Review: The Sunken City by Emma V. R. Noyes

    I was sent a digital review copy of this book in exchange for my voluntary and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

    Holy cow, is this book ever crazy. In The Sunken City, Emma V. R. Noyes takes readers on a wild adventure across the Caribbean with pirates, royalty, and gray characters galore. The book is adventurous, fast, and admittedly, just a tad cheesy. A great read overall.

    The Sunken City opens with teenage heroine Amare Bellamy and her pirate family on a ship called the Moonshadow. Throughout the first few chapters, Amare spends a lot of time reminiscing over all the things that have occurred during her seventeen years of life- her uncle and captain Omar's protection of her, the harassment and violence she's faced from men on the ship, and the experiences she's had growing up as a girl on a ship full of pirates. The story picks up when Amare discovers a pirate chest that Omar quickly locks away in his quarters. During a raid, she rediscovers and opens it. Amare blows into a mysterious conch shell in the chest and is immediately overcome with visions of an underwater city, strange bursts of anger that feel as though they've been inside her for ages, an absurd desire to drink ocean water, and a feeling of drying out when she's not in water. Eventually, Amare snaps and jumps into the ocean during a storm, thinking that her life is over. Little does she know, it's just about to begin.

    Amare finds herself in an underwater kingdom called The Sunken City where we get a gigantic info-dump and learn that Amare's mother, deceased?, was a sort of witch called a mchawi and her father, the king of the Sunken City, is a type of mermaid-ish creature called a sereia. She meets her best friend, Shoa, and her father's guard, Finn. During an outing with Shoa and her friend Cora, Amare learns of the Fallen Witch and her servant Maoke. Supposedly, Maoke is looking for Amare in hopes that the princess can help her free the Fallen Witch from a cave where she's been trapped for years. Amare settles into a pattern in the Sunken City and is beginning to have a life there when her father announces that she is to be married to Finn. She also meets Finn's suspicious brother, Lukas. During the Proposal Ceremony, a group of water demons attack the Sunken City and Amare witnesses Lukas going into the Lower Tunnels, the place where Amare's mother is said to have been murdered. Later on, Amare and Shoa follow Lukas into the tunnels and are captured by him and Maoke.

    They're taken on Maoke's pirate ship, the Winter Rose, and Maoke explains to the girls that she will let them go if Amare retrieves a certain tiara for her to sell. According to a prophecy, Amare is the only one who can retrieve it. She agrees to the deal. During her time spent on the Winter Rose, Amare finds herself falling for Lukas, who, like Maoke, isn't as bad as she thought. She also discovers that she, like her mother, has the magic of the mchawi. Amare is able to retrieve the tiara, but Maoke and her crew are captured by the King's guard when they're ambushed at the tavern where the exchange was to occur. In the ensuing chaos, Lukas grabs the tiara and takes off. The crew is all brought to the Sunken City, and Amare vows to help Maoke escape and to learn magic from her

    The main things The Sunken City has going for it are its fantastic worldbuilding and plotline. The story is incredibly intricate, and there are tons of callbacks to the beginning of the books. The concept itself is great too. I'm definitely a fan of the mermaid-ish creatures rather than the classic trope with fins and tails.

    Another part of this book that I really appreciated was how it dealt with the sexism and stigmatism that Amare grew up with on the Moonshadow. It's incredibly real.

“For seventeen years, I’ve done everything I can to downplay my own womanhood. I cut my curls to my ears. Dressed in dirty slacks. Took swigs of rum whenever Omar wasn’t looking. Hauled barrels until my arms bulged with muscle. It’s a game of camouflage. How quickly can I absorb a man’s lifestyle? How thoroughly can I blend in? How long does it take to make them forget my womanhood altogether?”

    You can also appreciate how far our real-world society has come in some ways when Amare makes the transition to the more modern underwater world. The way she learns to own her femininity and wield it so powerfully towards the end of the story is just amazing.

    My main gripe lies in the pace. It absolutely flew by, leaving me feeling rushed throughout pretty much the whole story. This book honestly could've been two or even three books with just a few subplots and more detail. 

    The constant infodumps, especially when Amare first arrived in the Sunken City, leave gaping holes in the story as well. I almost felt like I was reading that part in 1984 when Winston is reading Goldstein's book.

    Some of the lines were also ridiculously cheesy, especially for a book that had darker and more mature themes at the beginning.

    Ultimately and despite its flaws,The Sunken City is a great YA read that explores an exciting new world through adventurous characters and an amazing heroine. It has all the high stakes, romance, and plot twists of a great fantasy novel, and I'm really looking forward to reading Noyes' next book in the series, The Fallen Witch.

Rating: 4/5