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

I finished this book earlier this year, and it has easily become one of my favorite books of all time. The narratives have been written with reckless abandon as it switches wildly between first, second, and third POV: first, being the character's thoughts; second, being you, the reader, as you listen to your abuela's tale and enter the dream world; third, being Keema and Jun's story.

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What's also incredible is how this entire book spans five days. That's it - five days for characters to be thrown into a whirlwind of adventure and fall in love. And really, it's not all about love as much as it is about two people learning to trust each other due to circumstance. Three sons, three terrors. I find that the second terror was the worst: heartless and desperate to a violent degree. To slaughter the god of turtles and eat it fully, and then to try to consume your own mother - it's vile. I almost expected the third son to be the worst, the greatest hurdle of them all. However, he ended up being the one I pitied the most.

The ending was a fantastic build-up, where Keema and Jun stop the wave, and the moment the spear cuts through the water, I had chills. It's always invigorating to have the title of a book appear somewhere in the novel.

I honestly believe that the book is a literary masterpiece. It's creative to an insane degree, written so beautifully, and is what I'd categorize as art. I haven't stopped recommending this book to anyone who'll listen to me.

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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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