Feathertide
Beth Cartwright
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A girl.
A secret.
A life-changing journey.Born covered in the feathers of a bird, and kept hidden in a crumbling house full of secrets, Marea has always known she was different, but never known why. And so to find answers, she goes in search of the father she has never met.
The hunt leads her to the City of Murmurs, a place of mermaids and mystery, where jars of swirling mist are carried through the streets by the broken-hearted.
And Marea will never forget what she learns there
Feathertide starts with the birth of our main character and plenty of questions. Is she a bird? Is she fae? Will her father come for her? Leman, her mother, hides her away for her own safety and the questions we have are mirrored as our character grows up. Living in a brothel, and being taught to stay hidden is something that our character becomes so used to, and affects her actions later in the book too.
Leman’s largest fear is the large boat that docks in the town every so often, that holds the circus. She wants to keep her child away from a life of being locked away and laughed at. Although when we mistakenly enter the circus tent, we realise that many of the acts are in fact faked for the crowds. This doesn’t make the fear any less real however, and we see our main character struggle with running away from the circus throughout the entire book.
Our main character is covered in beautiful feathers which is why she is hidden away. The descripton of her feathers was captivating and gives a sense of magic throughout the story, despite the story not being magic focused. The story focuses on lots of little aspects driven by the character, the first of which is her thoughts about herself. She grows up learning to hide, and as such starts to despise her feathers. Her reaction to hurt herself in order to conform to the “normal” beauty standard in this world is a parallel to the real world.
Her life hidden away is both symbolic and a bit literal to being a bird trapped in a cage. The residents of the brothel tell her beautiful stories of far away lands which creates a sense of wanderlust. The wishing doors were something that I wanted to explore more, although they weren’t used much by our character once reaching the City.
Whilst the feathers create a sense of fantasy, this book is mainly about relationships and getting on with your life. Our character moves to a new city to find out more about herself, and more about herself she does find out. She has a found family, friends, and a life that is both hectic and slow at times. I adored the way her relationships formed, fell apart, and changed her for the worse and for the better.
To enter the City of Water you will find a token (like a coin) which has the City of Water on one side and a unique name for the the city on the other. This formed the city as a character in itself, and the relationship the person has with the city changes the city as well as the person. It reminded me strongly of the City of Circles with the emphasis on the city being magical through the narrators eyes.
Overall Feathertide is a book about exploration. Exploring who you are, exploring the new city, exploring new and old relationships, and exploring the mysteries life throws at you. Even the main character needs to be explored, as I realised late into the book that I didn’t even have a name to attach to her. I don’t know if I’d missed it at the start, but it got to a point where she introduces herself by name and I had to take a double take.
Overall, I think Feathertide is a beautifully written book, although it’s not as fantasy as other books (which may affect others view of it).
Positives of Feathertide
- Character and relationship development
- World building
Negatives of Feathertide
- Not as much magic as expected
I received Feathertide by Beth Cartwright from the publisher. This is an unbiased and honest review
