3.25 stars

In the Veins of Drowning is a gothic, sea-faring fantasy romance adventure full of magic and monstrosity. Imogen has spent her life hiding–hiding from a society that kills her kind, and hiding from her own monstrous, siren powers. When her secret is threatened to be exposed, Imogen binds herself to a neighboring king in order to escape. As the two grow closer, new enemies reveal themselves and Imogen begins to worry that her own powers are not enough to kill those who hunt her.

The magic and atmosphere of this book are lushly gothic, seeped in salt water and rot. Cassidy’s descriptions were visceral and immersive, and leant to an absorbing reading experience. The stakes were high, the pacing kicked off at a breakneck pace, and I read the first 100 pages in one sitting.

I went into this book believing it was a standalone, and I was very interested and engaged in the overarching plot that was developing as I read, but as I got into the second act I began to get confused because the way the story was progressing through this story arc was…odd, for a standalone–because it is in fact a duology, and the plotline I was invested in was the series arc, not book one’s arc. Unfortunately, this is where my enjoyment of the book began to wane. While I was invested in the overarching series plot, the main plot of book one was a bit of a mess. It lacked cohesion and didn’t feel self-contained. I got to the end of the book and all I could think was what were we even building towards this entire time? The climax was underwhelming, and I felt as if there was almost no conclusion or resolution at all for the events of book one, and the place that Imogen ends up as set up for book two left me confused as to where we could go from here. But not in a “oh, I’m curious as to how this will play out!” way, in a “this feels messily constructed” way.

I also struggled to connect with the romantic relationship between Imogen and Theo, and as this is a romantasy, that relationship took up a lot of page time. I kept waiting to feel some level of deeper connection between the two of them, but it remained very surface level. There was so much talk about how they were developing “feelings” for each other that they kept trying to write off as a side effect of the blood bond, but there was very little emotional development actually shown, so that when we are suddenly told “no, actually these feelings are true love,” it was utterly unconvincing and felt like instalove.

That said, the atmosphere and vibes of this book truly were immaculate, and I did enjoy Imogen’s narration and character. I am unsure if I will continue the series–I think it will depend heavily on reviews of book two, and I am curious to see what others think of this duology.