Review: These Rebel Waves

These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Here's another ARC I'm very happy to have found at work, and to see it being Sara Raasch's first book in two years or so, I'm excited just on that front alone.

It's an interesting world Raasch sets up in this story, separate from her seasonal fantasy kingdoms of Snow Like Ashes and sequels. No, here we get one that's a little more clearly rooted in real-world history in its inspiration. I've noticed for a few years that a lot of Western-based fantasy has shifted away from the traditional styles of Northern Europe - Viking and/or Anglo-Saxon and/or Celtic influence - in favor of Southern European influence. And I Darken, Nevernight, The Young Elites, Ruined, Truthwitch, and now These Rebel Waves all carry strong elements of influence from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Malta, Greece, Romania, and/or the Ottoman Empire.

This particular book is heavy on the Spanish and Portuguese influences - from the Portuguese-sounding language (hell, I wouldn't be surprised to learn it was actually some kind of archaic form of Portuguese) to the heavy dominion of the Catholic-like Church of the Pious God over the royal court and all the culture of Argrid. As you can imagine, it's a highly oppressive Inquisition-like theocracy full of hypocritical assbutts, one that deserves to have a few wrenches thrown into its works.

And among those wrenches are our three protagonists. Adeluna (nicknamed "Lu," which I'm thinking is more than a tip of the cap to Marie Lu and Adelina, because let's face it, this book would pair magnificently with The Young Elites), Devereux (aka "Vex"), and Benat (aka "Ben.") The rebel, the pirate, the crown prince. All have their part to play in this theater, and all subvert just about every expectation you may have of them and then some. They also bring a good amount of diversity to the table - all three have some shade of brown skin (brown is virtually the default in both Argrid and Grace Loray, with white merchants from northern nations standing out like sore thumbs in the region's harbor cities), Vex has only one eye (another Young Elites reference for the list?), and Ben is gay. Openly so, even. Turns out that as nasty and backwards as the Church of the Pious God is, they're not intolerant of gay people, so long as they stay true till marriage. (Cue me and my friend Harry raising our eyebrows.)

But make no mistake, the Church is out for nothing short of power and dominance. They already got beaten back from Grace Loray's shores, and would love nothing more than to swoop in and colonize the place and its numerous magic-enhancing herbs.

Can't have that, can we?

It's a great little book, this one. A little long at times, and I'm a little sad that it's only the first of a duology. But I'm glad I got to read it in advance!

Except, of course, for that ending, undoubtedly the most diabolically Aveyardian since the original Aveyardian cliffhanger of Glass Sword. Even Godsgrave and Empire of Storms didn't make me so mad!

For sure, when this book hits shelves, I'll be hand-selling it to as many bookstore customers as I can, though not without fairly warning them of the weapons-grade cliffhanger at the end.

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