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emtees's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
The Deepest Blue is a mostly stand alone novel set in the same world as the Queens of Renthia series, and just after the conclusion of that series. I say mostly not because there are characters who cross over (there is one, but I donât think youâd need to read the earlier books to understand her deal), but because of the world-building. In the earlier books, Durst puts a lot more time into explaining how the world and the magic system work, but here she glosses over it with a basic âthere are spirits, some women can control them, queens are the ones who control all the spirits of their lands.â I still think you could read this book on its own, but you might get a fuller understanding of the world and magic system if you read the other books first. Plus, you should, because theyâre great.
The Deepest Blue takes place in Belene, the island kingdom to the south of the continent where the earlier books occurred. We got a brief glimpse of Belene in The Queen of Sorrow, but here we get to really explore this world. Belene is an even more dangerous place than the rest of Renthia. Built on islands that developed over the skeletons of massive spirits killed in the earliest days of the world, Belene lives under not only the usual threat of its native spirits, who both serve and want to destroy its Queen, but of attack by the wild spirits of the Deepest Blue, massive sea creatures who the queen keeps trapped in an endless sleep. Because of the increased dangers of this world, the heirs - women who are trained to stand ready to take on the queenâs job when she dies - are put through much harder testing than those of the rest of the nations. Unlike in Aratay, Semo and the rest, where using oneâs power and trying to become an heir is a choice, in Belene all women who are discovered to have the power are forced to either become Silent Ones, women who give up their identities and voices to enforce the law, or to go to the island of Akena to face a brutal test to become an heir, one which many donât survive. Needless to say, these two grim options mean that most women try to hide their power and avoid both fates.
The main character of the novel is Mayara, a young women who, on her wedding day, is forced to reveal her power when her home is attacked by wild spirits. Mayara has no desire to become either a Silent One or an heir, especially since her older sister died on Akena Island. But after her attempt to flee the Silent Ones fails, Mayara finds herself and eleven other women on Akena Island, where she discovers not only that the test is just as difficult as she believed, but that there may be a conspiracy to bring about the failure of the test and the deaths of the heirs. Meanwhile, her husband Kelo, refusing to accept the loss of his wife, travels to the capital city to confront Queen Asana and demand her back. There, he is swept up in a plot involving the Queen, the Families who hold immense political power on the islands, and Lady Garnah, a mysterious woman from Aratay with a very particular skill set.
I really liked this book a lot. Stand-alone fantasies are rare, and the fact that this one was set in an existing world but had a plot completely separate from anything that happened in the earlier trilogy meant it had all the depth of a series but with a contained story that let the new characters flourish. As always, Durstâs worldbuilding is incredible. Here she really builds on what was previously established about the kingdoms of Renthia, but takes it up a notch with Belene, with its enormous skeletal ruins and stunning cities made of shell and bone. I personally always love a water-based world, so the central role the ocean and swimming played here was great for me. Â
I also really liked the characters. Mayara is an interesting protagonist.  At first she felt very much like the typical reluctant hero, clearly full of talent and a desire to help but resistant to the call of the plot. But as the story progressed, it became clear that her reluctance wasnât the typical young fantasy protagonist reaction to the call to adventure. Mayara just really wanted to keep her life as it was and Durst gave her room to show how valid a response that was. If you read my reviews of the Queens of Renthia series, youâll see that Naelin in that series had a similar attitude and there I found it annoying, but the difference is that Mayara never wanted to refuse to help others or take action when it was needed. Sheâs simply a character who really likes who she already is and I found that neat. Itâs rare for me to root for a character to be able to leave the plot behind, but I did for Mayara. It helped that she had a great relationship to go back to - stories set around established couples are also a bit rare, so Mayara and Keloâs devotion to each other was very nice to see - and Kelo himself was a great character.  It was fun to have a fantasy couple where the woman was more athletic and adventurous and the man was an artist and healer, and one who fully supported her with no overprotectiveness.   I enjoyed his adventures in trying to get a Queen to grant him a favor and instead getting in way over his head. I even enjoyed Garnah, a character I found somewhat jarring in the original trilogy. Here, where no one really knows the extent of her previous crimes, her presence didnât make them all seem like terrible people for tolerating her and I could enjoy how funny and disturbing she is.
The plot itself was also unspooled really well. Durst is actually one of the best plotters Iâve read in the fantasy genre recently; her pacing, the way she reveals information, and the way character arcs and plot arcs come together is very strong. She is always good at setting up mysteries that start to come together just as the reader is figuring out what is going on (or thinks they are) and this book is no exception. After visiting two previous nations in this world and seeing how their Queens are chosen and rule, it was interesting to see a nation where the process is very different and the tensions and power struggles have much more of a realistic feel.  And I really loved the conclusion to the plot; it wasnât 100% original, because there were elements I sort of guessed would happen from reading the other books, but it was still deeply satisfying on both a story and character level. Since I was annoyed that Queen of Sorrow ended by introducing a really cool direction for the world to go and then seemingly backing down from that, I was also glad that the change in this book felt more profound.
There were a couple of things that didnât quite work for me. The main one was that, while I really loved Mayara, it felt like the POVs in the book should have been handled differently. Kelo was a great character but he only remained a POV character for as long as we had scenes Mayara absolutely couldnât be there for, and by the end his role kind of petered out. And while I came to really appreciate what Durst was doing by focusing the story around someone with no interest in being the hero, it meant that Mayara spent a lot of time observing other characters as they actually drove the story forward. I think it would have made sense to have another primary protagonist Roe to balance things out.
But overall this was a great book and I would love if Durst returned to this universe someday.
The Deepest Blue takes place in Belene, the island kingdom to the south of the continent where the earlier books occurred. We got a brief glimpse of Belene in The Queen of Sorrow, but here we get to really explore this world. Belene is an even more dangerous place than the rest of Renthia. Built on islands that developed over the skeletons of massive spirits killed in the earliest days of the world, Belene lives under not only the usual threat of its native spirits, who both serve and want to destroy its Queen, but of attack by the wild spirits of the Deepest Blue, massive sea creatures who the queen keeps trapped in an endless sleep. Because of the increased dangers of this world, the heirs - women who are trained to stand ready to take on the queenâs job when she dies - are put through much harder testing than those of the rest of the nations. Unlike in Aratay, Semo and the rest, where using oneâs power and trying to become an heir is a choice, in Belene all women who are discovered to have the power are forced to either become Silent Ones, women who give up their identities and voices to enforce the law, or to go to the island of Akena to face a brutal test to become an heir, one which many donât survive. Needless to say, these two grim options mean that most women try to hide their power and avoid both fates.
The main character of the novel is Mayara, a young women who, on her wedding day, is forced to reveal her power when her home is attacked by wild spirits. Mayara has no desire to become either a Silent One or an heir, especially since her older sister died on Akena Island. But after her attempt to flee the Silent Ones fails, Mayara finds herself and eleven other women on Akena Island, where she discovers not only that the test is just as difficult as she believed, but that there may be a conspiracy to bring about the failure of the test and the deaths of the heirs. Meanwhile, her husband Kelo, refusing to accept the loss of his wife, travels to the capital city to confront Queen Asana and demand her back. There, he is swept up in a plot involving the Queen, the Families who hold immense political power on the islands, and Lady Garnah, a mysterious woman from Aratay with a very particular skill set.
I really liked this book a lot. Stand-alone fantasies are rare, and the fact that this one was set in an existing world but had a plot completely separate from anything that happened in the earlier trilogy meant it had all the depth of a series but with a contained story that let the new characters flourish. As always, Durstâs worldbuilding is incredible. Here she really builds on what was previously established about the kingdoms of Renthia, but takes it up a notch with Belene, with its enormous skeletal ruins and stunning cities made of shell and bone. I personally always love a water-based world, so the central role the ocean and swimming played here was great for me. Â
I also really liked the characters. Mayara is an interesting protagonist.  At first she felt very much like the typical reluctant hero, clearly full of talent and a desire to help but resistant to the call of the plot. But as the story progressed, it became clear that her reluctance wasnât the typical young fantasy protagonist reaction to the call to adventure. Mayara just really wanted to keep her life as it was and Durst gave her room to show how valid a response that was. If you read my reviews of the Queens of Renthia series, youâll see that Naelin in that series had a similar attitude and there I found it annoying, but the difference is that Mayara never wanted to refuse to help others or take action when it was needed. Sheâs simply a character who really likes who she already is and I found that neat. Itâs rare for me to root for a character to be able to leave the plot behind, but I did for Mayara. It helped that she had a great relationship to go back to - stories set around established couples are also a bit rare, so Mayara and Keloâs devotion to each other was very nice to see - and Kelo himself was a great character.  It was fun to have a fantasy couple where the woman was more athletic and adventurous and the man was an artist and healer, and one who fully supported her with no overprotectiveness.   I enjoyed his adventures in trying to get a Queen to grant him a favor and instead getting in way over his head. I even enjoyed Garnah, a character I found somewhat jarring in the original trilogy. Here, where no one really knows the extent of her previous crimes, her presence didnât make them all seem like terrible people for tolerating her and I could enjoy how funny and disturbing she is.
The plot itself was also unspooled really well. Durst is actually one of the best plotters Iâve read in the fantasy genre recently; her pacing, the way she reveals information, and the way character arcs and plot arcs come together is very strong. She is always good at setting up mysteries that start to come together just as the reader is figuring out what is going on (or thinks they are) and this book is no exception. After visiting two previous nations in this world and seeing how their Queens are chosen and rule, it was interesting to see a nation where the process is very different and the tensions and power struggles have much more of a realistic feel.  And I really loved the conclusion to the plot; it wasnât 100% original, because there were elements I sort of guessed would happen from reading the other books, but it was still deeply satisfying on both a story and character level. Since I was annoyed that Queen of Sorrow ended by introducing a really cool direction for the world to go and then seemingly backing down from that, I was also glad that the change in this book felt more profound.
There were a couple of things that didnât quite work for me. The main one was that, while I really loved Mayara, it felt like the POVs in the book should have been handled differently. Kelo was a great character but he only remained a POV character for as long as we had scenes Mayara absolutely couldnât be there for, and by the end his role kind of petered out. And while I came to really appreciate what Durst was doing by focusing the story around someone with no interest in being the hero, it meant that Mayara spent a lot of time observing other characters as they actually drove the story forward. I think it would have made sense to have another primary protagonist
But overall this was a great book and I would love if Durst returned to this universe someday.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Grief, and Death of parent
Fantasy violence. Death and grief are major themes.kylieqrada's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
First of all, this cover is everything! I'm loving Sarah Beth Durst too much right now. This was like Hunger Games, but 10,000% better?! And with spirit magic? And queens? And islands made of sea monster bones? Only docked a star cuz the romance was kinda bleh. I liked Kelo more doing his own thing and painting sh!t.Â
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Grief
Moderate: Kidnapping, Slavery, and Violence
shoshin's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
This is the first Renthia book I've read, but I didn't feel like I was missing out by jumping into things this way. The book was beautiful, the characters were compelling, and the narrator was one of those people who just emotes beautifully. The book begins by setting a scene of idyllic island life, and she just sounded delighted about absolutely everything. I'll be checking out more of this series.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Violence, and Stalking
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