Review: No Gods for Drowning, by Hailey Piper

The old gods have fled, and the monsters they had kept at bay for centuries now threaten to drown the city of Valentine, hunting mankind as in ancient times. In the midst of the chaos, a serial killer has begun ritually sacrificing victims, their bodies strewn throughout the city. Lilac Antonis wants to stop the impending destruction of her city by summoning her mother, a blood god—even if she has to slit a few throats to do it. But evading her lover Arcadia and her friends means sneaking, lying, and even spilling the blood of people she loves. Alex and Cecil of Ace Investigations have been tasked with hunting down the killer, but as they close in—not knowing they're hunting their close friend Lilac—the detectives realize the gods may not have left willingly.
As flooding drags this city of cars and neon screaming into the jaws of sea demons and Arcadia struggles to save the people as captain of the evacuation team, Lilac’s ritual killings at last bear fruit, only to reveal her as a small piece in a larger plan. The gods’ protection costs far more than anyone has ever known, and Alex and Cecil are running out of time to discover the true culprit behind the gods’ disappearance before an ancient divine murder plot destroys them all.

"Sometimes, love's not enough, and good intentions die in the street."

Hailey Piper's No Gods for Drowning is a perfectly contained standalone set in a holy land abandoned by its gods. Now scattered cities are haunted by the threat of mythical sea figures who kill and vanish people, and by the sea moving inland to reclaim what was once an archipelago. In this oppressive climate, Lilac's decision to try and summon a god makes perfect sense, even though the necessary rituals amount to plain murder. This book plays a lot with the idea of morality and the dichotomy of right and wrong, showing there's no easy answer when faced with certain death.

The book contains multiple POVs. We follow Lilac, her lover who's an ex-soldier who couldn't follow terrible orders, and a duo of investigators from out of town. Lilac's relationship with Arcadia is already established, thus providing a good source of angst when the plot is revealed, but it's the friction with the detectives, one of them a friend to Lilac and the other to Arcadia, that makes for the bulk of the conflict, especially in the second half. Duty - with a dash of PTSD - and motherhood are also central themes.

The worldbuilding isn't especially original, but it's clear and well-developed, and it shines when the gods finally make an appearance. Twists and turns keep the readers on the edge of their seat, while the book turns from noir to an exploration of existential dread and what it means to be human and to be in a community, wrapping up with a finale that's devastating in its simplicity. Empathy, in the end, is what can save us.

No Gods for Drowning is a remarkable novel.

✨ 4 stars

Review: The Tainted Cup, by Robert Jackson Bennet

In Daretana’s most opulent mansion, a high Imperial officer lies dead — killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even in this canton at the borders of the Empire, where contagions abound and the blood of the Leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death at once terrifying and impossible. Called in to investigate this mystery is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities.
At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din is an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory. His job is to observe and report, and act as his superior’s eyes and ears--quite literally, in this case, as among Ana’s quirks are her insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home. Din is most perplexed by Ana’s ravenous appetite for information and her mind’s frenzied leaps—not to mention her cheerful disregard for propriety and the apparent joy she takes in scandalizing her young counterpart. Yet as the case unfolds and Ana makes one startling deduction after the next, he finds it hard to deny that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.

"Civilization is often a task that is only barely managed."

Robert Jackson Bennet's The Tainted Cup is an excellent murder mystery wrapped in the beautiful package of an immaculate worldbuilding, featuring an autistic investigator and her dyslexic assistant, who is our only narrator. This Watsonian figure is thus often as clueless as we are to the investigator's sharp deductions, and it's a delight to be there for the ride, desperately trying to keep up.

This really feels like much more of a mystery novel than a fantasy story, but I have an inkling that there will be a larger plot to unravel about the world. In this first book, the world is more in the background, but we are immersed in it with deft, precise, and small strokes. This is a world where people are artificially augmented in order to cover various tasks, where an empire built walls in order to protect the population from giant creatures called leviathans whose arrival by sea is heralded by earthquakes. This vividly painted world is teeming with contagions that scare the population, while the government is in a power struggle with powerful families. The books thus touches upon themes of classism and social injustice, and it's certain to delve more on them in the rest of the trilogy.

The interactions between Din and Ana are naturally an highlight of the book, with Din's inexperience playing well against Ana's greatness. He's not one to be intimidated, though, and he ends up being of great help thanks to his general stubborness. The rest of the cast is very vibrant, with many support characters who all feel very distinct and have their own development, following the big revelations coming from the investigation. There's even time for the sweet first steps of an achillean relationship between Din and another character, but it's not a focus.

The Tainted Cup is a great first installment.

✨ 4.5 stars