The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie
Thank you to NetGalley and Flux for providing this ARC.
You can find the Goodreads summary here.
Publication date: February 8th 2016
Lord have mercy, I loved this. So. Freaking. Much. I literally have no words. I had no idea at all that Iâd love it this much. I mean, I got so attached that 25 pages in, I was crying on the train, while avoiding the weird looks that people were giving me. Eh, the hazards of being a bookworm. Absolutely amazing book, full of action, intense, with no dull moments or filler chapters, easy to get into, easy to read. I honestly have nothing but praise for it.
It tells the story of Cassandra, a girl who is a trainer for Reckoners, huge genetically-engineered sea creatures, created and bred with the purpose of defending ships that cross the waters of the Neo-Pacific, which are swarming with pirates. She departs on her first solo mission - a cruise ship - with the Reckoner she spent the most time training, but something happens to it, rendering it unable to defend the ship when itâs attacked by pirates. They capture Cassandra and she is forced to train a new Reckoner, and make it imprint on the pirate ship (something that is unheard of) - her life is tied to the beast. If it fails, she fails.
I absolutely adored the idea of this book and found it extremely original. I went into it like I always do, knowing absolutely nothing, and when I met the first Reckoner, I just started dumbfounded at the pages, and I kept repeating âthis is so cool this is so cool this is SO coolâ. Skrutskie crafts a wonderful world, in a limitless ocean, filled with pirates, monsters, floating cities, and populated with compelling and diverse characters. I was kept at the edge of my seat throughout the whole book. It might seem short, at only 288 pages, but this works in its favor - thereâs nothing redundant and the reader has no time to grow bored, because something is happening in each moment. Itâs a roller-coaster from start to end and I need the next book this second.
I loooooved the characters. Cassandra is incredibly smart, dedicated, has an amazing sense of self preservation and sheâs an absolutely kick-ass leading lady. And something that sealed the deal for me was the fact that her sexual orientation has absolutely nothing to do with the plot, in the sense that thereâs no explanation as to why sheâs gay, no usage of her sexuality to further or motivate the plot. It was fantastic. Her character development was beautiful to read and I absolutely loved her relationship with Swift, the pirate girl whose charge she becomes. The plot is driven mainly by female characters - Cass, Swift and Santa Elena (the captain of the pirate ship - sheâs cunning and ruthless and youâre not used to seeing a woman lead a band of pirates and I want to praise Skrutskie for writing such an amazing character) are forces to be reckoned with and itâs so refreshing to see books like these.
And can I add that the huge freaking sea monsters had personalities of their own and were pretty much as important as the main characters? Because that totally happened and it was awesome.
For me, this was a book that kind of departed from the cookie cutter model for YA books. It was a mix of sci-fi and dystopia, with an overwhelming female cast, diversity and plain olâ good writing. It was just so so soooo good. I urge you guys to pick this up, youâll fly through it.
To everyone who got this far, thank you for reading and have a wonderful day! Also, feel free to share your thoughts, comment or tell me anything :)
Buy it from the Book Depository :)
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