Child of a Hidden Sea, by A.M. Dellamonica

[sophia_sol]

WHAT A GOOD omg. A portal fantasy where the main character is a scientifically-minded adult, and when she goes to the alternate world she's all just shiny-eyed trying to figure out the biology and geology and history, and how things are and aren't related to our world, and all that stuff. Sophie is unceremoniously thrown back into our world and when she finds out she can go back to the other world her immediate reaction is to buy all sorts of equipment (including a solar charger for charging her stuff) so she can make lots of observations! MY KIND OF MAIN CHARACTER.

But also the book is very political (totally against Sophie's desires) and she's thrown into this whole political mess and that's great too, I love fictional politics, I was here for it.

And the worldbuilding is SO INTERESTING, and because of the kind of person our main character is there's a lot of loving attention focused on how the world works and I am there for that TOO.

I love that the most important relationships in this book are family. There's some pointing towards a romance arc for Sophie, but the plot of the book was jumpstarted by Sophie wanting to find out about her birth family (she's adopted), and Sophie's main emotional connection with another character is with her brother Bram (from her adopted family). Bram is Sophie's Most Important Person and I love that. And I love that EVEN THOUGH that's the case, Sophie has some fairly deep-seated issues with respect to her place in her adopted family, with Sophie having always felt not smart enough to measure up. (Bram is an actual genius. Sophie is regular smart.)

I definitely want to read the sequel!

Comments

[skygiants]

This sounds relevant to my interests! :O

[sophia_sol]

I think you would like it!

[genarti]

Ooooooh. This sounds really, really interesting, and very likely up my alley!

[sophia_sol]

yes, it definitely is really interesting and fun, and I would recommend reading it!