ORPHANS OF THE TIDE

In this British import, a girl struggles to do what is right.

Decades ago, the Great Drowning destroyed most of civilization; only a small island called the City remains. Periodically, the God Who Drowned the Gods, known as the Enemy, possesses a citizen of the City as its human Vessel, through which it gains power and sows destruction before the City’s power-hungry Inquisitors find and execute the Vessel by burning them alive. When a boy with light-brown skin and blue eyes is discovered inside the belly of a whale beached on top of a church, everyone in the City is convinced the new Vessel has arrived—everyone except Ellie, that is. The orphaned daughter of Hannah Lancaster, the City’s inventor, Ellie makes it her mission to protect the boy, figure out his secret (and why he can manipulate the ocean with his emotions), and keep her own tragic backstory and deepest secret safe. She’s aided by her best friend from the orphanage and Lord Castion, a town leader who was friends with her mother. Excerpts from the diary of the last Vessel are interspersed between third-person chapters that follow Ellie. The pacing is compelling, but superfluous details detract from the narrative, and several worldbuilding questions remain unanswered, presumably leaving space for the sequel. Blond Ellie reads as White; Castion has dark-brown skin and uses a prosthetic limb.

A promising series opener, although the quality ebbs and flows.