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A review by kursten
The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton
3.0
This book was FANTASTIC, and then the end happened.
The writing was beautiful, it absorbed you into the world. The characters were compelling and had interesting, unique backgrounds. The maybe-paranormal-maybe-not element was entertaining and intriguing. The pacing was a little off at times, especially toward the latter half, but I was sure throughout most of the book I was going to continue loving it.
But WOW. That ending. It was completely unsatisfying. There was no justice and not much sense in how it concluded. I don't think it would've ended the way it did if it had been true to the characters' personalities. This book is also fairly cynical, where no person seems to be really free of evil or serious flaw (with the exception of 2 out of the ~10 characters). Several comments throughout the last quarter of the book make you seriously doubt a few people you previously had (likely) thought of as 'good' and at least relatively 'moral.' Why put that in at the end when it can't be expanded on or resolved? It ruined the characters and cheapened their motivations. To add to that, there were countless other tensions and disagreements that went unresolved (Arent's failed case for example). I think if a few key things had been changed, this would've been amazing and could have been a satisfying end but that just didn't happen.
I did enjoy the majority of this book though, so 3 stars is more fair than the 2 I want to give it because of the ending.
I only recommend this book if you are very interested in the setting and are okay with being kind of let down in the end.
The writing was beautiful, it absorbed you into the world. The characters were compelling and had interesting, unique backgrounds. The maybe-paranormal-maybe-not element was entertaining and intriguing. The pacing was a little off at times, especially toward the latter half, but I was sure throughout most of the book I was going to continue loving it.
But WOW. That ending. It was completely unsatisfying. There was no justice and not much sense in how it concluded. I don't think it would've ended the way it did if it had been true to the characters' personalities. This book is also fairly cynical, where no person seems to be really free of evil or serious flaw (with the exception of 2 out of the ~10 characters). Several comments throughout the last quarter of the book make you seriously doubt a few people you previously had (likely) thought of as 'good' and at least relatively 'moral.' Why put that in at the end when it can't be expanded on or resolved? It ruined the characters and cheapened their motivations. To add to that, there were countless other tensions and disagreements that went unresolved (Arent's failed case for example). I think if a few key things had been changed, this would've been amazing and could have been a satisfying end but that just didn't happen.
I did enjoy the majority of this book though, so 3 stars is more fair than the 2 I want to give it because of the ending.
I only recommend this book if you are very interested in the setting and are okay with being kind of let down in the end.