There are three main characters in this book - Ember from 1913, Sam from 1989, and Miles from the present day. There are chapters in each of their perspectives and chapters from side characters and the sentient setting, the Fountain, as well. Ember, Sam, and Miles all find themselves on the island of the Losting Fountain, a place where those seeking lost things, ideas, or purpuse find themselves if the island allows. There, they are judged to receive what they are looking for or to be trapped forever, either to become a monster that now helps defend the island or to be exiled to what could be Hell. The island and Fountain are protected by moth-winged fairy type creatures that work in various jobs that all follow the Jury, a human who decides the fate of all the seekers. The pacing is very slow and disjointed with the world-building left with far too many unanswered questions to cement readers into the world. Though it does sound like there might be another book, as one character answers one of Ember's last question with 'later', the character and plot arcs, though they rise toward the end when the pace and action pick up, never come to a true furition. Miles is only on the island because his mother died there. Sam only connects with other characters briefly and his confrontatin with Ember, the light to his dark, was fast and left wanting. I wanted to love this book because the Blight Harbor serious is one of my favorite middle-grade horror series, but this book just didn't connect with me. The pacing was too slow. The characters not fully fleshed out. The world building barely scraping the surface of what it is supposed to be.

Senf combines imaginative and brilliantly thought out world building with authentic young characters, ones who bring real-world problems to this fantasy setting. creating a story that is memorable and magical.

"Ember, Miles, and Sam have been called home - only home is a place none of them have ever been before. The choices they make will not only determine their own futures but will also have vast and permanent consequences - they will either restore a cosmic balance or destroy the dams that separate two worlds, ending them both. Ember was called because she belonged, Miles because his mother belonged, and Sam...well, Sam arranged his own invitation.

The Fountain itself is beautiful and alluring - yet so is the light of an anglerfish. Hidden below the surface, the world of the Fountain is vast: unexplored and unmapped and full of wild things - leviathan and tiny, scuttling things and all manner of creature in between. There are other entities as well, entities that haunt and hunt in the Fountain, because it rewards nearly as often as it punishes, and it has been punishing the greedy and merciless and cruel for a very long time. For those, the Fountain becomes a prison.

The borders between our world and the world of the Fountain are already porous. If the balance between them is upset and control of the Fountain is lost, the consequences will be rapid, merciless, and world-ending. In every timeline that has been or will be, everywhere that water stands in our world will become a passageway for the violent damned to enter ours from the Fountain. For Ember, Miles, and Sam, all from different times, what starts as a journey to take control of their lives quickly becomes a quest to save - or destroy - both worlds, depending on whom you ask.

Rising star and Bram Stoker Award-winning author, Lora Senf has created a gorgeously written, pitch-black fantasy that will transport readers to a world that is as beautiful as it is horrifying and will keep readers on their toes as they devour it page by page."

I've always loved the idea of fountains as portals.