Jul 19

Jul 19 The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan, #1)

About the book

Author: Robert Jackson Bennett
Publisher: Del Rey

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

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My Review

It took me way too long to read The Tainted Cup — its Hugo nomination tipped the scales — because y’all, this was SO much fun and just so well done.

This book is a Holmes and Watson–style murder mystery, if Holmes was an ASD-coded genius woman who blindfolds herself and never leaves the house to avoid overstimulation so she can puzzle out her cases, and Watson was her sneakily superpowered dyslexic assistant with a magically amplified photogenic memory. And if the murder weapon was a fungus that causes entire trees to burst out of its victims' bodies. Oh, and they live in a world where the wet season brings leviathan sea monsters crashing onto land, destroying everything in their path.

Part of what makes this such a good time is that it’s a contained, well-written mystery. Bennett knows what he’s doing! Plus, it has the welcome feeling of a standalone, because the focus is on the central plot. But at the same time, the background worldbuilding also contains so much potential that could be sneakily explored over the course of many such books. And last but not least, the characters are lovable neurodivergent underdogs fighting for space and worth in a society built to deny it to them. What’s not to enjoy?

I’m so glad to have the sequel sitting on my shelf waiting for me!