I really wanted to like Out of the Drowning Deep, as it has a lot of elements that I tend to like – an automaton as one of the POVs, a mix of human and non-human characters, and an interesting setting in the Bastion – but it ultimately fell flat.

I think some of the issue here is that there are too many themes for a novella this short. It’s like the author decided to write a book that tackles religion, memory, trauma, and addiction while also being a murder mystery and the result is that none of it really worked. The mystery’s resolution feels almost like an afterthought and it’s hard to really care about when none of the characters directly involved in the murder are developed enough to feel any investment in. It was almost a locked room mystery, but some characters being able to teleport in and out took away the element of pressure that a locked room provides. Some of the relationships are described in intense terms – Angel’s feelings about Scribe IV in particular – that make zero sense given the brief duration of the characters’ knowing each other, and the characters all seem to have a single trait – Angel looks scared all the time, Quin is traumatized, the Sisters have strayed from their god – that is repeated over and over, resulting in one-dimensional characters. Of all the characters, Scribe IV the outdated automaton is absolutely the most interesting; I think that if Scribe IV had been the sole POV and the murder had been the focus (rather than so much of Quin’s backstory) this novella would’ve definitely worked much better.

I will say, some of my disappointment is probably tied to the marketing. I definitely don’t think this novella is remotely comparable to any of the authors (Chambers, Wells, el-Mohtar and Gladstone) that the blurb compares it to, and the description emphasizes a “race to find out who really murdered the Pope” while way too much of the plot is quite disconnected from this aim.

What I did like about this was the world-building. The Bastion is a really cool setting, and the backdrop of the Pope’s conclave is interesting context. Unfortunately, the plot and characters are a lot less interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for providing an ARC.

Content warnings: religious trauma, addiction, suicide, death, death of a parent, grief

There's potential but it's not my cup of tea
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

In a far future, gods, angels and demons live among humans, and in a little travelled part of the galaxy an automaton, Scribe IV, and his staff gets the Bastion ready for a convocation of religious leaders from many faiths. The Pope is already present, and when a servant boy takes the man some refreshments, he finds the man dead.

Scribe IV knows this is not only a tragedy, but disastrous for the Bastion and everyone in it, as the Sisters of the Drowning Deep have long intimated they want control of the facility. In a bid to expeditiously deal with the situation, Scribe IV sends up a prayer, which is heard by recovering addict Quin and a young angel, who calls itself Angel, in a far off station. They arrive in Bastion, review what evidence there is, then Quin realizes he needs help from an ancient angel he has a long, complicated relationship with, and he returns home to request help from Murmuration.

Quin’s addiction stems from deep trauma from a terrible incident in his and his younger sister Lena’s life, and Murmuration has been carefully taking this memory from Quin away so Quin can make it through each day.

Meanwhile, the Sisters arrive, claiming Bastion and staff are to answer to them, leading Scribe IV and Angel to begin poking around together. They piece together what they’ve learned with Quin, when he returns, to solve the mystery, which leaves much pain and sadness in its wake.

This was terrific, with a fantastically weird universe populated by terrifying beings, a lonely automaton who has outlived its purpose, a competent investigator who needs drugs and the aid of an angel to function, a deeply suspect religious order with Lovecraftian overtones, and people reacting with violence to childhood trauma.

A.C. Wise also has her characters grapple with personal issues or nightmares as they investigate: Scribe IV is dealing with regret while trying to figure out who they are, and Angel wants to care for others but is also nervous about who they could be. Childhood trauma is a big part of this story, and is handled differently by the siblings, in that Quin is barely managing, while Lena is hyper competent. These behaviours are a factor in how Scribe IV, Angel and Quin approach the investigation, and how they react to the outcome.

There is tragedy, loss, anger laced throughout the novella, though the quiet end leaves possibilities open for all the characters, which is satisfying.

There was a lot packed into this story, and its darkness is well balanced by its intriguing universe, beautiful prose, and melancholy atmosphere.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Titan Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

This could’ve been a five-star read for me if it’d been a full-length novel rather than a novella, because while there are so many good things in here, well—there are SO MANY good things in here. Too many for OUT OF THE DROWNING DEEP’s 176 pages.

Religion in particular is woefully unexplored considering how integral it is to every aspect of OUT OF THE DROWNING DEEP—the characters, the settings, the plot, the plot “twists,” etc. This isn’t to say that religion isn’t explored—many aspects of the way religion functions in this universe, where gods can be made and angels haunt space stations and automaton scribes are responsible for recording prayers, are established—but none of these aspects are explored deeply enough within the scope of this novella to truly do any of these aspects justice. Even with one of the main characters being an angel, the angels’ limitations and relationship with their gods is never established; similarly, even with one of the main characters being a scribe, I could tell you very little about what a scribe actually does. The tangibility of heavenly beings like gods and angels in OUT OF THE DROWNING DEEP is one of the things that drew me towards it—I love that type of shit—and I do love what’s there, there just isn’t nearly enough of it.

This same critique applies to the characters. OUT OF THE DROWNING DEEP has what I would consider to be three protagonists, all of whom get their own third-person POVs, and all of whom I think ARE valuable protagonists of the story A.C. Wise is telling—but the length of this novella means that none of them get a proper character arc. Of the three, Quin develops the most, but even his arc reads rushed and incomplete, and the impact of his development on an audience suffers for it. The mystery surrounding his backstory and missing memories doesn’t succeed in creating tension; it’s all but resolved within fifty pages. The same goes for the aforementioned angel and scribe characters.

Wise does a fantastic job within OUT OF THE DROWNING DEEP’s page count—it’s this page count that I have a problem with. If Wise ever publishes anything else in this universe, I will happily read it, and I did enjoy OUT OF THE DROWNING DEEP as it is! It just could’ve been so much more with another hundred pages to work with.

From the publisher: “Scribe IV is an obsolete automaton, peacefully whiling away his years on the Bastion, a secluded monastery in an abandoned corner of the galaxy. But when the visiting Pope is found murdered, Scribe IV knows he has very little time before the terrifying Sisters of the Drowned Deep rise up to punish the Bastion’s residents for their crime.

Quin, a recovering drug addict turned private investigator, picks up a scrambled signal from the Bastion and agrees to take the case. Traumatized by a bizarre experience in his childhood, Quin repeatedly feeds his memories to his lover, the angel Murmuration. But fragmented glimpses of an otherworldly horror he calls the crawling dark continue to haunt his dreams.

Meanwhile in Heaven, an angel named Angel hears Scribe IV’s prayer. Intrigued by the idea of solving a crime with mortals, xe descends to offer xer divine assistance (whether those mortals want it or not). With the Drowned Sisters closing in around the Bastion, Scribe IV, Quin, and Angel race to find out who really murdered the Pope, and why. Quin’s missing memories may hold the key to the case—but is remembering worth the price?“

This one really pushed out the oddness. Set in a future which mashes up future-yet-obsolete technology (Scribe IV) with a brutal near-medieval and religiously strict society, this one is basically a locked room mystery reimagined into a science fantasy. We have creepy Bene Gesserit-like religious disciplinarians emerging from the sea to deliver sentence and punishment on a lonely outpost (the Bastion), fallen angels in the form of god-like aliens, not to mention god-like deities and Lovecraftian cosmic horror.

Along the way, Wise manages to examine the importance of self and identity, of artificial intelligence and the importance of religion in daily life. It should not be too much of a surprise to find that such matters are also deeply rooted in childhood trauma for some of the characters. Genders are deliberately diverse and gleefully woke, playing with gender in that the characters use gender terms such as xe and xer to describe the divine Angel in their daily speech. It’s an interesting touch which adds another element to this story. Similarly, the same-sex relationship is well done, without being explicit.

The other element I liked was the character of Scribe IV, who in telling the story is quite wonderful – erudite, self-effacing, actually rather human-like, to the point where he/it is perhaps the most human-like of all of the main characters encountered. It’s an endearing quality.

In summary, Out of the Drowning Deep is a science fantasy story that can be enjoyed for its ramping up of the weird. For that reason, it is worth reading, with a plot and characters that shows a writer with their imagination working overtime. The result is an appreciatively different story that I think will be remembered after finishing its 175 pages.

Great mystery novella mixed with biblically accurate and terrifying angels, the fun things they can do with your memories (which becomes relevant) and interreligious maneuvering. Pick this up this fall.

This was a unique and exciting novel with excellent world building and character development. The atmosphere was built in a way that dragged you into the story and refused to let go. It was fast paced and kept me engaged until the very end.

I received a gifted copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via the publishers.

Out of the Drowning Deep is a futuristic sci-fi murder mystery with a host of diverse and unique characters who are all emotionally scarred yet bound together in some intricate ways. I enjoyed the different perspective of angels, and their description was both terrifying yet intriguing. The book left me pondering the story and what it mainly told as it is a mix of sci-fi, horror, mystery, religion and politics all woven together to almost make a genre of its own. The word building is fantastic and draws you in from the start. I think I will read this book again in the near future as I think it's one of those books that you take something new away from each time you read it.

I really enjoyed Out of the Drownimg Deep!
It was a great and unique novella that was around 170 pages long and was a mix of sci-fi, fantasy, and a dash of horror.
The characters were definitely one of the best parts of the book. Scribe IV was probably my favourite, but that's no big surprise as I love robots! It was awesome to read the pov of Angel who was an actual angel as ze was really fascinating! Quin was also a really great character, and their relationship with their lover the angel Murmuration was really interesting. I also loved his relationship with his sister!

The world that was created was my other favourite part of the book as it was amazing! It was a world where gods, angels, demons, and other beings existed all wrapped up in a sci-fi world! It was so good!
The novella really left me wanting so much more of the world and characters, and while the book wraps up well, I really hope there will be a sequel in the future!

This is a new author for me. I don’t quite know how to describe Out of the Drowning Deep. It’s weird and wacky in a good way. So much happens across the novella’s scant pages and I barely had time to pause for breath. I didn’t think there was enough worldbuilding considering how much happens and I struggled to make a real connection with the odd cast of characters and the strange Bastion where the book is set. A longer novel would have given more space to develop this. However, I found the book so entertaining and strange I didn’t mind the sparse world building or character development because I was having a good time. I’d recommend this and can’t help wonder if a sequel is planned due to the open ending.

I really enjoyed this beautifully written science fiction and fantasy novel. I will start by saying while I would have loved more of the world as well this novel was the perfect length. Despite being a novella the characters were all well developed and the world was described enough that we as readers understood what was going on.

There is also an element of crime fiction to this novella which I found really interesting. I’ve only read one other series that is a fantasy crime series and I really feel this should be explored more because it leaves a lot creativity for writers to consider how crime investigation might change be it for the future or the past.

All in all I did enjoy this one and will probably be getting a physical copy in the near future. It may not be for everyone but if you do enjoy science fiction and fantasy it is definitely for you.

As always thank you to Netgalley and Titan Books for the copy to review. My review is always honest and truthful.

I loved this, but to be clear, it is nothing like Martha Wells, Becky Chambers, or This Is How You Lose the Time War. Publicists, just stop, ffs.

What it is is a fabulous little gem of a science fantasy, weird and wonderful and fairly dark, but also hopeful. The murder really is the tiniest part of the book, more an excuse to throw the characters together than anything – but that’s fine, because there’s plenty of other plot to sink your teeth into. And the worldbuilding! This is a future where gods and saints and angels are all real, but it’s possible for humans to create new gods, too (which is very relevant); where we have nanites and space stations right alongside prayer-as-radio. I AM A FAN!

>An angel could be a terrible thing, but so could a human, sometimes without even trying.<

I admit to being confused about one small element of the ending – which I don’t think I can talk about without spoilers – but other than that? I loved everything. Wise’s prose is vivid and delicate, the imagery and turns of phrase fantastic (in all senses of the word), and wow did I enjoy the cast of deeply fucked-up people! Everyone here is so broken, in ways that are difficult and complicated and don’t have easy fixes, and not only did I eat it up with a spoon, I licked the plate when I was done!

>Quin looked away, too late. What were eyes but a window to the soul? And apparently he was doing a shit job of keeping the blinds drawn.<

Although I would have LOVED more of this world and these characters, Out of the Drowning Deep is exactly as long as it needs to be, fitting perfectly within its (160) pagecount. It didn’t feel rushed or squashed, and every aspect of the story had room to breathe (and be appreciated). Nor is the story streamlined; we got lots of little details tucked here and there that made me go starry-eyed with delight at the attention to detail! For example, we learn about the drug pixie dust, or pixie for short – and then we discover that it’s ‘dirtier cousin’ is called POOKAH! Aka, another kind of faerie! Specifically a faerie TRICKSTER, often, and that’s just so appropriate!

Or how about calling Quin’s dealer – of pixie dust, remember – his fairy godmother? I’m clearly going to have to check out Wise’s other books, because I just adored her – sense of humour? I’m not sure that’s the right term. Imagination? Approach? It really doesn’t hurt that Out of the Drowning Deep is pleasantly sweary, which made it feel weirdly approachable and homey to me (probably because I swear like a sailor).

>Angel understood how some gods could grow addicted to prayer, how they could gorge themselves on human desire, and how, in the great turning of existence, many had gone mad with it.<

EASILY one of my favourite takes on angels/gods, AND on science fantasy! Strongly recommended!

I picked up an eARC of this speculative fantasy novella on a whim, liking the premise: in the deep future, an automaton, an addict, and an angel team up to solve the murder of the Pope before a disturbing, eldritch order of nuns can take over the case and kill—I mean, punish—everyone indiscriminately. There's something to be said for the reading of lighter genre fare after a few pretty heavy books; I wanted my mind to be able to skip through this one, and it did. Unfortunately, though, it also left me disappointed, for reasons that are largely to do with the odd length. The main trio—polite, self-effacing Scribe IV; haunted PI Quin; insouciant, shapeshifting Angel—is interesting, even charming, and they, along with the few side characters we see, like Quin's sister Lena, deserve more space in which to be known. The same is true of the murder mystery aspect, which is solved with the kind of throwaway insight that I find really frustrating in crime(-esque) fiction; the investigation should either have been allowed to develop properly, at full novel length, or dropped, and the focus of the novella turned towards the traumatic experience of Quin and Lena's childhood, when their father committed torture and murder in front of them in the attempt to "make" a god from scratch. At its current length—174 pages—Out of the Drowning Deep is long enough to raise interesting ideas, but too short to satisfactorily explore any of them.

I’m not quite sure what I was expecting with this one – but I’m certainly that I wasn’t expecting the ginormous size of the book blender that would be needed to encompass the many, many, many bookish influences that I caught glimpses of along its merely – I say again – MERELY 176 pages of mysterious, fantastical, science fictional surprises, delights and horrors.

Definitely the horrors. This is one of those cases where judging the book at least a bit by its cover is utterly justified. Because Out of the Drowning Deep absolutely does go to some truly creepy places – and that cover doesn’t just merely reflect that fact but stares it down with myriad, haunting and haunted, eyes.

We start with a mystery. In this far-future universe, in an ancient monastery long decayed from its glory days, the visiting Pope has just been murdered.

Scribe IV, the AI-driven “automaton” in charge of “The Bastion” is already regretting his wish for a bit of mystery in his routine existence. The mystery that has just fallen at his feet has the potential to bring about the end of the home and sanctuary of every member of the Bastion’s remaining staff, including himself.

It might also mean the literal end of all of them AND as well as the place itself, as it seems that Scribe IV’s acknowledgement of the identity of the body has triggered an immediate response from the dreaded Drowned Sisters.

As if their name wasn’t ominous enough, the Sisters have the power to lock down the Bastion, take over the investigation of the Pope’s death, and act as judge, jury and executioner on the whole tragic and/or terrible mess.

The Sisters are not known for their mercy. They are however known for their headlong rush to punitive judgment and the swiftness of their actions tells Scribe that they have passed that judgment long before the murder took place – to the point where they might have been instrumental in it or were merely waiting in the depths to pounce on any conceivable opening to swoop down upon the Bastion and Drown the old temple with its population still inside.

Scribe has one hope – and yes, the automaton has taken on the possibility of hope, and even prayer, along with a host of other human characteristics over the years of his service transcribing prayers and serving as majordomo of the Bastion.

He managed to get an SOS out before the Sisters locked the Bastion down. Scribe called for any independent investigator to answer his call. And he was answered by not one but two investigators; a man with his own terrible experiences of gods, monsters and the creatures who exist between the two, and an angel who the Sisters may not believe in but whom they also cannot control.

Even if this whole sordid mess is part of their attempt to control someone even more powerful – the god they claim to serve.

Escape Rating A-: About that gigantic book blender I mentioned earlier… This was a book that persisted in making me think of other books although I still got completely wrapped up in the story that it was telling. Then again, I really do love the current run of SF and Fantasy mysteries and this is absolutely part of that wave – pardon the pun.

So the overarching vehicle for this is solving that mystery, the who and how and why of the dead Pope lying on the Bastion’s floor. (Whether the Pope in this far-flung future is a direct spiritual or organizational descendant of the current Pope isn’t detailed and doesn’t need to be.)

Which led directly to one of the books this one reminded me of, albeit in opposition, and that was Lavie Tidhar’s short story “The Old Dispensation” in the recent New Adventures in Space Opera collection. Because that story, which also dealt with terrible acts of a far-future religious organization, used entirely Jewish references for its religious iconography and the unadorned, unexplained use of ‘The Pope’ as a person of religious authority was a reminder that Christian-styled reference in both SF and Fantasy can pass without definition or explanation.

Scribe’s desire to investigate the mystery and find the truth instead of swallowing the uncomfortable lie that he knows the Sisters are about to proclaim struck sparks of the independent investigative journalist AI Scorn from Aimee Ogden’s Emergent Properties.

The truth of this universe relies on a bit of the premise that underscores American Gods, that man makes actual gods in his own image and can literally make himself into one under the right conditions. This particular chain of thought also looped in a bit of Max Gladstone’s Three Parts Dead.

But the two books that I felt most keenly related to Out of the Drowning Deep were, on the one hand, We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep by Andrew Kelly Stewart and The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison.

Those are two books that probably shouldn’t have anything to do with one another – and yet they are blended together in Out of the Drowning Deep.

Like We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep, Out of the Drowning Deep (and yes, the similarity of the titles does echo more than a bit) there’s that shifting foundation of the way that the isolated religious worshippers – the Sisters here and the Brothers there and I just picked up that bit of irony – have wrenched their original worship of their deity and their service to its commandments into an even darker message that they intend to inflict on their world at any cost and by any means necessary. Once they served their gods faithfully – now they intend their gods to serve them.

As dark as that part of the story is, and as often as Angels appear in fantasy and even SF as overbearing, overzealous, self-righteous destroyers, in Out of the Drowning Deep, while that’s the reputation the Angels certainly have, that’s not all that they are, and that’s absolutely not who the two Angels who become involved in this mystery, Murmuration and especially the investigating angel who befriends Scribe, the one who calls xemself just Angel, both feel more human and take on more human characteristics, both good and bad, than Scribe initially expects, much like in The Angel of the Crows.

Which leads the automaton Scribe IV, who has taken on more human attributes than he likes to admit to, to consider the possibility of a much different future, a future of his own choosing, than he ever imagined possible. With a friend he never expected at all.

There’s more here. In fact, there’s lots more here. For a novella, Out of the Drowning Deep went to a lot of fascinating and surprising places, and I was as delighted to go there with Scribe IV as I was creeped out by all those eyes.

I never thought "murder mystery set in space with biblically accurate angels" would end up being meh but alas ... here we are.

This book was okay. There was a mystery, kind of. There were angels. It's technically in space. Lots of religious angst, flowy writing, and some fun speckles of worldbuilding (particularly when things got creeeeeeepy and weird). But overall, the short page count just didn't seem to amount to enough soul beneath the skin (see what I did there?). I found the characters difficult to root for, and where much of the focus seemed to be on Quin's trauma, idk ... I wanted MORE from everything else. There's simultaneously so much and not enough going on. I think I had the Locked Tomb series stuck in my head.

I won't say much because I don't want to spoil the plot--and there really are some deliciously strange moments here! OUT OF THE DROWNING DEEP brims with promise, but I craved more darkness (and more of a mystery, shan't lie) beneath the waves.

Beautifully written, incredibly mysterious, and intensely thought-provoking. OUT OF THE DROWNING DEEP will leave you thinking long after you've finished the book.

A murder mystery, in a remote setting called the Bastion and in what's presumably a distant future -- oh, and the victim is a pope. Said pope has called a conclave at which he means to propose that all established religions be abolished, "put[ting] religion directly back in the hands of the people," whatever that means considering that "people" have form for creating organized religions. Anyway, this pontiff is not only surprisingly naive about human history but also dead and it's not clear who, among the inhabitants and visitors to the Bastion, holds the trifecta of motive, means, and opportunity.

Our investigators are Scribe IV, an automaton who's in charge of the Bastion; Quin, an "unaffiliated investigator" (unexplained, but something like a private eye?), and Angel, an angel -- of the wheel-of-fire, thousand-eyes variety, but fortunately xe can shapeshift so appears to Scribe IV and Quin as human-ish most of the time. Angel's participation is especially helpful because angels somehow outrank the Drowned Sisterhood, an order of maybe-nuns who resemble anglerfish and whom you really, really don't want taking charge of any situation involving crime and punishment what with their fondness for subjecting the guilty (or "guilty") to Drowning. Drowning seems to be what it sounds like, only continuing in perpetuity.

Helpful supporting roles are played by Quin's younger sister, Lena, and Quin's sort-of ex, sort-of lover the angel Starling, aka Murmuration. (That's what I call inspired naming.)

Yes, okay, this is all wackadoodle. No, the worldbuilding isn't sufficiently developed. No, I could not stop reading, and no, I was not at any point bored. It would be sort of great if this turned out to be the prequel of a proper novel in which we find out what happens after Drowning Deep's open ending, but whatever this is I'll take it. Also, the means by which the murder is committed gets full marks for ingenuity.

Thanks to Titan Books and NetGalley; this is my baffled but honest review.

3 stars

Thank you to Titan and NetGalley for my digital review copy.

This novella was very intricate. We have at least 3 protagonists that we follow (Quinn, Scribe IV, Angel), each one of them is flawed with many layers.

There's a plot of religion and gods and angels, but also a murder mystery aspect, all wrapped up in a very thorough scifi world.

I felt like I couldn't appreciate the complexities and intricacies of the worldbuilding in all its glory because I was confused as to what the plot was. It was a mix of a character-relationship based plot, but also an action plot, but ultimately did confuse me and especially with this being a novella, there isn't such a long time to develop characters.

I would love to have spent more time in this world as what little time I did spend, I found slightly confused by the vastness of it all. The worldbuilding in this little novella is so much greater than in Wise's other works and I am excited to see where she goes next.

What a fantastically weird novella. Out of the Drowning Deep is a murder mystery. And it's a character driven reflection on humanity. And it's a story with really weird angels. And it's a story about family and what it means. At its most surface level, this is a story about the murder of the space pope. In a future occupied by dozens of gods, angels, and also automatons, the space pope comes to an ancient seat of religious power only to be murdered. Scribe IV, an aging automaton with an interest in being as close to human as he can get, needs to solve this before a larger and more terrifying governing (??) body, The Sisters of the Drowning Deep, come in and burn the place to the ground (not literally) in order to "solve" the mystery, but mostly just achieve their own goals. Quin is a recovering addict with a long, complex, often painful history with both religion and angels who is now a private investigator heeding the call to help Scribe IV. And Angel is, well, an angel who has decided to get involved and help out.
For such a short book, it packs quite a punch. It fits a lot in. It's a unique sci-fi without a ton of setting aside from a seedy, glittering bar, an angel's apartment, and the Bastion, a crumbling compound by a sea. The characters, even the smallest side characters, get built out, and the main characters are deeply interesting. I'd love to see some continuation of their stories. Scribe IV's story especially didn't feel quite like it was over. Angel was probably my favorite. As a whole, this has a lot of interesting takes on religion. Gods are much more easily reachable, people can attain godhood, and angels sometimes walk amongst us. Angel was a really fascinating take on angels: genderless, fluid in xir form, entirely inhuman but trying xir best to help out. As a whole, it was really weird and sometimes trippy and I loved it.

A sci-fi murder mystery novella that will have you praying to gods old and new.

This is a wildly imaginative and beautifully written novella which really excels in character development. Our main characters are a newly created angel, an investigator with addiction issues and an automaton that has achieved consciousness, but worries he may not have a soul. All of this on the backdrop of a lone tower, on a forgotten planet where a key religious leader known as 'the pope' has been murdered.

I love the gender-queer rep with our angel's pronouns as xyr and xe through the whole book. This has a light MM romance subplot, and amazing sibling relationship rep.

For me there were some pacing issues, where I felt some characters were introduced too late in the story, or the world building was a little too soft and left me unsure of what was happening.

I hope that A.C Wise writes another story set in this universe. They did such an amazing job with soft world building that they created a universe of possibilities.

This book is best read while trying to find your grandfather's soul inside a clock.