Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Spear Cuts Through Water

Slowish start. Captivating style and narration. Dark and brutal depiction of Old Country life and death, very violent. Original legend/ mythology shines through

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vigil's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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uncreativeoops's review

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I'm still a bit confused tbh. The worldbuilding was really impressive as well as the characters and plot, but I felt kinda detached from it. Loved the inverted theatre part and the switching to 2nd person POV, which gave the main story the atmosphere of a fairy tale. There are also short parts in first person which I now want in every fantasy novel, it was such a good way of humanising background characters and conveying atmosphere. Sometimes the writing was a bit clunky, but most of the scenes were incredibly visual; I could totally see it as a movie. Or maybe several movies, because every part/day had a completely different vibe and they didn' quite connect. And when it started with this magical theatre and fairy tales about how the moon fell in love with the sea I did not expect this much graphic violence. But definitely a new concept. The closest comparison i can think of is The Forever Sea by Joshua Philipp Johnson though the setting is very difderent.

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kat__z8's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

This book is, in every way, unbearably quirky and different.

There are first, second, and third person POVs, which were really jarring, and made it really difficult to get through. Even as I managed to trudge through my initial confusion, the sudden switch often took me out of the story.

This book was... something. The beginning was definitely the toughest part to get into, as it switches from the main storyline of Jun and Keema, told through third person, to the second person POV, and then random passersby whose thoughts were written, italicized, in first person. It became tedious in the end, and I kept wondering if the heart-pounding adventures and love story promised would all make it worth it in the end. After all, it begins with an intriguing premise: Jun and Keema are to escort a dying goddess across the land and basically save the world.

The writing is beautiful, and poetic and powerful in its own way, but it means nothing to me when not balanced with an engaging plot or interesting character dynamic. The book feels too ambitious, and as a result it fell flat on the aspects that mattered to me, i.e. storyline, pacing, and characterization.

So, what did I get for getting through such a difficult reading journey? Nothing. Not even a sense of accomplishment for having finished such a... unique book, to put it kindly. It felt like a waste of my time. Beyond the dizzying switches between POVs, this book offers nothing that other more conventional epic fantasy books could not provide, with less exaggerations in an attempt to stand out.

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