.

That said, not everything does work so well. While some of the predictableness of the plot didn't bother me, the book features one twist of a character betrayal that the reader will spot a mile away, especially after it pulls the annoying trope of having one character try to warn the heroine about it only for the heroine to cut that warning off before it can be fully made - and that twist being so predictable was kind of annoying given it's still played as a surprise. And while the ending features an internal reveleation that is a fitting move for Simi's character, it comes rather abruptly in her internal monologue, and I felt like it needed more time to be considered before Simi makes the choice that ends this book.

But overall Soul of the Deep is an excellent second novel in this world, and if we continue with a third book, I will very much be back. Very solid and recommended YA.


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)