A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall
Series: The Sunken Archive, Book 1
Pages: 352
Format: Paperback
E. is content with a solitary life in her extraordinary underwater home, until the discovery of a strange, beautiful creature outside her window prompts her to begin a correspondence with renowned scholar Henerey Clel. The letters they share are filled with passion, at first for their mutual interests, and then, inevitably, for each other.
But when a mysterious seaquake destroys E.’s home, she and Henerey vanish.
A year later, E.’s sister Sophy and Henerey’s brother, Vyerin, must piece together the letters, sketches and field notes left behind and learn what their siblings’ disappearances might mean for life as they know it.
I picked this book up on a whim after I saw this colorful cover and skimmed through the chapters. Aside from Divine Rivals, I have not read many epistolary novels, so I was excited to see how this one played out. It also had an academia vibe that reminded me of Emily Wilde, so bonus points for it!
Epistolary stories are a tricky format, simply because it can be very difficult to convey action and character development in a way that feels true to letter-style writing and still makes sense. Letter to the Luminous Deep doesn’t seem to struggle with this, because there were times when I almost forgot that I was supposed to be reading letters and not a straightforward narrative. The language used by the characters fits what you would expect from a couple of academics, but it wasn’t overbearing, either. E. and Henerey’s phrasings and writing idiosyncrasies add a layer of charm to their correspondences, and I was deeply invested in their budding relationship (as well as the friendship between their siblings in the aftermath).
There wasn’t a ton of “action” in this book, but it didn’t bother me because I already knew there was a second book in the works. If this were a standalone, I would say the pacing is off, but thankfully, there is more to come. However, the worldbuilding and character development function as a well-timed setup to the heavier action at the end and what I presume will be the intriguing and intense events of the second (and final) installment.
Mental health is a big part of this book, and it connects well with the academic expectations, discoveries, and explorations of the deep sea that the characters are so involved with. Of course, the mystery of what happened to E. and Henerey is laced throughout, but it eventually broadens into a much larger mystery (no spoilers) that isn’t completely answered in this book. What answers we do get introduce further unanswered questions that end in a cliffhanger of sorts, so I’ll have to read the next book to see how it all truly ends.
Though the timeline can potentially be a bit confusing, I think the jumps between E./Henerey’s letters work well with their siblings’ letters. Even though E. and Henerey are the main characters, their story is being told after the fact, and the annotations and communications of their siblings fill in some of the worldbuilding we would otherwise miss, and further develops the two protagonists by showing us what the other characters in the world think of the missing scholars. It also heightens the story’s emotional impact, since we get to see how the siblings deal with loss and the things they wish they had done differently in hindsight.
A Letter to the Luminous Deep is a heartfelt story of family and discovery with a unique narrative approach, and I am greatly looking forward to the release of the second book.
AMBER BUDD - Author 