A Dark and Drowning Tide (Spoiler-Free Review)

Is this sapphic dark academia romantasy for you?

Guys, we finally have our sapphic dark academia novel, and it comes with a smexy cover. A Dark and Drowning Tide is at its best when it revels in its unapologetic embrace of well-worn TikTok tropes. We have enemies-to-lovers academic rivals embroiled in a murder mystery where they can only trust each other, but one of them is a gloomy ass and the other is a manic pixie dream girl.

Lorelei Kaskel is a folklorist at Ruhigburg University. She once dreamed of becoming a naturalist, but her identity as a Yeva—a second-class citizen in Bruunestaad—prevents her from leaving her country. Haunted by a tragic past and condemned by a world that fears her kind, Lorelei only has one goal: prove her worth in the upcoming expedition and secure herself a place in court, where she’ll finally be granted the rights of a true citizen.

As a cobbler’s daughter plucked from obscurity, Lorelei is a black sheep among her peers—all nobles who spent their childhood frolicking with the King. But it is Sylvia, the ditzy, white-haired princess of Albe, who earns the brunt of Lorelei’s animosity. Beautiful and beloved, Sylvia moves effortlessly through the world, indulging in her whims as a naturalist, a living reminder of everything Lorelei is not and will never be.

At first, I wasn’t pleasantly surprised by—or particularly endeared to—Lorelei’s one-sided rivalry with Sylvia. I’m used to their positions swapped, the more empathetic and likable character playing the protagonist while the dark, mysterious figure is relegated to the love interest. But once I settled into Sylvia and Lorelai’s thorny relationship dynamic, it was easy to get caught in their storm. Sylvia is not discreet about wanting Lorelai.

I have a theory that people’s feelings about A Dark and Drowning Tide will depend almost entirely on how much they enjoy Sylvia and Lorelai’s relationship. While the murder mystery and the remaining cast are compelling in their own ways, there’s just too much world-building for the story’s social-political conflicts to be resolved satisfactorily in one novel.

Following a rough start, I devoured A Dark and Drowning Tide from beginning to end. It was the perfect novel for me when I was looking for some unhinged, twisted sapphic drama. The ending doesn’t quite hit the mark, but I was happy enough to see Lorelei and Sylvia get their happy ending that I could almost forgive it. In my opinion, A Dark and Drowning Tide is best experienced as a love story.