An inspiring tale of a troubled underwater world with clear metaphors for real-world divisions.
In Groenewald’s fantasy novel, a droplet at the bottom of the sea is determined to see the wider world, no matter what it takes.
Jonathan Drop is a curious and rebellious young drop of water living in Sea Drop Village, located on the ocean floor, where everything is gray. At school, he learns about the various rules and mythologies that govern his society, but Jonathan refuses to conform. He wears a “funky, gelled hairstyle,” insists on being called “Splatt,” and doesn’t blindly believe everything he’s told. After venturing into the open ocean to retrieve ink from an Ink Fish and meet a red drop—something he was told was impossible—Splatt becomes preoccupied with finding more colors in the fabled Colorland. Just as he and his girlfriend, Lara, are about to set out on their adventure, under the cover of night, they get separated by strong currents. Splatt comes face-to-face with dark truths of the open ocean, including a war being fought by armies of different-colored Drops. Lara, meanwhile, finds herself stuck with a cultlike group. In order to reunite in Colorland, the two Drops will have to form their own opinions about the world for the first time and follow the red drop’s advice to let go “of the way [they] know.” Groenewald’s story is presented in a manner that features elements of a screenplay format, which lends itself well to the overall animated-family-film feel. Splatt’s journey is reminiscent of those taken by Pinocchio or Z from the film Antz (1998), with cute descriptions of anthropomorphized water drops sitting side-by-side thinly veiled representations of troubling, complex ideas—including, in this case, racism and addiction. Some of the secondary characters’ ideas are uncomfortable (“we just don’t mix with them”), but the story takes a firm stand against them. Throughout their undersea adventure, Splatt and Lara urge other drops to broaden their horizons and resist hate, offering a good lesson for readers of all ages.
An inspiring tale of a troubled underwater world with clear metaphors for real-world divisions.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9798301714146
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 29, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
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