Curious Tides (Drowned Gods #1) by Pascale Lacelle

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Ninth House meets A Deadly Education in this gorgeous dark academia fantasy following a teen mage who must unravel the truth behind the secret society that may have been involved in her classmates’ deaths.

Emory might be a student at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, but her healing abilities have always been mediocre at best—until a treacherous night in the Dovermere sea caves leaves a group of her classmates dead and her as the only survivor. Now Emory is plagued by strange, impossible powers that no healer should possess.

Powers that would ruin her life if the wrong person were to discover them.

To gain control of these new abilities, Emory enlists the help of the school’s most reclusive student, Baz—a boy already well-versed in the deadly nature of darker magic, whose sister happened to be one of the drowned students and Emory’s best friend. Determined to find the truth behind the drownings and the cult-like secret society she’s convinced her classmates were involved in, Emory is faced with even more questions when the supposedly drowned students start washing ashore— alive —only for them each immediately to die horrible, magical deaths.

And Emory is not the only one seeking answers. When her new magic captures the society’s attention, she finds herself drawn into their world of privilege and power, all while wondering if the truth she’s searching for might lead her right back to Dovermere…to face the fate she was never meant to escape.
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First line:
She was drowning in a sea of stars.
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Source:
Barnes&Noble Exclusive Paperback
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Rating:
2.25 Moons out of 5
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I was excited about this one because I'd seen it recommended by a popular booktokker and because it's so pretty. However, I was sorely disappointing. Almost the whole first half was mostly just recounting the past or The Song of the Drowned Gods. And while some of it was necessary, I feel it could have been better addressed. I had to force myself to keep reading. About 60-70% of the way in, the pace definitely picked up and the storyline was finally moving along. 

The book has a lot of focus on moon phases and tidal alignments. It also has world jumping and time control. None of those things really interest me, which probably also didn't help my interest in the book. I'm also confused about how  Baz's magic works.

I don't think I'll be reading the sequel, Stranger Skies.



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