Name: This Gilded Abyss
Rating: 3.5 (2 reviews)
ISBN: 9798986692470

Rebecca Thorne

A soldier is forced to guard her ex-girlfriend, a cunning princess, on a trip to an undersea city. But their relationship complicates when passengers aboard the luxury submarine start murdering each other.

This Gilded Abyss

Sergeant Nix Marr is a damn good soldier. She's also desperate to leave her haunted past deep in the bioluminescent ocean, buried alongside her best friend, Quian. So, when Subarch Kessandra, Valkesh's favorite royal-and Nix's loathed ex-requests Nix's help investigating a massacre in the abyssal city of Fall, Nix refuses. Vehemently.She should have known Kessandra would fight back.Consigned as Kessandra's bodyguard, Nix grudgingly boards the Luminosity, a luxurious submersible that offers the only transportation to Fall. But Kessandra wasn't truthful-surprise, surprise-and her "investigation" isn't about the massacre, but rather what caused it: an illness that incites its victims into a violent craze.When another royal is brutally murdered, Nix and Kess realize the disease has spread-and no one on the Luminosity is safe. If they're going to survive until Fall, they'll have to trust each other? but considering Kessandra is responsible for Quian's death, that won't be easy.

First things first, the setting of this book was really great, I was really invested in the world and the politics. The story was really interesting and I couldn’t wait to see where it was going. Unfortunately, I wish I was kept guessing a bit more, I feel like a lot of things were predictable or just straight up told to me. I was kind of shocked to discover this book was horror… what horror? That aspect didn’t land for me personally. I liked the characters a fair amount, I think they were okay. However, Nix… I felt like everyone kept telling me she was this amazingly competent soldier but she kinda sucked at her job. She didn’t really do well under pressure, she made stupid mistakes, she was almost always late to figure things out and (spoiler) almost everyone she tried to protect died. I really liked this book, it may not seem like it, but it was interesting. The dialogue was a bit cringy sometimes but not always, the writing was pretty good. There was a fair amount of action which was engaging at first, but it got repetitive very fast. Kess and Nix’s relationship dynamic was interesting, though I really couldn’t help but wonder why Kess didn’t find Nix annoying. They were cute I guess, I liked them. All in all, very interesting concept, and setting. Kind of disappointing on the execution but some things were done well. I wish it had been a bit more on the subtle suspenseful side, but i still enjoyed it a great deal.

This Gilded Abyss

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