Book: The Heart of the Sea by Blue Sky Soul
Note: This is an eARC review
I am going to open this review disclosing a few things. (1) The author herself gifted me an eARC copy of this book (of which I am grateful for) in exchange for an honest review of the book. (2) This review, as mentioned, is an absolutely honest review of the book. While this may be a fairly negative review (I gave this book 1.25 stars), I want it to be clear my intended tone is constructive criticism and still very encouraging of writing; I adamantly believe it takes a lot of courage to publish a book and to cold reach to gift ARCs, and for that I admire Soul for it (also I will refer to the last part of the pen name to refer to the author, to be clear). With that being said, now the review begins.
I was excited and very much hoping to love this book, but I found myself very frustrated, confused, and annoyed at much of the writing. The pacing was messy; there was zero rhythm throughout the novel despite an attempt being there, which ended up making the entire book drag for far longer than it did. There is little to no flow between sentences, both in description and dialogue. Many scenes I found characters completely talking past each other, and their conversations just simply do not work the way realistic dialogue does, and it serves no narrative purpose.
As for the narration, narrative voice is nonexistent and flat. None of the narration took on the energy or even the thoughts of any of the characters, and the perspective could not commit to a single character through the whole novella. I think it would have made much more sense to only follow Victor’s perspective or at least switch based on chapter, not in the middle of chapters or, in some sections, every few sentences. Rhythm is attempted several times - early on some descriptions follow a “like , like .” structure which felt like a clock (tick tock, tick tock), but then later switched randomly to triplet structure “like , , _.” for no reason, and these structures became littered in their respective halves of the book.
While it hasn’t been mentioned much in my reviews, I am a fan of foreshadowing through the literary use of ‘Chekov’s Gun’ (to sum up; when something is distinguished through narration or described in a book, it will be used later on for something crucial to the plot), and there were many times an object, a person, or an action was called attention in this book and then never came back up. This left me very dissatisfied, especially upon reaching the end of the book. Many of the characters actions were never given their actual thought process or logic to it, so it often didn’t make sense (ex. having several characters look out at the sea and describe something feels wrong without describing how they came to that feeling). Descriptions sometimes became repetitive, like architecture often had very similar descriptions but then the interior design of the building is never described.
Something else that bothered me was that it was clear Soul does not know anything about diving, ship repair, marine exploration, or ships. I couldn’t tell at all what the time period was the entire book, and nothing gave me real hints when it came to the ship. I wondered if some of the ship descriptions were aided by Gen AI, but I think Soul did give an honest attempt for most of the writing. Details like not taking pauses to adjust the pressure when descending or ascending in a dive, the time it takes to make adjustments to the ship, or even the timeline of the journey - all of these are completely off. While I understand an author cannot be expected to know everything about a career or hobby they take no part in, these are simple details an Ecosia search away or could be craftily avoided mentioning while maintaining the vibe of the story.
While traditional publishers once felt this was like a crime, I have read a good handful of published novels that were once fanfictions, and I have enjoyed them. I am a consumer of fanfic, too, just not as often after becoming a bookseller.
The serial numbers were not filed off well for this one. It took me to the middle of chapter two to recognize who each of the main characters were from each member of the band they originally were written as. I was a k-pop fan, too, a long while ago. Even though I know the personalities of these idols, these characters are not idols, they are not those members, and they need to stand as themselves. I was utterly dissatisfied with only physical descriptions when introducing each of the main characters. It took too long to parse out what their roles were in the crew (aside from Nathan and Yoren, of course), what their relations to Victor (or each other) were, and what their personalities were like (which still felt rather two-dimensional even by the end). None of these characters received proper character development across the book, and I did not really feel their bonded connection with each other, so some of the later events of the book just didn’t feel earned.
These are my major problems with this book. Nothing feels narratively developed, which is painful, because I know these characters and this world mean a lot to Soul, as they would to any author who comes up with their own fantasy world or any author who passionately writes fanfic of their favorite celebrities or characters.
Of course, I want to acknowledge there are positives in this book. It’s clear Soul put a good deal of time into the world-building, which I found interesting. AI-generated reference artwork of the main monster aside (a very big thing for me to put aside as an artist myself), the different elements of the world were actually fairly interesting when I step back from the writing of it. This goes for the plotline, too - it could develop into something very deep with a strong sense of adventure.
I can tell Soul has this creative energy within her and has the concept of the world and story there; this just seems like a case of the author needing to develop their writing skill more, which is where some study and practice would help. As for developing the world, the plot, catching details, figuring out how different elements work together in a satisfying way - these are things that would certainly help from alpha and beta readers, too. There is a lot that goes into a good book, and I think Soul has a good starting point.
While I write this review very much in constructive criticism, I know 1-star reviews are not easy to stomach. This is probably the most gentle I have been about a 1-star, and it’s because I do think the author can create something great in the future. I hope to one day read that great human-made, lovingly-crafted book. As I said, this is a good start, and I wish Soul the best on their journey ahead.
Thank you, Blue Sky Soul, for gifting me this eARC in exchange for an honest review. It takes a lot of courage to write, cold reach, and publish. Thank you, my dear readers, for reading and supporting my blog, a reminder that in this vast, abyssal universe like an ocean of stars, you matter to me. I hope you stay cool and hydrated in this summer heat and take shelter from the storm season. Until next time, I’ll be reading.
If you're interested in reading this book yourself, you can order it on Amazon (or read it on KU).
