The Dark Tide by Alicia Jasinska (ARC Review)

Title: The Dark Tide
Author: Alicia Jasinska
Type: Fiction
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, LGBTQ+, Paranormal
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Date published: August 4, 2020

A physical copy of this book was kindly provided by Raincoast Books in exchange for an honest review.

Every year on St. Walpurga’s Eve, Caldella’s Witch Queen lures a boy back to her palace. An innocent life to be sacrificed on the full moon to keep the island city from sinking.

Lina Kirk is convinced her brother is going to be taken this year. To save him, she enlists the help of Thomas Lin, the boy she secretly loves, and the only person to ever escape from the palace. But they draw the queen’s attention, and Thomas is chosen as the sacrifice.

Queen Eva watched her sister die to save the boy she loved. Now as queen, she won’t make the same mistake. She’s willing to sacrifice anyone if it means saving herself and her city.

When Lina offers herself to the queen in exchange for Thomas’s freedom, the two girls await the full moon together. But Lina is not at all what Eva expected, and the queen is nothing like Lina envisioned. Against their will, they find themselves falling for each other. As water floods Caldella’s streets and the dark tide demands its sacrifice, they must choose who to save: themselves, each other, or the island city relying on them both.

⤖ My Review ⬻

Going into The Dark Tide, I was expecting a dark sapphic tale. This was one of my most highly-anticipated reads of the year! Now, having read it, I can say that I enjoyed The Dark Tide, even though it turned out being a little different from what I built it up to be. The fact that the story turned out being different from what I predicted is not a bad thing by any means! And like I said, I did enjoy it. If I had to pick a favourite thing about The Dark Tide, it would have to be the settings. Jasinska had a way of depicting the locations in her book in a way that helped me vividly imagine said settings, almost as if I were there myself!

Going off of that, I was a big fan of the aesthetics that came to mind while reading The Dark Tide (and after this review might have to take to Pinterest in search of some aesthetic boards for this book because even though I read the last page almost a month ago, I keep thinking about it! I might need more books from Jasinska set in this world…and more of something else. But I can’t say what that something is without spoiling some of the twisties and turnies in this tale. All in all, I really enjoyed the journey into The Dark Tide and Alicia Jasinska is an author that I will be keeping an eye on for sure!

⤖ About the Author ⬻

Alicia Jasinska is a fantasy writer hailing from Sydney, Australia. A library technician by day, she spends her nights writing and hanging upside down from the trapeze and aerial hoop. Her debut YA novel THE DARK TIDE is coming from Sourcebooks FIRE (US) and Penguin Random House Australia (AUS/NZ) in June 2020.