Rating: 4/5
Looks like all hope is not lost after all. For a moment I was beginning to worry. Thanks to all the bookstagrams and booktoks I thought readers would be forever smothered by the romantasy genre. However, Emily McCosh’s stand-alone fantasy, Under The Earth, Over The Sky (2022) has managed to claw through all the swooning and bedroom games to provide a heavily imaginative, all be it slow, fairytale of trauma and love.
Under The Earth, Over The Sky follows Iohmar a fae king who upon a trip to the human world recovers a sickly human child. After bargaining with a mysterious fae living deep beneath his lands, he is able to cure the child. However, every good deed has its consequences and when strange shadows and monsters begin lurking in his forests Iohmar must confront the past and find a cure for the illness now afflicting him.
What will attract some readers to McCosh’s story is how it plays out like a traditional fairytale, the descriptions providing a clear and enchanting setting supported by its own artistic works. The land of Látwill is convincing and reminiscent of myths and legends, Iohmar being a figure you could imagine striding through the forests. Nature and trauma are strong elements, the backbone to the plot’s development, which is slow, very slow, focusing first on the main character’s emotional conflicts than the physical ones.
Normally my attention span wanes if stories lack high stake scenes but oddly Under The Earth, Over The Sky still kept me invested, presenting a particular theme quite often overlooked in writing. From enemies to lovers, fated mates etc. it's rare to see fantasy books that focus on paternal love. McCosh’s portrayal of Iohmar and his adoptive son, Lor is sweet and heartwarming, metaphorically addressing the inner child within us. While I would have wished for a bit more development between the two, Under The Earth Over The Sky was still a unique story worth spending time on if readers want a break from the fast-paced adventures.
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