My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Title: Somewhere in the Deep
Author: Tanvi Berwah
Format: eBook (NetGalley)
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 1/9/24
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Categories: Young Adult, Thriller, Fantasy, South Asian
Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
Seventeen-year-old Krescent Dune is buried under the weight of her dead parents’ debt and the ruinous legacy they left behind. The only way she can earn enough money to escape her unforgiving island is by battling monstrous creatures in an underground fighting pit. After a fight goes terribly wrong, she’s banned from the pits. Now hopeless, she is offered a deal: in exchange for the erasure of her debts, she must join and protect a hunting party for a rescue mission deep within the mining caves beneath the island.
Krescent is determined to keep her head down and fulfill her role as the dutiful bodyguard, even though she is trapped underground with her childhood enemy and a company of people who would gladly kill her if they knew who her parents were. As they come across creatures she believed only existed in legends, it becomes clear they are in far more danger than she could have imagined. But someone doesn’t want her to make it out alive. And she’ll have to figure out who before she’s left alone… in the dark.
From the author of Monsters Born and Made comes an action-packed South Asian inspired fantasy that will have your heart racing at every turn.
Content Warning: violence, killer insects
+ I read a book by this author last year and thought it was pretty good and this book is set in that same world. What I really enjoyed about this book is that it’s in the same world, so we get to learn more about it but it’s inspired by South Asia and I love that representation. I like that is it unique.
+ This has a lot of action. Kress is a fighter in the ring, but she has a bad reputation because of something her parents did. I love that she’s a strong character. Kress is an outcast but because she’s a fighter she gets chosen to go on this expedition deep underground. She is part of this expedition group of miners and other people but not everyone is trustworthy so there is a lot of tense moments underground with this group of people and monsters coming for them.
+ There is a little bit of romance going on with Kress and her best-friend, Rivan. It’s a friends to lovers situation so it takes them awhile to really admit their feelings but there is a lot of angst and longing in both but they are kind of stuck in a harrowing situation so it takes them awhile to figure that out.
~ I didn’t totally connect to any of the characters but I did still enjoyed the story. Would have loved to be more invested into the characters though but for some reason I just couldn’t.
My Thoughts:
I like the South Asian inspired setting and the action is great. I just wish I could connect to the characters so I could be invested in the high stakes of their situation but despite all that I did enjoy this story for the most part.
Book Links:
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Past Midnight Book Reviews & More 