Deeplight 

By Frances Hardinge

Blurb: 

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea meets Frankenstein in Frances Hardinge’s latest fantasy adventure

 

The gods are dead. Decades ago, they turned on one another and tore each other apart. Nobody knows why. But are they really gone forever? When 15-year-old Hark finds the still-beating heart of a terrifying deity, he risks everything to keep it out of the hands of smugglers, military scientists, and a secret fanatical cult so that he can use it to save the life of his best friend, Jelt. But with the heart, Jelt gradually and eerily transforms. How long should Hark stay loyal to his friend when he’s becoming a monster—and what is Hark willing to sacrifice to save him?

Review: 

I saw this book was included in a book box recently and I thought it sounded good, I have also read another book by the same author so I thought I would enjoy this one because I loved the other. Well I was slightly wrong.

It started off great, I loved it's unique setting and the characters were really easy to like but then I got about 40% through the book and it started to get repetitive and the characters started to really annoy me.

So this whole story is about these old gods having powers and ruling the whole kingdom in a way. But then they died and now the humans rule it. Hark and Jelt are the two main characters within the book. Jelt is a horrible character and I really don't like him throughout the full book, he always forces Hark to do things that he doesn't want to do and he sets him up to fail. That's how Hark ends up on another island looking after the priests. 

I feel in Hark's punishment he develops a lot and starts to do things just for himself, he obviously still has a guilty conscious as he still tries to do things for Jelt and looks out for his friend. But then I guess Jelt is the only person Hark has truly known so he would do anything for him as he is basically family.

The two main characters discover a god's heart and it heals people. They start to earn a living from it but Jelt joins another gang and they end up getting in trouble. The whole of this book is about Hark trying to correct the wrongs. But as you are aware, correcting the wrongs does not always bring you the good fortune that you are expecting. It is not always the best outcome.

What annoyed me about this book was just about everything, the characters were just really whiny and they just really ground on me. Also there was a lot of repetitive action throughout the book after 40%, so I just kept losing interest as the events already happened just slightly different setting or a different set of characters. I also feel that most of the arguments between the characters were quite petty, especially for the age that they were supposed to be.

It upsets me that I've only read one other book by this author and I absolutely loved it but now after reading this book I feel like I've been let down. I feel like it was based at a younger audience than me. I will still give this author another chance to see whether I like her books or not. Hopefully I do because I've heard great things about them and I know they are quite popular. 

This book is more suitable for people who like repetitive action, feeble friendships that have childish conflict and slight history about the god's who ruled the kingdom before the humans.

Least Hated Character: Hark

Read: 11/04/20 - 30/04/20

3 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie