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A review by mspilesofpaper
Whispers of the Deep by Emma Hamm
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Whispers of the Deep is the first instalment in a series (so far, one book has been published and the second instalment will be published in September, and I suspect that it might become a trilogy as there are three main-ish merman) that falls into the paranormal romance category.
The following review might contain spoilers.
PLOT 📖
Humankind left the land centuries ago as massive storms are destroying the lands, making surface life difficult. To find a new home, they turned towards the ocean and developed underwater cities in various depths (the deeper, the newer the technology) that belong - more or less - to corporations instead of nations or governments. Mira belongs to the city Beta and works as an engineer to keep the city running. During a solo job in an abandoned section of Beta, she encounters Arges - an undine. Humans consider them monsters and undines consider the humans as monsters as they destroy the ocean with their cities. A failed attack by Arges and his group leads to them helping each other to survive to return to their respective people. The contact results in a new task for Arges: find her, steal her and use her to find out how to destroy her city. So he steals her and keeps her, protects and feeds her, and falls for her as much as she falls for him. Their future will decide the future of their people.
CHARACTERS 🧜🏻♂️ 👩🏻🦰
The main characters are Mira and Arges while there are a few side characters of various importance as well. Among others, Arges' brothers who will be the main characters of the following books. Where Arges is slightly distrustful and grumpy, despite being considered as 'chatty' by his people, and very protective of Mira in later chapters, she's surprisingly optimistic. Occasionally anxious but mostly optimistic about her own future while she worries about Arges' safety/life in later chapters. They both are incredibly stubborn. 😂
I have to say that I found the leader of the People of the Water extremely shortsighted in her decision-making. "Oh, she will die because she is not meant to live underwater? Oh well, tough luck, Arges, go and find a new one." Arges' brother is also extremely distrustful, aggressive and impatient. There are hints at him having a difficult past but for the majority of the book, his behaviour is rather unexplained.
WORLD-BUILDING 🌎
Rather superficial because the author just informs the reader that the land is inhabitable for humans due to storms (hurricanes, tsunamis) and volcanos and that humankind went beneath the sea several centuries ago. There's a lore drop towards the end when Byte, an android that Arges found for Mira, explains who is behind the idea of underwater cities. In addition, the robot will reveal the truth about one founder's fate to Mira even later, which results in Mira's decision to choose Arges. Aside from these two lore drops, there are only a few scattered ones considering the underwater cities but if anyone would ask me to describe those, I couldn't do it. All I know is that there are four cities in various depths and that they use glass to create the domes for the cities.
The world-building for the merpeople is equally superficial because all the reader learns is that there seem to be various kinds of merpeople who are organised in pods but still have a family structure, and have their own gods (all sea-related) and something called The Ancients who are responsible for future telling, and are more or less their own kind of gods.
The author mentions it in the foreword but I want to highlight it: you will need a good amount of suspension of disbelief when reading the book because physics (and the basic principles of it) are only loosely used. Please, don't think too much about how it's possible.
ROMANCE 💘
I'm pretty sure that the romance qualifies as 'Stockholm Syndrome' because he kidnaps her and they fall for each other while she's still kidnapped. Aside from it, I think it's one of the few books where the trope "enemies-to-lovers" is accurate because their people are enemies. Arges wants to gain information from Mira, so he's rather aggressive, while she's distrustful and considers him a monster. Over time, as it's a slow burn, they learn more about each other and learn their languages (with the help of technology) as well.
If you want to read the book for the spice: there are only two sex scenes, which I would rate with 2 🌶️ because they are mildly graphic but not as intense or extreme as you might expect for a monster romance. Yes, he has two dicks 🍆, which adds a bit of spice to the sex scenes but it's still surprisingly mild. (Especially if you compare it to "Entranced by the Basilisks" by Lillian Lark where the basilisk has also two dicks.) You will need a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief because the author described positions that might not be doable in real life (even not underwater, haha).
TL;DR
A quick paranormal romance read with a human x merman pairing that's built on the enemies-to-lovers trope. Despite a monster romance, the spice level is rather low and the focus is on the development of the romance/relationship. The male main character can be an ass but is still surprisingly romantic in his own way. Healthy dose of suspension of disbelief is required for the novel but if you're ok with it, you will get a cute and funny read with Whispers of the Deep.
The following review might contain spoilers.
PLOT 📖
Humankind left the land centuries ago as massive storms are destroying the lands, making surface life difficult. To find a new home, they turned towards the ocean and developed underwater cities in various depths (the deeper, the newer the technology) that belong - more or less - to corporations instead of nations or governments. Mira belongs to the city Beta and works as an engineer to keep the city running. During a solo job in an abandoned section of Beta, she encounters Arges - an undine. Humans consider them monsters and undines consider the humans as monsters as they destroy the ocean with their cities. A failed attack by Arges and his group leads to them helping each other to survive to return to their respective people. The contact results in a new task for Arges: find her, steal her and use her to find out how to destroy her city. So he steals her and keeps her, protects and feeds her, and falls for her as much as she falls for him. Their future will decide the future of their people.
CHARACTERS 🧜🏻♂️ 👩🏻🦰
The main characters are Mira and Arges while there are a few side characters of various importance as well. Among others, Arges' brothers who will be the main characters of the following books. Where Arges is slightly distrustful and grumpy, despite being considered as 'chatty' by his people, and very protective of Mira in later chapters, she's surprisingly optimistic. Occasionally anxious but mostly optimistic about her own future while she worries about Arges' safety/life in later chapters. They both are incredibly stubborn. 😂
I have to say that I found the leader of the People of the Water extremely shortsighted in her decision-making. "Oh, she will die because she is not meant to live underwater? Oh well, tough luck, Arges, go and find a new one." Arges' brother is also extremely distrustful, aggressive and impatient. There are hints at him having a difficult past but for the majority of the book, his behaviour is rather unexplained.
WORLD-BUILDING 🌎
Rather superficial because the author just informs the reader that the land is inhabitable for humans due to storms (hurricanes, tsunamis) and volcanos and that humankind went beneath the sea several centuries ago. There's a lore drop towards the end when Byte, an android that Arges found for Mira, explains who is behind the idea of underwater cities. In addition, the robot will reveal the truth about one founder's fate to Mira even later, which results in Mira's decision to choose Arges. Aside from these two lore drops, there are only a few scattered ones considering the underwater cities but if anyone would ask me to describe those, I couldn't do it. All I know is that there are four cities in various depths and that they use glass to create the domes for the cities.
The world-building for the merpeople is equally superficial because all the reader learns is that there seem to be various kinds of merpeople who are organised in pods but still have a family structure, and have their own gods (all sea-related) and something called The Ancients who are responsible for future telling, and are more or less their own kind of gods.
The author mentions it in the foreword but I want to highlight it: you will need a good amount of suspension of disbelief when reading the book because physics (and the basic principles of it) are only loosely used. Please, don't think too much about how it's possible.
ROMANCE 💘
I'm pretty sure that the romance qualifies as 'Stockholm Syndrome' because he kidnaps her and they fall for each other while she's still kidnapped. Aside from it, I think it's one of the few books where the trope "enemies-to-lovers" is accurate because their people are enemies. Arges wants to gain information from Mira, so he's rather aggressive, while she's distrustful and considers him a monster. Over time, as it's a slow burn, they learn more about each other and learn their languages (with the help of technology) as well.
If you want to read the book for the spice: there are only two sex scenes, which I would rate with 2 🌶️ because they are mildly graphic but not as intense or extreme as you might expect for a monster romance. Yes, he has two dicks 🍆, which adds a bit of spice to the sex scenes but it's still surprisingly mild. (Especially if you compare it to "Entranced by the Basilisks" by Lillian Lark where the basilisk has also two dicks.) You will need a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief because the author described positions that might not be doable in real life (even not underwater, haha).
TL;DR
A quick paranormal romance read with a human x merman pairing that's built on the enemies-to-lovers trope. Despite a monster romance, the spice level is rather low and the focus is on the development of the romance/relationship. The male main character can be an ass but is still surprisingly romantic in his own way. Healthy dose of suspension of disbelief is required for the novel but if you're ok with it, you will get a cute and funny read with Whispers of the Deep.