Published: February 2nd 2014
Genre: YA, Fantasy, (possibly High Fantasy - it's not clear)
Pages: 260
Format: Ebook
Source: Purchased
All her life, clever Aemi has been a slave in the Village of the Rocks, a place where the sea and sky meet. She’s heard the stories about the fabled People of the Sea, a people who possess unimaginable technology who live below the waves in the dark, secret places of the ocean. But she never dreamed those stories were true.
When a ship emerges from the ocean and men burn her village, Aemi is captured, and enslaved below the waves in Itlantis, a world filled with ancient cities of glass and metal, floating gardens, and wondrous devices that seem to work magic. To make matters worse, her village nemesis, the stuck-up mayor’s son Nol, was captured with her, and they are made servants in the same household beneath the sea.
Desperate to be free, Aemi plots her escape, even going so far as to work with Nol. But the sea holds more secrets than she realizes, and escape might not be as simple as leaving...
I am SO annoyed by that ending. Because it was good?! And the rest of the book wasn't, really.
There were a lot of things I didn't like about Of Sea and Stone. For the first 20% of the book, I was just waiting for something to happen. A bunch of the stuff that happened didn't feel relevant (spear throwing contest, for example.) The world was fine - I kinda liked the first one (Village of the Rocks) with it being literally hewn from huge rocks, but I couldn't tell in places whether it was above or underwater. I wasn't fussed on the second, underwater, setting, because really it felt like a normal (maybe European) city stuck underwater. The garden globe things were pretty cool, though, (and I really wish the entire city had been underwater globes - that would have been original!)
I didn't liked the characters either, unfortunately. Aemi is fine - she's neither good, nor bad - but from the beginning it just did not feel like she'd been a slave her whole life. It felt like, from her thoughts and spoken words and reactions (especially these) that she was a normal, free girl. When she made mistakes, she got a brief bout of nerves then shrugged it off. It just didn't feel like her character fit her situation. But I did like her in parts, so maybe in the next book she'll grow on me. Nol I hated in the beginning, and got frustrated with in the middle. He hates Aemi for no reason, is a total dick, and then does a complete 360 spin and is "friendly" to her. Fine, great, character development! Except we're never told why he has this change of heart. We're never given even the briefest glimpse into why he hated her to start with, whether he resented her for something, or envied her for being an only child when he was the youngest, expendable child, or whether he wanted to be friends but didn't know how. None of this is explained and his character suffered for it.
What I DID like was the life saving underwater kiss. That was, despite my borderline dislike of both characters, actually really sweet. And Nol giving Aemi all his air even found a way to tug at my heart. I LOVED the ending. The drama and desperation and then the plot twist, which I didn't see coming. I'm gonna have to read the next book, even though I didn't enjoy a good portion of this, because I have to see where the story goes. And that ending bumped my rating up a good half star.
An alright story if you overlook a bunch of things, with a hella cool ending.
Characters ★★☆☆☆
Setting/world building ★★★☆☆
Writing ★★★☆☆
This book counts toward my Monthly Key Word challenge.
Key words: Rock (Stone)
