Deeplight

Frances Hardinge

Deeplight
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Pan Macmillan
Country
United Kingdom
Published
31 March 2020
Pages
448
ISBN
9781509897568

Deeplight

Frances Hardinge

The gods of The Myriad were as real as the coastlines and currents, and as merciless as the winds and whirlpools. Now the gods are dead, but their remains are stirring beneath the waves…

On the streets of the Island of Lady’s Crave live 14-year-old street urchins Hark and his best friend Jelt. They are scavengers: diving for relics of the gods, desperate for anything they can sell. But there is something dangerous in the deep waters of the undersea, calling to someone brave enough to retrieve it.

When the waves try to claim Jelt, Hark will do anything to save him. Even if it means compromising not just who Jelt is, but what he is…

Review

Despite being an orphaned street kid, Hark is lucky – for most of his life, the Gods of the Undersea have been dead and unable to reign with terror upon the islands. He spends his life running scams with his best friend, the dangerous-to-know Jelt, while always, like most islanders, keeping an eye out for any Godware – valuable pieces of the gods’ corpses that wash up from the ocean. When Hark is abandoned by Jelt mid-job, he is caught and, like all criminals, auctioned off to be indentured to the highest bidder. Dr Vyne, a local scientist, sees something in him worth using and Hark avoids the mines, instead stumbling into something much darker and much more dangerous.

Like all of Frances Hardinge’s books, Deeplight is set in a unique world. The gods of this world were giant, angry monsters of the deep; they lived in an ocean under the ocean, the Undersea. The description of the waves of the Undersea violently interacting with the regular ocean is as poetic as anything I’ve ever read. Every new thing you learn about the world of Deeplight has you nodding ‘of course’. And then, in this complete, deep and intensely interesting world, there is an even more interesting story with fabulous, strong and brave, and sneaky and hateful, protagonists. Each one feels as real as the world they’re set in.

Deeplight is perfect for all lovers of big, meaty stories and is highly recommended for strong readers aged 12+.


Dani Solomon is the assistant manager at Readings Kids.

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