A Letter to the Luminous Deep

This book was unusual, but in a very good way, I liked it a lot! It's an epistolary novel about siblings and couples, about loss, mental health and academia, set in a world where there is only very little land and most people live on (or in) the ocean. Together with Sophy and Vyerin we discover the fates of their lost siblings, while reading their correspondence from before their disappearance. This plot structure worked very well for me, I was intrigued to find out what happened to them and at the same time loved to see their love and friendships respectively develop through the letters and notes they send each other. Usually I tend to miss direct conversations and actual meetings in epistolary novels, but this one managed to bring across all the important feelings and thoughts beautifully. The writing itself was also amazing, there were various distinct voices transported in the letters and the characters really came to life through their writing. E. and Henerey have such a beautiful writing style, rather old-fashioned but in the best way! I really liked it. The world was super interesting with all its different scholars and vessels and habitats and creatures! I can say that I've never read a book about a world like this and I thought it had the right amount of detail. Some scenes were a little difficult to imagine but that's also due to the epistolary form of this book I think. Towards the end it was very gripping, though the last few letters were a bit anti climactic, but maybe that was just because I was so tired. Overall I'd recommend this book to everyone who likes to read epistolary novels and slow-ish fantasy set in a unique world. Thanks to orbit and netgalley for the arc!