Please note this review contains reference to some of the events contained within this novel, and the former installment, A Letter to the Luminous Deep.
Former correspondents E. Cidnosen and Henerey Clel bonded over an academic mystery, but they never expected that mystery to involve travelling through a mysterious structure in E’s garden. Now, E. and Henerey find themselves in a sunken city that holds the secrets they’ve been searching for —of an archaic floating society that retreated into the sea after some indescribable danger led them to flee the world above. The mystery of the fate of E. and Henerey captivated many following their disappearance, but none more so than their respective siblings, Sophy and Vyerin. Piecing together the truth through the letters E. and Henerey penned across several years, Sophy and Vyerin now find their siblings forever out of reach. Drawn deep into the life of the archaic scholars and their city of secrets, E. and Henerey confront the limitations imposed by this society while desperately yearning for a way home. Meanwhile Sophy and Vyerin relentlessly chase the gateways that could reunite them with their lost siblings. With Sophy and Vyerin on the case and E. and Henerey seeking the truth to their world, neither party understands the true threat stalking the deep which brought a once thriving archaic society low.
A Letter from the Lonesome Shore returns readers to the elusive deep after the revelation that scholars E. and Henerey did not perish in the destruction of the Deep House. Told entirely through letters, this epistolary novel concludes the Sunken Archive duology and unravels the mystery of the gateways and the archaic scholars. Long thought dead, these scholars have remained within an underwater city awaiting those fleeing the mysterious threat that brought them to its sunken waters. Knowledge has a cost in A Letter from the Lonesome Shore, and Sylvie Cathrall tests the bonds of our undaunted scholars, E. and Henerey, while a larger threat closes in on their underwater world. A Letter from the Lonesome shore is flitting in its shades of enchanting light academia and winsome romance. Sylvie Cathrall pushes her frontier, integrating new perspectives and roundabout ways to ensure character points of view remain at the forefront of this novel. These narrative subtleties lend themselves to the greater conversation of academic pursuit and the human connection at the center of academic inquiry. A Letter to the Lonesome Shore is an endlessly fascinating series conclusion and all I want is to continue to chart the immeasurable depths of this extraordinary duology.
In concluding her Sunken Archive duology, Sylvia Cathrall reorients her underwater world with E. and Henerey having gone through the portal by the Deep House, and Sophy and Vyerin initiating a mission to follow them through to the other side. This sequel proves there is so much more lying beneath the surface as we are introduced to the enigmatic scholars of a sunken city who have awaited refugees since they first abandoned their world above, and the scatterings of a future we encroach ever closer upon. Between E. and Henerey’s private diary entries, Cathrall brings new perspectives into the forefront. The back and forth between the Thirtieth Second Scholar maintaining records for the archaic society and the Fifteenth First Scholar providing their interjections was an intriguing addition —while suffusing some necessary humor into the text. The contrast between the eager Thirtieth Second Scholar offering his commentary and the particular Fiftieth First Scholar trying to stick to protocol was not only deeply hilarious, it uplifted the more serious elements within this novel.
Endearingly awkward should be the main descriptor for the romance between E. and Henerey. Two people in love who believe they aren’t worthy of the other person while constantly exhibiting signs of “you remembered” and “of course I did” is the recipe for this academic romance. After book one detailed their charming correspondence over the mystery of the Deep House and the garden structure, E. and Henerey find themselves united at long last within the underwater city of the archaic scholars. Sylvie Cathrall begins to test the bonds between these two as they leave behind their comforts and find themselves within this sunken city. The courtship rituals are thrown into an entire new orbit as they soon learn they may be stuck there unable to return home. In this series, the relationships on the periphery are just as strong. Sophy and her wife and Vyerin and his husband remain some of my favorite romantic subplots within this duology. A Letter from the Lonesome Shore continues to represent queer relationships at the forefront and I appreciated how Sylvie Cathrall brought in new layers to these relationships as she raises the stakes in this sequel.
What I’ve always relished in this series is its focus on academic research. Cathrall makes the reader feel as if they are pouring over the primary and secondary sources to construct theories for how this underwater society came to be and what happened to the archaic world from long ago. Part of what makes this sequel so fascinating is getting to see where the individual pieces from book one slot into place. The mysterious island, the Darbeni poem, and the Fleet are part of a plot that spans back thousands of years. Cathrall expands upon this underwater world that is actually just one drop in a universe that is an entire ocean. The introduction of an interworldly threat was the perfect addition to underpin this revelation and the connections between the individual threads from book one. The predator as a primordial being that feasts on knowledge, swimming between these worlds to consume any that have become overly abundant was an insanely clever reveal. Cathrall’s imagery of this boundless universe ocean is thoroughly evocative and places the entire world stage in a new perspective.
A Letter from the Lonesome Shore maintains the lighthearted atmosphere from book one yet expands upon the boundaries of this world and the mysterious underwater society of the archaic scholars. Just as A Letter to the Luminous Deep was about the pursuit of knowledge and romance set within scholarly inquiry, this sequel demonstrates that knowledge is nothing beyond the connections that make us human. Finding a home after a devastating event brings E. and Henerey to a newfound shore that feels fitting for their individual paths and the partnership they have built side by side. Sylvie Cathrall knows that the real treasure in the deep is the bonds we keep with one another and it is worth any sacrifice. Lush and fathomless, The Sunken Archive duology is one series I will certainly return to to rechart and navigate anew. The real treasure for me is this series from start to finish.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this advance copy to review.
Trigger warning: anxiety
Literaryrobin 