Deeplight". Booklist. 1 March 2020. Archived from the original on 16 September 2021 . Retrieved 17 September 2021. Whilst I've rated Deeplight 4* reads, I'd probably recommend it as highly as I do many of my 5* reads. It's got some beautiful, aquatic world-building and Hark's developmental journey, as he discovers the bounds of friendship, is masterfully handled. Distinctive appreciation for the inclusion of sign language. And also for the refreshing exclusion of any ham-fisted romantic plot line. This is my first Hardinge’s book and definetly will not be the last one, the story is so unique and the the characters are fun and loveable, the worldbuilding is incredible.. it’s all around everything I love in fantasy book even tho there is no romance here (I think this one is categorized as children / middle grade genre book) The world building is one of a kind. It's one of those places that you would love to explore but would not want to live there at the same time. It's a place filled to the brim with stories. The characters are drawn just as well. What I really appreciate is that the author included deaf representation. She was approached by a reader one day who asked her whether she would consider writing about deaf characters. Not only did Frances Hardinge proceed to do so, she also worked closely with the said fan and her community to ensure an accurate deaf representation and she ended up dedicating the book to the girl. And that, my friends, is how to be a decent ally.

This is a story about friendship (the toxic kind), sea monsters (the dead kind), secrets (the very secret kind) and deep sea adventures (the kind that will get you killed almost definitely). Kly's patience and discretion had been eked out one more time, but Hark guessed that they were probably at their limits. "This is your last warning" was something people might say several times, but there was always a last last warning, and Hark thought he might have reached it. It had a different sound, something you could feel in your bones. The writing was as pretty as I'm used to by this author as well. On one hand, you have the action of running / hiding from "the law", of trying to find a cure for Jelt and of trying to save the world from the gods returning. On the other, you have Hark's lies and the almost magical way he tells them. Because this is also a story about the power of stories. Not lies, necessarily, but the worlds a good storyteller can spin around his or her words. As such, Hark might be a (partial) representation of Hardinge herself even. Relics from the gods are valuable. The typical collectors' items, coveted by the rich (and thus traders). But one day the two boys meet the real deal and it's much more than they bargained for, changing Jelt in a way nobody really understands. Except for an old priest, maybe, whom Hark had befriended earlier.But even bits of the dead gods have power and value, and when Hark comes across a strange, pulsing, perforated object on the ocean floor, he doesn't realize what consequences it will have for him and his friends, for Myriad and its dead gods. Whilst initially the archipelagic setting reminded me of that in A Wizard of Earthsea, it soon emerged that they were very different. For one, Hardinge's story is set almost as much above the waves as below, with vast sea creatures with the power of gods and a breathable deep-sea layer fashioned from fear made manifest. That said, this book is a slow burn, and does take quite a while to get going. The story takes its time to develop, the characters are slowly drawn until they feel lifelike, the world is vividly painted in all its weirdness until it feels real and lived-in, the stakes are established and the chessboard is set for the payoff. And the entire second half provides a great payoff to all the careful and elaborate set up. But what else would you expect from a Hardinge story?

The world is recovering after sea gods destroyed it several decades past and the remnants eke out a hard survival among the waters and the islands. I was fascinated to discover this world and get embroiled in some rather dangerous situations that turn out badly (as stories always do), but I was even more interested in the cool twists that came about soon after a certain heart showed up. And also as usual, while not embracing grimdark or lingering over violence, Hardinge refuses to sugarcoat messy, morally ambivalent reality and the way that growing up helps you to see just how messy things are.The truth about the gods, about what Jelt is turning into, how the world really worked and works ... hard to accept for Hark and yet necessary if he wants to save his best friend. The gods of the Myriad were as real as the coastlines and currents, and as merciless as the winds and whirlpools. Then one day they rose up and tore each other apart, killing many hundreds of islanders and changing the Myriad forever.'