“Kai and Kishi share the same futon, the same face, and the same talent for pearl diving. But Kishi is the obedient daughter, while Kai tries to push the rules, and sometimes they fight. Still, when Kishi is stolen and killed by the legendary Ghost Whale, nothing will stop Kai from searching for her, deep in the ocean, hoping for a way to bring her back to life.

But such a rescue is beyond the power of an ordinary mortal. Kai strikes a deal with the gods: she’ll steal a magic pearl in exchange for her sister’s soul. As she journeys across treacherous land scape, Kai must navigate encounters with scheming bandits, a power-hungry war lord, and a legion of conniving fox spirits. And when a new friendship becomes something almost as powerful as her love for her sister, Kai must make impossible choices and risk everything just to get home again.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got an eGalley of this book through NetGalley to review.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed the beginning of this book. It’s a fun adventure and I enjoyed Kai and Ren as characters. There are some issues here right out of the gate. There are inconsistencies with timing during travel and things like that. There were also some things that happened that didn’t seem plausible, like the meetings with the Gods at the beginning…for some reason no one else in the world really believes they exist but our main character just takes interacting with them for granted?

The story follows Kai as she seeks to recover her sister from a legendary Ghost Whale by stealing a pearl from a legendary fox. Her adventure leads her through many trials and she makes an important friend along the way. There are heavy coming of age themes and also discussion of twins who start to grow apart. The world-building has a heavy Asian influence to it.

I would have rated this four stars except for the ending. I mean what the heck?! The author ruins this book in the last paragraph. It ends up feeling incredibly unfinished and leaves the reader with a million questions. The very end of this made me feel like I wasted my time reading this. This definitely could have used some better editing and consistency throughout the story and the author should have re-thought that ending for sure.

SPOILER ALERT———————
I absolutely cannot understand how the last two sentences are supposed to undo everything that happened earlier in the book. Why didn’t Kai forget everything too? Is the General still alive and coming to invade their village now or did he stay dead? Is Ren still stuck with the bandits and miserable? Just so many questions, it really pissed me off.
SPOILER END———————–

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was a decent middle grade fantasy read with a lot of adventure and magic. The book is engaging and decently written. Some inconsistencies throughout the story and a horrible ending made me drop this from a 4 to a 3 star rating. Personally I would skip this, but I did like some aspects of the story so I might try and read something by Beck in the future, as she matures as a writer.

Early Review – The Pearl Hunter by Mira T. Beck (3/5 stars)

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