Of Mountains and Seas out now from Hawk Ridge Press; 354 pages
Content Warning: Grooming, child abuse, violence
About the Author: “Emily Renk Hawthorne is a general dentist who works with underserved populations. She grew up reading fantasy books and always dreamed of writing her own. Of Mountains and Seas is her debut novel. Emily grew up in Southern California and now resides on the Central Coast with her husband and child” (Bio from author’s website).
Find Emily Renk Hawthorne on the following platforms:
Seventeen-year-old Davis Sun’s world turns upside down when his mother is killed by his father’s political enemies because she is pro-integration of Shifters and non-Shifters. On her deathbed, Davis accidentally takes away her shapeshifting abilities with a transfer stone. Now temporarily in possession of Shifter powers—the one thing Davis needed to gain his father’s approval—he makes plans to help his father segregate the Shifter and non-Shifter worlds, first targeting the woman who supposedly attacked his mother. Years pass and Davis works his way up the Shifter social ladder, using transfer stones to keep blending in with Shifter society, eventually taking under his wing Iris Bai, the daughter of one of his father’s enemies. His rise to power sparks further segregation between the Shifters and non-Shifters, and his desire for control leads to the very creation of his downfall.
As someone who loves reading fantasy, adores alternating points of view (POVs), and finds nonlinear timelines intriguing, I had high hopes for this book! Unfortunately, for most of this book I found myself confused and scrambling to figure out what was happening. Being introduced to six different narrative voices, most of them taking place at different points in time and introducing a wide range of characters, left me unstable in this world. I wasn’t able to feel connected to any particular character until about halfway through the novel because of how frequently the POV shifted. Part of the fun was seeing how each character was related to each other—reminding me of Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See—but I was so focused on trying to figure that out, I wasn’t able to focus on the political fantasy plot. I found myself flipping between chapters over and over to see when an event was taking place—not just to make a timeline, but to try and remember which characters were alive and actively engaging with the Shifter community. All of this was made more difficult with the fact that Shifters, apparently, start aging very slowly once they become adults and can live for centuries. With all of these gripes, however, I do believe that Of Mountains and Seas is a fascinating world. Maybe with fewer points of view, or less shifts between them, I would have been less confused while reading. I’m curious to see how the sequel book, From the Depths, continues the story!
Grace McCool, Pine Reads Review Writer & Editor