Deeplight is a young adult fantasy novel by Frances Hardinge, published October 31, 2019 by Macmillan Children's Books. It is her 9th novel.

Solomon, Dani (22 October 2019). "Deeplight by Frances Hardinge". Readings. Archived from the original on 23 April 2021 . Retrieved 18 September 2021. But not everyone is glad to be free from the brutal rule, or rather terror, of the Gods. “He had always lived in a godless world, and yet… everyone he knew had grown up with a lurking pride in their island’s ‘patron’ god. Their remembered might was yours, somehow. Even their horrific nature had a majesty that you could borrow. You got into drunken arguments with folks from other islands about whose god could have beaten the other in a straight fight.” After all, people tend to look for their identity, their pride, the entire meaning of life in the strangest places. The stories have tremendous power over us, shaping our desires and wants and directing our lives down paths that may be strange and dangerous. “I had hoped that younger generations would grow up without our craven god-fever, but I still see traces of it everywhere – even in you. There is an eagerness, a poisonous nostalgia. No, throughout the Myriad, people would fall on to their faces and give in to their ancient superstitious terror.”Our protagonist is Hark, a rough-and-tumble orphan who brought himself up on the beaches of Myriad. He's caught during a heist, talks his way out of a brutal sentence, and ends up as an indentured servant of the priesthood. Myriad was once a land of terrifyingly present sea gods and the priests who sacrified to and appeased them, but now the gods are dead and the priests are old and dying. Woven throughout is a testament to the power of story to preserve memory, to preserve identity, and to keep alive that which would otherwise pass from existence. Ironically, for a book in which the characters are constantly at risk of drowning, Deeplight is the first Hardinge book I've read that doesn't feel like I am drowning in it. The elaborate similes and stylized language are considerably toned down; the growing sense of paranoia and destabilization present in all Hardinge books is tempered by an odd note of nostalgia and trustworthy friends. Instead of immediately plunging into a world in which Things Are Wrong And Getting Worse, this book starts in a more mundane place and takes a while to really get going. But it's also about the power of storytelling: the stories we tell to and about ourselves, our friends, and even our gods - and how we respond when the stories are challenged. And boy, is every story Hark has ever told or believed about to go down.

Highly recommend for those looking for a unique coming-of-age tale set in a wet, tumultuous world of dead god-monsters and strange science. Berry, Michael (5 May 2020). "Deeplight - Book Review". Common Sense Media. Archived from the original on 22 April 2021 . Retrieved 18 September 2021. The gods of the Myriad were as real as the coastlines and currents, and as merciless as the winds and whirlpools. Then one day they rose up and tore each other apart, killing many hundreds of islanders and changing the Myriad forever.'Russell Williams, Imogen (30 October 2019). "Deeplight by Frances Hardinge review – a rich and strange island adventure". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 30 October 2019 . Retrieved 18 September 2021. The Myriad, island chain once home to oceanic gods, is now home to a people left bereft by the Catalclysm - a week of terror where the gods rose from the depths and tore each other apart. These weren't abstract gods, either, these were nightmares of the deep and all too real and present in the lives of those living on the islands. That kind of thing leaves a hole in the lives of the people who once lived in feat of them. It does get quite dark in places and there's not really any humour in it, but it raises some really interesting ideas and provides some wonderful characters for us to judge with all of our perfect righteousness (note sarcasm). I feel quite justified in calling Jelt a jerk, though. It's been a while since I hated a character this much. Reviewed by Ella (17), who is profoundly deaf and wears cochlear implants. Ella helped author Frances Hardinge write about deafness in Deeplight. The feeling of reeling devastation when you realise that a newly discovered author has published countless books in the past decade and you didn't even know of their existence? Followed by a rush of utter delight when you realise that you're free to devour all of their books now without having to wait years for a new release? Priceless.