This one caught my attention because of the cover and the description. I don’t think I’ve ever read a story, especially a romance that was told completely in letters so I thought I’d give it a try.
Thanks to the Author as well as Orbit for the review copy.
A beautiful discovery outside the window of her underwater home prompts the reclusive E. to begin a correspondence with renowned scholar Henerey Clel. The letters they share are filled with passion, at first for their mutual interests, and then, inevitably, for each other.
Together, they uncover a mystery from the unknown depths, destined to transform the underwater world they both equally fear and love. But by no mere coincidence, a seaquake destroys E.’s home, and she and Henerey vanish.
A year later, E.’s sister Sophy, and Henerey’s brother Vyerin, are left to solve the mystery of their siblings’ disappearances with the letters, sketches and field notes left behind. As they uncover the wondrous love their siblings shared, Sophy and Vyerin learn the key to their disappearance – and what it could mean for life as they know it.
This is the story of a wonderous world where most of the population lives either on or around the oceans. Somewhat like Waterworld (but way less depressing lol). The characters in this novel are mostly Scholars of various kinds. We follow E. and Henerey as they correspond with each other, first about a kind of long fish that E. sees out her window that Henerey can help classify, but then because they start to fall for each other. After a sea-quake at E.’s underwater residence, Henerey and E. mysteriously disappear. We also follow Vyerin and Sophy (Henerey and E.’s siblings) as they try and solve the mystery of where E. and Henerey disappeared to.
I liked A Letter to the Luminous Deep, but not as much as I was hoping to. At first, I thought that the story being told in letters was an interesting idea, but as the story went on, there were times where I got a bit irritated at the limitations this introduced. For example, when Henerey and E. meet in real life for the first time, the only point of view we get of it is their letters about it, which leaves the event itself rather vague since the people corresponding obviously didn’t need the event described to them since they were there. I wanted to see this meeting from someone’s point of view in real time, because that’s sort of what I expect in a romance. I expect to be there on the first date, so to speak. So, on the one hand if you like having that much room to imagine, you’re going to love love love it. If you’re more like me and (while I do have a healthy imagination) like it a lot better when mushy events are laid out with as many details as possible, you may like it less. Whichever way you like things though, this one may surprise you.
I really liked the prose though. Henerey and E. write lovely letters. Vyerin and Sophy write more casual friendly letters. Each person has a different personality that’s apparent from the way they write, which I thought was a great way to build characters. I thought that the romance(s) were adorable, but the mystery of the ‘Structure’ outside of E.’s house got a lot more confusing as more was revealed. I have no idea if I can even picture in my head the events of the last few chapters because I thought they were confusing. I’m certain there were sketches of some of it, which helped, but apparently not as much as I needed. The pace was quite slow (as you can imagine given that this is a world where correspondence is still by pen and paper), which I did like at times but disliked at others.
So I’m kind of torn here. I wanted to like this one a lot more than I did, but I still definitely acknowledge that this method of storytelling had a few neat advantages, even if the disadvantages can be very apparent and annoying at times (at least they were to me).
This book is going to be loved by a great many people, I think. Give it a try if it sounds interesting to you, because as I said, it might surprise you. I think that this particular one didn’t get along with the way that my brain likes a story laid out. Like E., I have a Malady of the Mind, and mine can be really particular about things! 3.5/5 stars!
It should also be said that I think I might like this book a lot more in audio… Having the letters read aloud might be exactly what I needed here.
superstardrifter 
I really like the epistolary format and I especially like the underwater theme setting, this book sounds pretty cool, great review!
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