"Given to the Sea"

“Given to the Sea”

Written by Mindy McGinnis

Review written by Diana Iozzia / Bookworm Banter

            I received “Given to the Sea” to be a part of the “Given to the Earth” blog tour. After finishing “Given to the Sea”, I am eager to continue on and read its sequel. Naturally, I am writing the book review first, so my opinions don’t become muddled with any plot reveals or character development in the second book.

            “Given to the Sea” is a great first book. It’s very ambitious in its world building, which shows great potential. We have interesting settings, like caves on a beach, the beach itself, the castles our main characters live in, forests, and battlegrounds. I would have liked a map to keep all of this a little more organized in my mind, but if I ever reread the book, I would just draw one on an index card.

            Our main characters are interesting. We follow the perspectives of Khosa, Vincent, Dara, and Witt. We listen through Khosa’s and Vincent’s voices. We follow Dara as she engages with other characters through third person narrative, as well as Witt’s third person perspective. I wasn’t really sure why we read through Vincent and Khosa’s eyes but not Witt’s or Dara’s. I would have appreciated one type of perspective, rather than both first and third person. I always seem to prefer third person. I also don’t really like present tense in writing style, I prefer past.

            Khosa was born of the lineage, in which women are born to breed and then sacrifice themselves to the sea of the kingdom, Stille. The Given are looked at as cursed sacrifices. They are looked after during their lives and protected, out of fear the sea will rise up and flood the kingdom if the sacrifice is not given.

            Vincent is in line to inherit the throne, to be kingdom of Stille. However, he finds himself too involved with his friends and possible romances to be concerned with kingdom duties. He likes to try to mediate between different peoples, but he’s not very good at trusting the correct people.

            Dara and her brother, Donil, are natives, similar to Native Americans. They are called Indiri people. The Indiri have powers to remember the memories and lives of their people who lived before them. Dara and Donil are the last of the Indiri. Donil is a perverted and slightly misogynistic man who tries to use his magical powers of seduction?? (I don’t particularly understand that). Dara is a fantastic antagonist, but Donil could be so much better. He just walks around and flirts, and sometimes fights. I dunno, I don’t really think he’s necessary.

            Witt is the leader of a rebellious group of soldiers who want to conquer Stille. He’s ambitious, cunning, and pretty ruthless. He’s sincerely a good protagonist.

            Let’s move on. What did I think of the book? As I mentioned, the world building is attempted. It can be a bit confusing to remember all of these characters, but I think I managed to get along just fine. I think the main concept of “girl sacrificing her life for her kingdom” is an overused trope in science fiction / fantasy young adult fiction. Is it really necessary to still have characters only have one dimensional problems? She needs to be saved. Or save herself. But do we really need another series where young girls have to run away and save themselves from a whole population of people who want to kill them? This is too present in this genre. I understand that self-sacrifice can be very brave and powerful, but self-sacrifice when it’s forced, it does not feel brave, it poorly reflects the society they live in. I completely understand dystopia. Usually, I am a big fan of the dystopian genre. However, I would absolutely love some new types of dystopian plots that do not revolve around systemic self-sacrifice.

            We are treated to some really interesting parts of this world that I enjoyed. I like in fantasy when we have creatures that the author created for the book. For example, I often enjoy reading The Chronicles of Narnia series, Harry Potter, and more, for the creatures. In “Given to the Sea”, we learn of panther-like cats, called Tangatas. They live in the forests in which Dara and Donil hunt. The tangatas are ferocious and pretty terrifying. However, I don’t forgive books that kill off animals, and the meat was not consumed for food purposes. There are oderbirds mentioned in the woods. We don’t see any incorporated into the plot, just a small mention, but I love the added animals. Other than tangatas, we learn of different types of flora and fauna that are used for medicinal purposes and for food.

            My biggest issue with this book cannot be overlooked. My main problem is the treatment of the Indiri people. As I mentioned earlier, Donil and Dara are Indiri, which is this book’s form of native. Unfortunately, lots of negative stereotypes and tropes are used when these characters are involved. I really enjoyed that Dara has the ability to have the memories of her ancestors and share them, but it is very mystical and a little wacky. In addition, we have the attraction of absolutely everyone to Donil and Dara. It makes me feel a little uncomfortable how irresistible these characters are to other people, considering they are the lower regarded people. I think back to “Pocahontas” or “Schindler’s List”. Why is it that inferior people are so sexy and attractive to other people? Is it the power dynamic? Let’s stop including this trope into books. We even have some of that with “The 100”. It’s eradicated early on, but it still exists. Natives shouldn’t be so irresistibly attractive and pointed out for that. It’s inherent that there’s some type of power balance tipping and makes me dislike the use of this trope in the plot.  In addition, we also have a moment where a character seems to prey on Dara, which is another trope we do not need in young adult fiction!!! Why does every child or teen have to be preyed on?

            To continue, nearly every time we hear Dara’s name, she’s referred to as the Indiri girl. Or her Indiri hair. Her Indiri skin. We get it. She’s a native. It’s constant. By proxy, you wouldn’t have the example, “Dara walked over to the fire and stoked it. The Native American then placed the meat onto the fire.” We can’t just use “she” as a pronoun? Doesn’t that sound slightly strange to you? Well, this happens too often throughout the book. It’s as if the author thought we’d forget Dara’s heritage and has to constantly remind us, “YES, DARA IS THE NATIVE”.  Here are some examples:

“Dissa’s gaze lingers on the Indiri’s skin”. “Unpeeling the Indiri’s fingers from her weapon”. “The Indiri leads his horse on”. “You seem tired, Indiri”.

           

            In conclusion, I think the resolution of this story was great. I predicted it would end a little the way it did, and I’m pleased. I enjoyed the final climax, and I’m intrigued where the story could go from here.

            I certainly recommend this book, but I would err on the side of caution. There can be a lot of moments with uncomfortable sexual treatment of characters, tangata cats die, people die, and I’m not a fan of Dara and Donil’s heritage treatment. I think this is a certainly enjoyable premise. I loved the language. The book felt so vivid I pictured the entire thing as I read along. We received realistic descriptions of characters. The book felt very fantastical, but also like it was a realistic kingdom.

I received a complementary copy for reviewing purposes consistent with Penguin Random House and a blogger book tour.