Fathomless

Fathomless

by: Jackson Pearce


Celia Reynolds is the youngest in a set of triplets and the one with the least valuable power. Anne can see the future, and Jane can see the present, but all Celia can see is the past. And the past seems so insignificant -- until Celia meets Lo. Lo doesn't know who she is. Or who she was. Once a human, she is now almost entirely a creature of the sea -- a nymph, an ocean girl, a mermaid -- all terms too pretty for the soulless monster she knows she's becoming. Lo clings to shreds of her former self, fighting to remember her past, even as she's tempted to embrace her dark immortality.

This series just gets better and better with every book! I absolutely loved this book. The world and mythology of this series just gets more thorough and I love it. It's dark and interesting.

 

Characters:

Celia: I loved Celia. She had a whole lot of \stuff that she had to deal with (Naida, Lo, Jude, her sisters) but she managed quite nicely, if only going a bit crazy. She was interesting and complex and while sometimes she was frustrating she stayed genuine. It was really great to see even more of the apparently huge Reynolds family! I really want some character meetings and crossovers and the like!

Lo/Naida: It was so cool how, while this book was technically narrated by two people, it was also technically narrated by three. And the hero of the two doesn't turn out to be the one you thought. Until the very end I thought that Naida was going to be the one to do right, but her actions reminded me a whole of her sister's. Both Sophia's and Naida's actions were all too often characterized by selfishness. But not so much that it was evident at first. Slowly as the each book developed you noticed it in both of them. Then the ending came and it became glaringly obvious that they just thought of themselves.

Ann and Jane: I haven't mentioned it in any of my other reviews of Jackson Pearce's books, but I love her use of sibling relationships. They are always very realistic and always just as complex as they deserve to be. She hits the exact right notes of loyalty and annoyance. Yes, Ann and Jane were often frustrating and sometimes embarrassing to Celia, but they stayed loyal and very protective. And their powers were really awesome!

Molly: By the end of this book, how can you not love Molly. She was so brave and determined, even to the end.

Jude*: I liked Jude alright. He wasn't very decisive or overly charming or anything. But he really did love Celia and he was quite a nice guy. And don't think for a second that I missed the fact that even though he was terrified of the ocean after his accident he swam right out to save Celia. I loved that it wasn't pointed out and didn't have attention drawn to it, it just happened and you could guess at how much that cost him.

 

*side-note: I really want music to go with Jude's song. The lyrics are completely gorgeous and it is killing me more than a little that I don't know what it is supposed to sound like. Book soundtrack? Yes, that should be a thing. 

 

Plot and Development:

One of the most excellent things about these companion novels is that even in books that don't have certain characters, those characters that are being developed. This is done so brilliantly through family relations and memories of people. I learned a lot more in depth what Sophia went through just by Naida's memories of her and of the attack.

I found the plot in this book to be a lot quicker paced and more twisty than in the other two books. Things happened. Things changed. Things developed. They were doing these things almost constantly and I loved it. The world-building in these books is also brilliant; they build off of each other and the world and the myths grow bigger and bigger. All of the stories connect in this complex and intricate way.

 

Themes and Prevalent Ideas:

This book focuses on questions about memories and history (I mean, how could it not with a protagonist who reads people's pasts and ocean girls who quite literally forget themselves?). Lo states again and again that when and if she loses her memories of Lo she won't be Lo anymore; That Lo will have died. Because if you are not your memories and experiences, what are you? The tragedies and joys of your past are exactly what mold you into who you are currently. That is the reason why Naida and Lo can be two different people and that is why Celia's power ended up being important.

 

Quotes:

 

"The ocean doesn't mind, it doesn't care, / It's too refined for people swimming, people dying, people loving, people trying. / and in the shadow of a temple, where the ocean finds its prey, / That's where she's waiting for me, by the water, by the waves."

 

"The only time you don't get a choice is if you're stuck watching the past. Sometimes you have to look away."

 

"Maybe you have to know your past to look to your future, to make a decision about it."

 

"What good is knowing the past if you won't change the future?"

 

"You have to see them. You have to choose to never forget them. To never forget yourself."

 

"...it was easy to forget there was a world above, easy to forget there were people there, wonders there, life there. Forgetting would be painless, would be simple, would be beautiful. Yet despite it all, she chose to remember."