A Letter to the Luminous Deep

By Sylvie Cathrall

Book Overview

★ An Amazon Best Book of the Month
★ An IndieNext Pick

"An underwater treasure-chest to be slowly unpacked, full of things I adore." --Freya Marske

A charming fantasy set in an underwater world with magical academia and a heartwarming penpal romance, perfect for fans of Emily Wilde's Encylopaedia of Faeries and The House in the Cerulean Sea.

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.

"A shimmering, delicately crafted delight." --H.G. Parry

"A fascinating and charming story told in a uniquely elegant voice." --Louisa Morgan

"Both the setting and the story are exquisite." --Megan Bannen

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316565539
• ISBN13: 9780316565530
• Release Date: April 2024
• Publisher: Orbit
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Letters in the ocean!

This cover is gorgeous and I was drawn in because of that and because it is written as letters between two people. Letter writing is a wonderful thing though sadly it is falling by the wayside nowadays. I have read a few books written this way and I find it enjoyable. And I did enjoy this story with its setting on some mystical water world set in the future, but also a bit of past, due to lost technology and reinvented items so that these people could survive in the depths of the oceans after a long ago great fall from the sky. With letters and communications between Sophy and Vyerin as they search to find out what happened to their siblings E. and Henerey, uncovering letters sent and received hinting at a long held secret relating to the Deep House where E. resided. Excitement but also comfy because of the letter format making it a meandering uncovering of the truth by grief ridden siblings and I enjoyed how the chance letter that E. sent to Henerey led to a sweet little friendship and then romance between two people so well suited to each other and how it will change the future, even after their disappearance. Really looking forward to seeing what the next book holds, after all that was found out by Sophy and Vyerin and I really hope that they can find E. and Henerey!