"Curious Tides", an In-Depth Review

Reading this book, I felt like I was transporting myself to a rich college neighborhood. Like a warm colored, fuzzy, 1970's college coming of age movie. I felt as if I needed to be cozy with a blanket and hot chai, in a tiny hole in the wall cafe to read this book. Which is exactly what I did. The scenery and imagery in this book was so comforting I found myself in an old, remodeled home, bundled up with a thick plush blanket and sipping on a cute mug full of hot chai, watching the sun rise through the lace curtains. It was wonderful.

(Now, I am about to ramble for a looooong time about what I enjoyed, so if you want to skip to the juicier bits to what I didn't like to see if we agree, go ahead and skip down until you see another bolded divider! Like this:

-----------------------------------------

Happy reading!)

This book had a lot of things I really liked, and only a few things that I didn't, so this post will be a lot different from my previous book post. I'll be talking about the characters, the writing style, the plot, and any other random topics that come to mind.

So, let's begin with our two main characters, Baz and Emory.

Emory is the first character we get a chapter with, and the story opens up with her taking a taxi and observing all the details of this world. I really love when the opening of a book is reminiscent of the Skyrim opening scene, and that's exactly what starting this book off with Emory felt like. Emory pays the taxi with coins, so we already know the current day currency is not in this written world. We learn how nervous Emory is to return to school, and there are a few paragraphs of back story happening. Emory's character in this book was very aggravating for a few members of my book club, and I can totally see why, but I found her character very honest. Emory is a young girl, navigating loss and trauma and finding out who she really is after clinging to her deceased best friend's side. There are times where she acts very selfishly, there are times where she makes really stupid blunders. But this is all intentionally written into Emory's character, and not just some gap in the author's skills, and it makes sense as to why Emory behaves this way. I never once found myself cringing at her actions and screaming "WHY!?" into the pages, because to me it was clear to see why someone like Emory would make the decisions that she did. I definitely disagreed with how she handled a lot of situations, but again the author made it very easy for me to understand her character and how she would come to behave the way she did. Some authors don't really do that, and I'm not inclined to jump through hoops and guess why a main character is behaving the way they are. Side characters, sure. That adds mystery and suspense to the plot. The main character? You'd have to execute that really well for me to be interested. 

Emory decided that she wanted answers on her friend's death, and would do anything to try and get them. Her determination for closure is a desperate attempt for her to put her grief to rest. Another important thing about Emory's character if I'm going to be mentioning her grief, is that she's not entirely grieving the loss of her friend.

Her friend, Rommie was a sort of crutch for Emory. She had a lot of fun being around her because Rommie was popular and kind and fun, and she was Emory's friend out of anybody else. It's like when you have two childhood friends and one grows up to be really popular, yet still hangs out with their dorky friend from elementary. There is definitely a part of Emory that is not only grieving the loss of a good friend, but also grieving the loss of how Rommie's popularity made her life easier. People look at her more often now that they don't have Rommie to fawn over, even more so now that the school knows that Emory was the lone survivor from the Dovermere incident last spring. Without the social crutch that was Rommie, Emory is having a difficult time navigating not only the pressure from the eyes following her and the whispers brushing past her shadow, she is also having a hard time figuring out how she's supposed to feel about the accident, and how she really feels. As the story goes on and Emory learns more about the secrets Rommie kept from her and the secret life she lived, a bitter jealousy starts to grow. Emory feels as if her best friend had left her behind, and her insecurity starts to have her believe that Rommie was just pretending to be her friend out of some sense of pity and the inability to let the fond memories of their childhood go. This affects her behavior in the book greatly, causing her to care more about finding answers and feeling like a part of something, instead of connecting and grieving properly with those affected. There are two pretty prime examples on how the gradual discovery of Rommie's secret life and Emory's newfound desire to fit in and be seen as loveable negatively affects the people around her that care for her.

Theres a side character who's name I've forgotten (whoopsie) that was one of the first examples I'll talk about. This side character also had a close friend in the secret society that died from the tides rushing into Dovermere, and she was also personally grieving the loss of that friend, just like Emory. Yet, even though this character and Emory are seen hanging out a few times, or catching up and studying after class, Emory can't be bothered to acknowledge her pain and share in her grief. Emory is often stuck too deep in thought to actually pay attention or listen to this character when opening up to Emory and expressing her pain, and actually ends up treating this character the way Emory herself had been treated. Like she was invisible. Now that Emory has been the only student to survive, she is the center of attention and this side character is often found in Emory's shadow, and even Emory herself can't seem to show her much compassion as she is too far wrapped up in her quiet bitterness and secret hunt for answers. 

The other example of Emory's ambition causing a lack of empathy, and the general mistreatment of those around her that care for her, is our second main character Baz. 

Baz is quiet, gentle, and in many ways much like Emory. They were both two individuals that were deemed acceptable to be pushed aside and forgotten in their society, and Rommie was the one that made them feel seen. Throughout the story Emory is highly aware of how risky it is for Baz to help her control her newfound powers, and she also knows that either Baz helps her control her new powers so she can hide them, or she gets thrown into this world's equivalent of a psych ward. With the fear of confinement and the need for answers eating away at her, Emory is desperate enough to consciously excuse the open manipulation she executes on Baz. Emory has always known, or had a feeling, that Baz had some sort of romantic affection for her and she begins to fake interest to get Baz to co-operate with her. She starts to manipulate Baz to act outside of his comfort zone, passively flirting with him in hopes that he'll help her. 

Not great, Emory!

But again, her character is written so well that although I don't condone the character's actions, I can understand why she treated these characters the way she did, which makes me less irritable about how she handled these situations. For Emory, manipulating Baz and focusing on the college's secret society equates her survival, so her actions to her are pardonable. This is bigger than Baz's romantic feelings and it's bigger than small talk and study sessions. Yet, she ends up creating more problems for herself by mistreating these two characters. On top of it just being wrong. 

Near the end of the book when the story is coming to a close, there's some self-reflection and acknowledgement on Emory's part that how she treated Baz and the other character was wrong and she seems to genuinely feel bad for it. She apologizes to the side character (whose name I still can't remember) for ignoring her open grief and there seems to be a mutual understanding and a forgiving tone between Emory and Baz. 

Emory's character felt like an open, honest, and flawed young woman with actual growth which is so refreshing to read. I think there's something special in these moments in all of our lives, something about the way we become more self-aware and selfless. Unfortunately, there are many individuals in the world who never wake up to their mistakes and can't openly admit they were wrong and apologize, and I think it's a very bittersweet celebration whenever an individual grows in their pain to do so. So naturally I like seeing it in literature. 

An imperfect character such as Emory is easier to connect to, as we can all agree that we ourselves are not perfect. We may not have made the same mistakes as Emory has, but for someone to say they hated her character because of her imperfections, is a really sad thing to hear. 

Moving on to Baz.

Baz! I adored Baz. While I enjoyed Emory's character, Baz was my favorite. Where Emory grew up with a lack of social confidence which would later affect her social life and "value", Baz has a lack of "worth" in this world simply because of the Eclipse magic running in his blood. Just like in the real world, people hate what they cannot understand, and this breeds malice and injustice. Baz is a victim of his society's fear and ignorance, and it has shunned him from the rest of the world. After being exposed to this type of treatment, and seeing how the world treated his Eclipse born father, Baz is okay with being excluded. In fact, he agrees with his society's opinions on his magic.

It's dangerous and should be feared. 

He accepts the injustices he has been treated with because he too believes that there is something dangerous and maybe even wrong with him, and because he was born on a certain day it is now his lifelong duty to learn how to control this magic and keep those around him safe. Maybe even someday use it for good. 

Baz's magic is very powerful in nature, as its the power to control time. A power like that could be extremely dangerous to multiple types of political power, and he is doubly feared and ostracized for it. Baz continuously finds creative ways to use his power to ensure the magic in his blood doesn't continue to grow and build up in pressure, but has also made it his every waking move to ensure he does not go too far. Going too far would of course spell destruction, and could even kill those around him as his magic erupts in a powerful wave similar to the blast of a dying star. It's what happened to his father, after all. At least that's how Baz remembers it.

Baz's development is more so growing to understand that he isn't wrong for being Eclipse born, but the way he's being treated is.

Baz's growth entails him waking up and realizing the way he and other Eclipse born are being treated is wrong, and in many ways abusive, and he begins to develop the desire to fight back and prove that himself and others are not a threat to be feared. To dismantle the political powers that keeps Eclipse born suppressed to ensure they themselves stay in power. A pretty common and unfortunate reality even outside the story, that those in power will suppress and abuse those that might threaten to overpower them. 

Baz's shift from "There is something wrong and dangerous with me" to "There is something wrong and dangerous with them" is one I really adored. When it first started to show in his character it felt really abrupt and out of place. His father has been locked up in this ward for years, and he has never visited him once out of fear and suppressed shame. One visit was all it took for this big seed of political injustice to grow within Baz's character and change the way he viewed life entirely. When I first read this, it felt really rushed. Although it's wrong to lock up any Eclipse born that don't play by the rules, the ward itself wasn't presented to Baz as some sort of horrible torture chamber. In fact, it came across as more like a retirement home than a grueling psych ward. The only real description we got were brightly lit areas, and a garden where patients could play board games and wander around without direct supervision. I get that bad things happen in this ward, but Baz never actually sees any of it, so I was surprised that after his first visit he was suddenly extremely against how Eclipse born were treated, instead of having some sort of mild acceptance with it. After the mic drop that was the fact that Baz collapsed and not his father, a lot of behaviors in Baz's character (like the extreme swing after the visit to the ward) that was once kind of confusing to me suddenly made a lot of sense. 

I expressed my adoration for psychological storytelling and accurate depictions of trauma in Ash Princess, and I enjoyed it here as well. So many of Baz's behaviors and fears suddenly made so much more sense after realizing he has suppressed memories and has been subconsciously lying to himself to protect himself. And that was a really cool plot twist I myself did not see coming. 

Overall, I just enjoyed how much of a lover boy he was. Quiet little lover boys are my weakness, and I thought he was just so sweet. He obviously cares about Emory, and his infatuation with her is entirely innocent and pure. Baz sees Emory the way Emory saw Rommie, bright and full of light. There was a scene where Baz had taken her into the Eclipse commons for privacy while he trained her on her new magic, and he had shown her some sort of illusion room previous students had created so that the Eclipse students might not feel as isolated and confined. In everything that he did, he was very genuine, which directly contrasts Emory's arc in this story. Baz took on plenty of risk to help Emory, plenty of risk looking for this lost piece of literature that was supposed to help them find answers on Dovermere, and even MORE risk when he broke into an armed ward to see his father and friend. Twice! All of this is probably akin to asking someone who can't swim to jump off a boat into a raging ocean. Again, Baz has played it safe his entire life after his collapse, flying low under the radar and living as the shadow people ignore and whisper about. A stain no one really points out but everyone sees. 

Another thing I really loved about Baz, and maybe just the authors writing style in general, was how poetic he was in his adoration for Emory.

"The images were imprinted on his soul, how the light hit Emory's face and made her hair shine like gold. He remembered the sound of her laugh and the way she smiled...how everything had felt right in the world..."

He is either in love love with Emory, or just in love with the memory of her, which I have a sneaking suspicion that is the case. His flustering over Kai is just a bit too prominent to ignore! Yet either way, he is a lover boy. Sigh. So sweet!

Kai's character was such a rich one as well. Odd thought, (yet I fear we all have them so spare me some judgement!) he reminded me of cold grapes. Frozen purple grapes to be specific. 

One day I was just thinking about the book, eating a grape popsicle, and the neurons in my brain just went zap and connected Kai and the flavor of that popsicle... weird but I swear there's a reason! 

Kai is dark, and rich, and moody. He has a sweet hearted fondness for Baz, yet he is still tart with those around him. At times even with Baz himself. Pushing Baz outside his comfort zone, but still caring enough not to push him too far. Something about the rich, cold grape flavor just screamed Kai to me, and I'll never not be able to look at globe grapes without thinking of this book now.

Total 180 switch here, Emory's first love interest, what was his name? Kieran! Yeah that fellow sucks. He reminds me of fresh oranges. Bright, fresh, citrusy, and messy. He read's Emory's flaws and insecurities easily and 100% manipulates her! He does everything he can to make her feel special and loved, and be a part of something bigger to achieve her answers! All so he can use her and the unique magic in her blood that was birthed from Dovermere. Again, if anybody is angry at Emory for being a "bad person", shift your blame to Kieran. I don't believe Emory would have gone as far as she did if she didn't have Kieran backing her and feeding her all the right bits, getting her involved into the secret society. It was fairly obvious to me and several others that Kieran was a bad guy, and I did have a hard time not wanting to smack Emory around for not seeing it as well. But when you're blinded by grief and insecurity, can you really fully blame her? Kieran actively manipulated her longing to relate to somebody by making her believe that they both shared the similar ability to use multiple powers. UGH. It was so bittersweet to read the moment Kieran and Emory shared the night together, because I was happy that Emory could find comfort in Kieran and felt that he was someone who made her feel safe and seen, especially when she was so distraught. Yet I couldn't fight off the twinge of sadness that came with knowing as the reader that he didn't hold Emory to the same regards, that he took advantage of her emotional vulnerabilities and manipulated them by SLEEPING WITH HER (!!!) just to push his own agenda. 

UCKO!

I have rambled a lot on the characters so I will do my best to briefly yet thoroughly discuss what I loved about the writing.

It was so poetic!

I filled this book with blue little tabs to indicate all the poetic moments that transported me to a cozy library, a beach side college bonfire party, a spectral time in space with the stars, or a field of blurry and warm sunflowers. I felt FREQUENTLY like I was transported to some diva's Pinterest board, and I LOVED that! I might even make my own public Pinterest board and include it to make sure everybody understands my vision here. These poetic moments really brought out the Dark Academia vibes I was looking for. 

ALSO!!!
I read on Goodreads someone mention that there was zero dark academia vibes in this book, ever. ??? Agree to disagree here but, did you miss the entire bit about a dark library with a GIANT WATERFALL and a secret staircase that led down to a pool of water that glittered in the moonlight?? The thrones carved out from the stone? The midnight inauguration that happened in said secret earth hewn waterfall pool in the library? The moment between Baz and Emory where they are actively drawing her blood in the library with old historic equipment pulled from the dusty bookshelves?? The reckless, drunken college parties that happen in every school setting ever, drugs included? Maybe I just haven't read any "peak" Dark Academia works, but for a book that combined all magic-fantasy, romance, and dark academia I felt relatively impressed by the amount of dark academia vibes I got from this book. Because I enjoyed it so much, I really do think that some of what was written could be cut out or trimmed to include more of it, but I'll get into that next.

This book also pleased me because I haven't read anything like it. It wasn't a copy/paste idea to me, the F/M MCs felt realistic, and the magic system was unique and very in depth. I can't remember the last time I read a book where the magic system revolved around the lunar system. It's usually just, gods or dragons or... entirely unexplained. Also, what I hoped for with Violet's character in Fourth Wing I got in Emory's character. Emory wasn't perfect! None of the characters were, and they felt more relatable for me. Emory didn't necessarily have any physical disabilities, but she was flawed none the less. Emory wasn't your standard overpowered FMC who is always right all the time, who's moral compass is always in line, who has physical strength and battle-ready cunning. Emory doesn't cut through all of her conflicts with wit and a harsh sense of humor, Emory is soft and gentle and meek trying to navigate her way through life while actively suffering through grief, being manipulated, and navigating cosmic time horrors. Did you catch that last bit? 

COSMIC. TIME. HORRORS.

Cut the girl some slack! 

Back to the imagery. One of my favorite moments was the "Treasury", or the giant basin of water at the end of the waterfall in the library, with secret spiral stairs that lead to moonlit waters and damp stone thrones. 

"The water came from above, a continuation of the Fountain of Fate's sacred waters that spilled into the heart of the Vault and into this chamber below. It pooled into a great basin in the middle, the sides of which were adorned with weathered carvings of the moon's phases. Soft light shone from the bottom of the basin, making the water refract turquoise light on the walls around them. Sixteen chairs lined those walls, carved into the stone itself. A throne for each tidal alignment, she realized. The rest of the Selenics sat upon them, an echo of the Tidal Council from earlier, though much less formal. Indeed, Virgil was sprawled carelessly on his chair, legs draped over a throne arm, cheek resting on his hand in an almost bored way. ... The rest of the Selenics gathered around them in a tight circle in the order of the moon's phases. All Emory could think of was how surreal they must look to the outside eye, dressed in their sopping wet suits and gowns, their faces cast in dancing turquoise light. ... 'The Order welcomes you, daughter of the Eclipse. Arise as a Selenic.' She did, and nothing had ever felt so right. Someone popped a bottle, and a flute of sparkling wine was handed to her. They drank in the ethereal light of the pool, ... " 

How can you read this scene and NOT think it's some of the coolest stuff ever!?? The aura this scene has is incredible to me. Imagine, drinking sparkling champaign, sparkling and glistening in the moonlit waters, light bouncing off the water and the gems from the jewelry and gowns, the near drowning that Emory goes through to be initiated in this moment. It gives of dark, lustrous, and dangerously beautiful imagery and is overall one of my favorite written scenes. There are plenty more, like scenes in the green houses and all the times Baz is fawning over Emory, but if I were to include them all here I'd be writing for forever.  

Beautiful writing, believable characters with good development, a good plot twist, and a unique concept that really grabbed my attention.

-----------------------------------------

Yet, for as much as I did love this book I did have some problems. 

For as much as I loved how artistic and poetic this book was, sometimes I feel like it got a little too into the weeds with it's descriptive nature. Far too many times I found myself getting confused, lost between flashbacks and the current timeline. I can understand why so many readers reported having a hard time enjoying this book, because not everyone is into reading a book where the first three quarters is just flashback and vague lore explanations. And there's a lot of this book and it's plot/lore I'm still really confused about.

What is the deal with this epilogue? Why was it important? I knew it had something to do with Dovermere, but what exactly? I feel as if that information got lost in the constant flashbacks. I like mystery, but this was a bit too vague for me in several spots. Was the hidden epilogue supposed to have a secret ritual that was the key to opening Dovermere? Did it have some truth about the nature of the caves? I can't really recall, it got lost. Even after discussing my questions about it with the book club, I didn't feel like I had any clear answers as to why exactly it was so valuable.

Also, I'm pretty sure each segment of this book that was shared in-between the story was supposed to have some sort of symbology that pointed back to each of the main characters, but I can't tell if there was any purpose other than that. Were there riddles in there somewhere that was supposed to connect the story together the more I read? Because I just ended up getting lost whenever I read them trying to understand it's meaning. 

Theres also Emory's identity? There were so many titles she was given, that I almost lost track of what they meant in terms of her Tidal alignments, and how that affected her social status and how others viewed and valued her. New Moon, Healer. Eclipse born? Tide caller? Something else entirely? Her blood said Eclipse born, but she was born on the new moon. So did her mom lie about her birth date or not? I remember that being a theory. But how is a Tide caller different than Eclipse born? What moon phase are Tide callers born on? So much of the book revolves around the moon's phases and tidal alignments, but I can't remember anything about Tide callers, other than they're different and more powerful because they don't have to rely on moon phases to draw their powers. So then, how is one become a Tide caller? And how does it tie to your blood being read as Eclipse born? Because Baz is Eclipse born, yet he's not a Tide caller. Yet he too can use his magic whenever? The best explanation I got on this was that Emory was actually a new moon alignment, yet when she went into Dovermere, she actually died or just came super close to it, but since she's a healer her magic was able to activate and essentially save her from dying. This is what changed her blood so that she would read as an Eclipse born. This also somehow is supposed the be the moment she sort of unlocks new powers, that only new moon healers, like the author of this epilogue Baz is hunting down, are capable of transforming like this. I would have never really picked any of this up on my own while reading the story simply because of the pacing, and I'm still not entirely sure how all of that works. 

I feel as if so much of the explanations and just the ending of the book was rushed because of how lore choked the first 75% of this book is. There honestly could have been an entire book just based off the history that keeps getting mentioned in this first book. I would have loved to read a book that followed Emory and Romie's first year, ending with the Dovermere accident. That in and of itself has so much potential to be a great book on its own! Best friends slowly dividing over secrets, Emory slowly watching her best friend change and grow darker, struggling to stay on top of her studies in this school while also seeing the shadows of the Selenic order in the dark halls and the libraries. The tension building and building until Emory catches wind of Romie's secret meeting and follows her inside the caves. But instead of a whole story, we got random chopped up flashbacks that made trying to understand the current timeline often difficult to comprehend or keep up with. I almost want to write my own mini book that would act as the prologue to this series because I honestly would have LOVED to read a book like that. 

Also, again I'm going to rant about Kieran for a moment... his betrayal was so obvious. I'm not quite sure if it was supposed to come off as a plot twist, and the more I think about the chapters from Baz's perspective with the cold glares between both the young men, I'm not sure that it was supposed to be secret that he was genuinely a bad guy. I also couldn't quite agree with any of his logic, which is usually something you see as a common trait in a really good "bad guy" character. It seemed to me the Kieran's ambitions were glory, power, and revenge, which is kind of boring and predictable for a villain. 

Those are really my only really big grievances. I got confused often, between two separate povs, flashbacks, random book excerpts, and an in-depth magic system that could be difficult to follow at times. Not only did we have to learn about the magic system, but we also had to learn about the moon and its phases, how each one it tied to several tidal alignments, and how that tied directly to the gods of their world. To simply say I got lost a few times would be an understatement. 

I really did love this book, and I'm about to start the second after I finish what I'm currently reading, and I'm actually feeling very excited to do so! I'm really eager to see how Baz and Kai's relationship grows and see what it turns into. 

So until my next book report, Happy Reading!!