Burn the Water

Burn the Water merges Romeo and Juliet themes into a postapocalyptic England that is underwater after the ice caps have melted. The author has a background in screenwriting that is abundantly clear in the movie-quality descriptions in setting up a scene. While you can picture exactly what is happening at the surface level, there is a sparsity of interactions and internal dialogue that stunts the full potential to emotionally wreck the reader of Jule and Rafe’s epic enemies-to-lovers love story. Everything feels like a snapshot, and the depth of emotion is implied with a few gestures and sentences, and their interactions fade to black. I want to see the character growth and feel like I have crawled into their head and am living the story out of their eyes, not like I am watching a movie. In setting up the scenes, the story flows from Jule to Rafe with little signal, such as with chapter breaks. Just the next paragraph is from the other side of events.
The last chapter was brilliant in setting up the sequel. From the last lines of the book, we learn who is telling the story, which turns everything from third-person omniscient to someone whose family has passed down the story, and that is why it paints a picture without feeling like action unfolding in real time. That last line also lays out that the last battle succeeded, so you may not know how, but it isn’t quite a cliffhanger either.
The next book is scheduled to be released in March 2027, currently titled The Water Will Fall. I hope the author takes this experience in authoring this book and further works to develop the internal monologues and dialogues of the characters so they feel less cinematic and more realistic.

Dystopian is back, baby!

Burn the Water by Billy Ray is a YA dystopian romance that is an an immersive and breathtaking enemies-to-lovers epic romance about war, loyalty, and the power that love has to save... or destroy. The year is 2425 and London is underwater. Three hundred years ago, rising oceans drowned a vast majority of the English Isle. London is now a jungle of dead skyscrapers and submerged streets. Fighting over the scraps of a world none can remember, two Houses -- the Crowns and the Rogues -- have been at war for three centuries. Rafe is the Rogue army's fiercest captain. Jule is the Crown army's deadliest soldier. They are vicious and merciless, courageous and beloved by their Houses. They are sworn enemies. And then they fall in love. It's a death sentence. But their love is all-consuming. As Rafe and Jule try to keep each other alive in their war-torn world, they are forced to confront new, horrifying threats to their loved ones while the hatred between their Houses only grows. When mysterious foreigners appear on their shores, the warring factions may destroy each other, unless their two most ruthless soldiers can become beacons of peace and possibility, showing their people a different way, and save them all.

When I tell you I devoured this book, I DEVOURED it in one single sitting. As this book has everything you want: enemies to lovers, a Romeo-and-Juliet narrative, a post-apocalyptic world that makes you rethink EVERYTHING. I devastated to find out this was just a standalone, yet I am both glad for it. Because for once, I am not being slogged down by a series.

One thing I did have some trouble with this book, was the concept was cool but the overall execution of it left a little to be desired. I felt like at times, the world building was a little too shallow and didn't quite give enough depth to the true narrative and theming. Meanwhile the pacing was quite chaotic, in that it frequently fluctuated at the wrong points. Some plot points should have been paced sooner while others should have been spaced more.

Regardless, Burn the Water is a fantastic novel for anyone looking for something to act as a filler after reading Chloe Gong's These Violent Delights, or for those who impatiently awaiting the theatrical release of Sunrise on the Reaping.