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sophia_sol) wrote2020-07-11 08:27 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2020-07-11 08:27 pm
Deeplight, by Frances Hardinge
Frances Hardinge is VERY GOOD at simultaneously making me very invested in her books and also very worried about what the heck's going to happen next. I love her writing so much but it's hard work to get through every book of hers I read, but I WANT to read them because they're so brilliant! It is a struggle being a wuss like me.
The other problem with Hardinge is that it's hard to just quickly and succinctly summarize her books because there's a lot going on. And like, it all goes together beautifully and makes perfect sense in the reading of it, but how do I give you a couple-sentence introduction?
Deeplight is about an orphan kid named Hark who's kind of a small time criminal, and whose best friend Jelt keeps egging him on to do more dangerous things. When Hark's captured by the authorities, he's indentured to a scientist experimenting with what you can do with the remains of all the dead gods who died several decades earlier. Now he's acting as a spy in a household of aging priests from the days when priests were still relevant, so the scientist can learn secrets about the gods! And Jelt won't leave him alone either!
Some of the other things Deeplight is about:
I'm also fascinated by how the impending threat of colonialism is something that Deeplight ISN'T really about; the Myriad (the archipelago of islands where all this is taking place) is definitely under threat by the Continents, but the Myriddens mostly have other things on their minds and our main characters DEFINITELY have other things on their minds so that's just....left. As a throwaway detail, of a thing to worry about happening after the end of the book. THANKS HARDINGE.
I also love the way, like usual, none of Hardinge's characters are what you could call unambiguously good people (or, for that matter, unambiguously bad people). And yet they're so believable and understandable and compellingly morally-complicated!
I found Hark and Jelt's friendship really hard to read about. Very believable, in an agonizing kind of way. Jelt has certain ideas of what loyalty means, and he's become used to manipulating Hark into doing whatever Jelt wants. And Hark can recognize that the dynamics aren't great and he keeps on WANTING to tell Jelt no, but keeps getting sucked back in by the way Jelt's so good at controlling the narrative in their conversations. One of the things that becomes clear in the book is that Hark having power through the telling of stories is something that's important to his identity, so it's really interesting how with Jelt he never can.
The part of the story where Jelt convinces Hark to use the bathysphere (a dangerous object for going beneath the ocean in search of dead god-parts to sell for lots of money, doubly-dangerous for Hark because he's risking his chance at education and opportunities by associating with Jelt) is the worst part of the whole story, I think, just encapsulating the nature of this toxic friendship, and it's awful.
Honestly, once Jelt starts turning into an eldritch monster, the book becomes a much less stressful read, for me!
And the team-up for the big climax of the book, of a sickly elderly priest (Quest!) and a smuggler's daughter who hates the sea (Selphin!) and Hark and the Screaming Sea Butterfly was amazing. I love ALL OF THEM and Hark's complicated relationship with each of them.
Even the toxic friendship scenes though, despite being hard for me to read, were really good. It all works together to make the book what it is, and what it is Is GREAT.
I really ought to make an effort to read more of Hardinge's books I haven't got to yet. She's just such a good writer! I just wish she didn't write the kinds of books I find so stressful. Sigh.
The other problem with Hardinge is that it's hard to just quickly and succinctly summarize her books because there's a lot going on. And like, it all goes together beautifully and makes perfect sense in the reading of it, but how do I give you a couple-sentence introduction?
Deeplight is about an orphan kid named Hark who's kind of a small time criminal, and whose best friend Jelt keeps egging him on to do more dangerous things. When Hark's captured by the authorities, he's indentured to a scientist experimenting with what you can do with the remains of all the dead gods who died several decades earlier. Now he's acting as a spy in a household of aging priests from the days when priests were still relevant, so the scientist can learn secrets about the gods! And Jelt won't leave him alone either!
Some of the other things Deeplight is about:
- what does it mean to be a friend to someone when they're not a good friend to you?
- a culture with a large contingent of deaf people, where knowing sign is normalized
- what makes a god a god, and do they deserve adulation just for being one?
- an all-glass submarine called the Screaming Sea Butterfly which does, in fact, travel by screaming very loudly, it's horrible and I love it
- the trolley problem, on a very large scale
- what is the core of a person's identity, and can it change? (and should it change?)
- lovecraftian monsters of the deep
- the importance of providing chances for young people on the wrong side of the law to get an education and better opportunities in life
I'm also fascinated by how the impending threat of colonialism is something that Deeplight ISN'T really about; the Myriad (the archipelago of islands where all this is taking place) is definitely under threat by the Continents, but the Myriddens mostly have other things on their minds and our main characters DEFINITELY have other things on their minds so that's just....left. As a throwaway detail, of a thing to worry about happening after the end of the book. THANKS HARDINGE.
I also love the way, like usual, none of Hardinge's characters are what you could call unambiguously good people (or, for that matter, unambiguously bad people). And yet they're so believable and understandable and compellingly morally-complicated!
I found Hark and Jelt's friendship really hard to read about. Very believable, in an agonizing kind of way. Jelt has certain ideas of what loyalty means, and he's become used to manipulating Hark into doing whatever Jelt wants. And Hark can recognize that the dynamics aren't great and he keeps on WANTING to tell Jelt no, but keeps getting sucked back in by the way Jelt's so good at controlling the narrative in their conversations. One of the things that becomes clear in the book is that Hark having power through the telling of stories is something that's important to his identity, so it's really interesting how with Jelt he never can.
The part of the story where Jelt convinces Hark to use the bathysphere (a dangerous object for going beneath the ocean in search of dead god-parts to sell for lots of money, doubly-dangerous for Hark because he's risking his chance at education and opportunities by associating with Jelt) is the worst part of the whole story, I think, just encapsulating the nature of this toxic friendship, and it's awful.
Honestly, once Jelt starts turning into an eldritch monster, the book becomes a much less stressful read, for me!
And the team-up for the big climax of the book, of a sickly elderly priest (Quest!) and a smuggler's daughter who hates the sea (Selphin!) and Hark and the Screaming Sea Butterfly was amazing. I love ALL OF THEM and Hark's complicated relationship with each of them.
Even the toxic friendship scenes though, despite being hard for me to read, were really good. It all works together to make the book what it is, and what it is Is GREAT.
I really ought to make an effort to read more of Hardinge's books I haven't got to yet. She's just such a good writer! I just wish she didn't write the kinds of books I find so stressful. Sigh.
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I always want to know how this.
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(I was just completely blown away by this book, and I feel like my review really did not do it justice because like everything else these days I wrote it really quickly, so I am glad you wrote this AWESOME review)
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