Bodice Ripper Readers Anonymous discussion

Hello, literary adventurers and voyagers of the deep! I’m H. L. Dawson, and I’m excited to announce the launch of my debut novel, Deeper than Black, a tale of transformation, love, and survival in a breathtaking underwater world.

Deeper Than Black follows Mizu, a 32-year-old scrap diver with strong lungs, powerful legs, and a habit of glancing over her shoulder. She barely carves out a living in a cramped shipping container, nestled within the decaying hull of Boba 7, a domed city crumbling under the weight of time and neglect.

Over three hundred years ago, Earth drowned in a cataclysmic flood. The Uppers, humanity’s elite, built the Boba cities—massive, spherical metropolises—to survive the endless ocean. They genetically altered themselves, becoming something more than human, while the Lowers, like Mizu, were left to scrape by in the shadows of their rust. In this fractured society, Mizu navigates a perilous existence, diving into the cold, crushing depths to scavenge broken tech from sunken ruins. Like all divers, she relies on her Oxyphyte helmet to breathe in the abyss, their faint light a lifeline in the dark.

Haunted by her past, Mizu carries the weight of her mother Umi’s sacrifice as a Current Bride, a ritual offering to appease the ocean’s wrath, and her father’s mysterious disappearance. Each dive is a gamble for survival, but during one descent, Mizu is kidnapped by a Sirhunue—a mutated slave created by the Iron Womb, a malevolent machine forged by infamous bioscientist Elara. Dragged to a forgotten Ark, another submerged relic of humanity’s lost age, her captor unravels everything she thought she knew about her world, her life, and herself.

As truths emerge from the depths, Mizu grapples with her identity and her fragile bonds with Fin, who is so much more than he seems, and Mako, a sharp-witted Sirhunue with secrets of his own. Thrust into a mission that could either save her people or doom them to a final extinction, she faces impossible choices. In a world of corroded Arks, shimmering Oxyphytes, and monstrous creatures lurking in the blackest trenches, Mizu’s journey becomes one of survival, hope, and confronting truths that cut deeper than the ocean itself.

I sincerely hope you will read the sample available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F56LW7PZ

I have been writing for over a decade but this is my first novel that I have been brave enough to publish, after achieving what felt like an untouchable mountainous accomplishment, I am excited and working hard to publish more! Please feel free to message me if you're interested!