Review: Curious Tides

Curious Tides

Written by: Pascale Lacelle

Margaret K. McElderry Books

2023

A unique lunar magic system and dark academia come together in Curious Tides, where the truth lies in dreams and a missing piece of an ancient story.

Curious Tides follows Emory, known for being a healer with mediocre magic, who now has powers beyond her after a near-death experience.

While intriguing and unique, the story was a little hard to follow.

Storytelling

For the most part, Curious Tides was a fascinating book. But there were times I found myself a little lost.

The pacing wasn’t always consistent and dragged out too much. It was understandable and made sense in the long run because Lacelle created a new world, a unique magic system, and her fable.

Going back and forth between the stories of the drowned gods probably disrupted the pacing the most. And I’m torn about this because of Lacalle’s storytelling and prose; they are beautiful. I was lured in and yanked back into Baz’s or Emory’s POV.

Where Lacelle inserts these passages makes sense for the story because it creates this air of mystery and intrigue. It adds to the Gothic atmosphere of Dovermere, an old school built so close to the sea. A school with a secret society and infamous for the deaths that have happened there.

I had to read some passages of the story of the drowned gods multiple times because I was often a little confused by it. Lacalle does write beautifully. Her prose and imagery are brilliant, but I sometimes found it hard to follow.

Then there was the romance. Emory and Baz’s relationship, the romance between them, felt off. Baz has been in love with Emory since they were kids, and now she’s paying attention to him again.

I’m not a massive fan of Emory, to be honest. She is using Baz, using his feelings for her to manipulate him, and does it knowingly. Granted, the same thing happens to her by Kieran, but I wasn’t a fan of how the romance plays out here.

Thankfully, there was some growth for her, but we’ll have to see how things are okay in the sequel to see character development.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed the novel, especially the dark gothic atmosphere and unique lunar magic system here. The pace sometimes falters and is a little hard to follow, but I enjoyed it.

Cynthia Ayala

Cynthia Ayala-Bujnicki majored in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College. Editor-in-chief of Cyn's Workshop, she loves to read and write while tending to her pepper plants. She currently lives in South Florida with her husband, two kids Dante and Selene and two furbabies Mr. J the Kitten who Thinks He's Batman (yes, that is his full name) and Nyx.