Curious Tides Written by Pascale Lacelle. Reviewed by Iona, Age 14

I don’t think I’ve ever read any book quite like Curious Tides. It is beautifully written and has to be one of the most memorable books I’ve ever read, Lacelle has created such an extraordinary world so vividly imagined, this is one of those books that I feel has left a big impact on me and will stay lingering on my thoughts even after moving on to other books.

Curious Tides begins after the tragic events of the previous Spring where eight students mysteriously drowned in the caves of Dovermere. The book follows Emory on returning to the new school year at Aldryn College for Lunar Magics after the loss of her best friend Romie. The chapters alternate narratives between Emory and Baz (brother to Romie), which I found quite effective as you got a sense of two different stories and a real understanding of how opposed their lives are, yet how they are still brought together by their love for Romie.

I really love the beautifully drawn maps at the start of the book with the complimenting lunar house pages showing all the tidal alignments. I found it helped a lot to set the scene for the rest of the book and were great reference pages that I kept flicking back to as I read.

When I first looked up the book, it was presented as a fantasy fiction with mystery and not being the biggest fantasy person I was unsure about how this book would go, however, I don’t think that description does it justice. Curious Tides is so much more than that, it’s a story of self development, you get to see how much the characters of Emory and Baz grow over time after the devastations of the previous spring, see how they gain more confidence in their independence and learn to navigate their grief. It’s also a story of what true friendship is and the importance it holds in our lives and how much we need people we can rely on and trust to live a full life. It’s a story that deals with secret societies, and what probably many people have experienced, to always want what you don’t have, more power, to be part of a group, to feel like you belong, even though a lot of the time, if you get too caught up in that, it can lead you down a path of self destruction and you will probably not end up any happier in your life. It’s a story that shows there is real strength to let something go and forgive someone from your past, even if they’ve completely altered your life and left you more hurt than you let on, instead of always seeking revenge, to make others as hurt as you’ve been. So overall, I’d say that this novel’s genre is more of a darker young adult fantasy than described, with romance, and just generally a very emotional, sentimental book.

In all honesty, I think the ending left me with so many thoughts, why’s? and more tears than it should! The ending was so enchantingly written but was also heartbreaking to see the amount of devastation and lives lost to Dovermere just because some students always wanted more than they had, yet the ending Lacelle created has set up such a broad path that the second book (which is coming out this November :)!) could go on. One small thing I wish could have gone a bit differently with the book was the ending that the character of Kieran got. I didn’t particularly think he deserved what happened to him and I’m kind of hoping that the second instalment might provide some more detail on his life and explain a bit more what it was like for him growing up with loss and how that really affected his actions. Even after everything, I don’t think that he was necessarily a bad person and he’s still my favourite character because of how interesting/mysterious he was, how there was clearly more to him than he let on and also just how sad his story was.

In terms of who I would recommend this book for, I think that you want to be at least 14 or 15 when you first read it due to the dark themes and sensitive topics present (such as loss of family members and close friends, bloodletting and body horror) and I don’t think you could fully understand it or have as strong of a connection to the book if you were any younger. Also, I would recommend that this book is much more suited for an independent read and I think it would appeal more to teen readers rather than adults.

To end this review, I don’t think I could ever write enough to say how much praise this book deserves!