A Magic Deep and Drowning by Hester Fox
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars rounded up**
A Magic Deep and Drowning is set in the Dutch Republic in 1650. We follow 20-year old, Clara, who at the start of the story discovers a rotting whale carcass washed ashore. Surely, a bad omen.
Clara dismisses this thought though. She’s a sensible girl, not one to rely on superstitions and old wives’ tales. Her sensibilities seem rewarded when she shortly thereafter receives a proposal from a wealthy merchant.
This is what she’s been waiting for. A chance to flee her parent’s psychologically traumatic household. I won’t get into the details of how terrible her parents are. I’ll let you discover that fun bit of information for yourselves.
However, before her fate is sealed, Clara has a chance encounter with another handsome young man. His name is Maurits, and Clara feels compelled to be near him. It seems Clara has an important decision to make.
Should she go with the safe bet, the marriage she’s been raised for, or chase after the man the sparkling eyes the color of the sea, the man she can’t stop thinking about?
This was good. It’s not my typical read, but I always enjoy Hester Fox’s writing and ideas. As an allegory for climate change, I thought this was nicely done. It’s subtle, and didn’t interfere with the overall fairytale retelling.
I also enjoyed the other folklore elements Fox included. While it’s mainly a retelling of The Little Mermaid, but gender-flipped, there were also many other folkloric beings involved in the plot.
I did feel for Clara as a character. As mentioned above, her parents weren’t great. She deserved so much better. Her home life was pretty insufferable and I feel like she had to make desperate choices in order to get out of that situation.
She was still so young, forced to make these life choices for herself in regards to her path. Love or safety? Convenience or risk? These weren’t easy choices, and she had zero support.
In the midst of all of this, she also ends up getting dragged into this war amongst mythological beings and humans, basically, as she was part of a deal that was struck years and years before.
I picked this up because it had Hester Fox’s name on the cover. I didn’t really know what it was all about. I’ve read 4-other books from her and have really enjoyed them all. Granted, this won’t stand out as a favorite from her for me, but I’m still glad I picked it up.
I can appreciate the beauty of this story and the fact that she went in a different direction with it. Regardless of the topics explored, she always writes with such conviction and passion. You can feel it. That she truly cares about what she is writing. Every book feels like a heavy-dose of research went into it, and I have no doubt that is also the case here.
Even though this is a little out of my comfort zone, I would highly recommend it to Readers who enjoy fairytale retellings, or stories with strong mythological or folklore elements. There’s a lot packed in here in that regard, and I know so many will enjoy it.
Thank you so much to the publisher, Harlequin Audio, for providing me with a copy to read and review. The narration by Lauren Ezzo truly swept me up into the story. Well done!