I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley and Del Rey!

I was so completely swept away by A Dark and Drowning Tide that I hardly know where to begin. It has been a rough reading year for me, but reading this healed me in a way I didn't expect. 

It has so much of what it promised with the gothic dark academia rivals teaming up to solve a murder mystery while on the mythical expedition of a lifetime, but there is also so, so much more. The enchanting setting, the yearning that made me threaten to self-immolate at least three times, the gorgeous writing that is well suited to the mind of a folklorist and deliciously scaffolded by the decision to remain a single POV... and not to mention how rich and unflinching the folklore itself is, full of magic but also never shying from the hateful layers and how they affect those who hear them. Gods. I'll admit I had a rough start to this book, but I'm choosing to blame myself for that. I can admit there are some aspects where the book falters a little - this is a mystery where I purposefully turned my brain off instead of trying to solve it with Lorelai, and I think that did improve my experience - but everything I loved made me so inhumanly feral that it more than more up for any setbacks. 

I wish I could formulate a more well-thought-out, professional review, but all I can really say is that if someone I know doesn't read this post haste, I am going to combust. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this, everyone around me WILL be hearing about it and that is both a threat and a promise.