Restore the spring of life!
Losing her beloved father scarred Mara. She held tight to her mother, half-brother, and the unknown grandfather who showed up in the wake of her father’s death. He never explained his absence. She never asked, valuing him as a link to her dad.
Until her dying grandfather asked her to go on a quest for the conquistador who, centuries earlier, stole the spring of life.
She agreed, never guessing that the quest involved deep, dark secrets about her father—and herself.
Moving and powerful, Water for Blood features compelling, complex characters facing generations-old evil.
Water for Blood is a very unique book that is both hard to describe and review. It’s set in an alternate version of our world, yet I would be hard pressed to classify it as urban fantasy with all the assumptions that come with such a label. In fact, Water for Blood is unlike anything I have ever read before. It is a slow reveal of a book in which we follow our main character, Mara, on a journey to discover what’s up with her particularly unique family history. This takes the form of a road trip from Philadelphia to Texas in search of a conquistador who kidnapped a spring of life. While the road trip happens in current time, much of the story itself is being told to us as it is being told to Mara by her grandfather. This isn’t just ordinary backstory filling in, however, as he insists on telling the story slowly (with good reason) and she experiences parts of it viscerally as he speaks as well as later in dreams. In comparison to this backstory, the present-day tale has no sense of stakes. That I never felt this was particularly a drawback, is just another part of what makes Water for Blood such an interesting book.
While the ultimate goal might be killing a centuries old conquistador, the heart of the story lies with the complexities of its characters and the imaginative, vivid details of its worldbuilding. This alternative to our world is not merely one in which magic secretly exists, rather one in which magic has significantly shaken up society and the landscape—literally in many cases, as this magical shakeup has left the land twisted and turned about, able to shift at a whim should a tree wish to find better sunlight, while roads never lead to the same place twice. A lot of thought has been given to how such changes might affect society, along with the appearance of certain kinds of magic within the population. The one we see the most of is the idea of the pathfinder. In this world of shifting landscapes, the pathfinder is able to find safe paths through the confusion and help people get to where they need to go. Unfortunately, it comes with the downside of always needing to be moving, never able to settle in one place, making family bonds difficult to maintain.
In the absence of high-stakes action, Water for Blood relies upon its characters and the slow reveal of the story. For the most part these reveals are done well and I was drawn along into the story by a desire to know what is going to happen next, but there were a few pieces of information that came too late and ultimately robbed the ending of its deserved weight. Speaking of the ending, it had a very “and then they all died—the end” quality, totally lacking any detail and denouement, and I’m still unsure how I feel about it. It grates against my desire for closure, yet somehow seems appropriate to the story.
While I’m unfortunately cutting Water for Blood from the competition today, for all its flaws I feel it’s a book that will stay with me and that I am very glad to have read. If you are looking for a unique read full of imagination that gently leads you on a journey of family and exploration, while stopping off to visit every single alligator in every single zoo along the way, then Water for Blood is a book for you. I’ve not seen such unique worldbuilding and family warmth in an urban fantasy for a long time.
Verdict: Cut
This review was provided by Devin Madson as part of The Fantasy Inn’s SPFBO 8 contest judging.
