About the Book
-
Author:
- Dinesh Thiru
- Genres:
- Boy-Girl Romance
- Dystopia
- Voices:
- Asian Diaspora
- Cis Girl
- Straight
Cover Story: Big Face
BFF Charm: Eventually
Talky Talk: Cli-Fi
Bonus Factors: Sisters, Pirates
Factor: Deep Sea Diving
Relationship Status: Conscript Me
Cover Story: Big Face
Oh, hey there, old friend! It’s nice to see you. And I’m not just saying that—you’re looking good. I like the way you’ve reinvented yourself with the reflection of the city in the water. I would have liked more had you been entirely underwater, as that would have made the reflection more accurate (’cause it seems like the city’s rising above the waterline), but it’s certainly a step in the right direction. Plus, Jin’s eyes are really lovely!
The Deal:
In the distant future, Earth has become a near-water world, plagued with constant cloud cover and torrential rain. Those who can dive into deep water are prized for their ability to scavenge the cities that were and bring treasures to the surface. Jin Haldar is one such individual, but she’s sworn off the wrecker life since her father’s death during a dive. She’s struggling to make ends meet, though, to keep herself and her younger sister from being conscripted into military service. When a mysterious woman shows up with a lot of gold and the promise that there’s more where it came from, if Jin makes a dive, Jin doesn’t feel like she can say no—and part of her doesn’t want to.
BFF Charm: Eventually
Grief does strange things to a person. In Jin’s case, it’s closed her off from trusting or loving anyone, save her sister, Thara. She seems a lot older than her eighteen years, and that’s partly because she lives in a world in which folks are easily broken and are forced to be strong to survive. She’s sworn off doing the one thing she used to love above all else—diving—because of the trauma of her father’s death. She’s a difficult person to like, because of this hardness, but there’s an honesty and confidence about her that’s hard to deny. She grows quite a bit by the end of the novel, and I can see her becoming BFF material given a bit more (growing) time.
Swoonworthy Scale: 3
Jin’s got history with her childhood friend, Taim. But she’s mad at him for joining the Coast Guard (and, in her eyes, leaving her and the plans they’d made). She’s undeniably attracted to him, however, and it’s sweet that he never gives up on her, even when she does her darndest to push him away.
Talky Talk: Cli-Fi
With Into the Sunken City, Thiru taps into a subgenre I’ve only become aware of in the past few years: Cli-Fi, or Climate Fiction. The book is set in a distant future plagued with rising coastlines and no arable land, one that seems all-too-believable, given today’s climate change problems. It’s a bit of a horror novel, because of that, but also a hopeful one; humans really can survive through most everything. (That’s also kind of scary, though, given that humans are the cause of most problems … but I digress.)
Thiru’s characters are dynamic and his world-building is great. I finished the book thinking I’d love to read more about Jin and her adventures in the deeps, even though this isn’t (gasp) the first in a series. (Or so I presume.)
What I do is gag on the tea I was sipping, so shocked that I spray out the remnants straight onto his red ribbed shirt.
The music stops (stupid Huynh sisters; should have paid for real musicians). And now I can feel the slow swivel of thirty-five heads as their glamorous host spews backwash-tea all over the newly arrived Coast Guard cadet.
I glare at Suong, who seems about to let the sitar fall out of her hands. “Keep playing!”
She does, and time resumes.
Ed note: I pulled this quote from an advanced review copy. The final text might be different.
Bonus Factor: Sisters
Jin and Thara have a wonderfully nuanced relationship that feels true to siblings I know/I’ve known. They both love and hate each other, but even on their worst days, they’d do pretty much anything the other wanted, if it made them happy. Jin’s sacrificed a lot for Thara, and Thara is grateful, but she also doesn’t shy away from putting Jin in her place and speaking truth to Jin’s sometimes deluded world view. (Thara’s a very “old” fourteen.)
Bonus Factor: Pirates
Naturally, in a world slowly drowning, there would be pirates. The two we get to know in Into the Sunken City are equally interesting while being quite different examples of the archetype.
Factor: Deep Sea Diving
I’m a bit terrified of what exists in the dark recesses of the ocean, and the fact that in Jin’s time, the world has literal kaiju floating around the sunken cities—they call them “colossals”—makes me shudder.
Relationship Status: Conscript Me
We had a really great time together, Book. So much that you’d have me considering the idea of diving, were we to go together. That said, I don’t know how much use I’d be, so perhaps I’d be better off staying on the boat. Or land. I can brew up some hot tea for you to warm up with upon your return and get the fire going to take the chill off your bones.
Literary Matchmaking
Astrid Schulte’s The Vanishing Deep first introduced me to the Cli-Fi genre, and is another semi-spooky read about a world under water.
Joan He’s The Ones We’re Meant to Find is another novel about sisters and oceans and grief.
Erin A. Craig’s House of Salt and Sorrows is more fantasy than dystopia, but it, too, features sisters and the sea.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from HarperTeen, but got neither a private dance party with Tom Hiddleston nor money in exchange for this review. Into the Sunken City is available now.
