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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
TW: self-harm, mental illness
So this book is sincerely just "meh". There is some REALLY good writing, and some really crummy writing. I think I counted at least 6 grammatical errors, and a lot of the talking scenes felt like reading texts that had gone back and forth between teens. Some parts of this book DRAGGED and some flew at you for absolutely no reason. This book follows the original timeline (starting in 2008) and "today's" timeline (starting in 2014) which I usually hate, but I didn't mind for this book.
A couple points that drove me nuts:
1. When Brendan pops back into the picture, they play the "I killed the kid but we can have another" trope.... barf.
2. When Cara confides in her aunt, her aunt is WAY too trusting and easy to convince?? No self-respecting adult assisting their young neice is going to be like "well you believed he had gills once so maybe his attempt to drown your baby wasn't that big of a deal"
3. Cara seriously fell in love with this walking red flag (we aren't excusing behavior due to mental illness today, y'all) who kidnapped her child, then lied about his death, and they're really gonna end the book talking about how much she still loves him and how she'd leave Graham to be with him and have their family... girl, bye. That's a nope.
Was it an ok read? Sure. Would I recommend it? Only on premise, I think that's what kept me reading (i.e. did he really have gills?).
I'm being generous by giving this 3/5.
So this book is sincerely just "meh". There is some REALLY good writing, and some really crummy writing. I think I counted at least 6 grammatical errors, and a lot of the talking scenes felt like reading texts that had gone back and forth between teens. Some parts of this book DRAGGED and some flew at you for absolutely no reason. This book follows the original timeline (starting in 2008) and "today's" timeline (starting in 2014) which I usually hate, but I didn't mind for this book.
A couple points that drove me nuts:
1. When Brendan pops back into the picture, they play the "I killed the kid but we can have another" trope.... barf.
2. When Cara confides in her aunt, her aunt is WAY too trusting and easy to convince?? No self-respecting adult assisting their young neice is going to be like "well you believed he had gills once so maybe his attempt to drown your baby wasn't that big of a deal"
3. Cara seriously fell in love with this walking red flag (we aren't excusing behavior due to mental illness today, y'all) who kidnapped her child, then lied about his death, and they're really gonna end the book talking about how much she still loves him and how she'd leave Graham to be with him and have their family... girl, bye. That's a nope.
Was it an ok read? Sure. Would I recommend it? Only on premise, I think that's what kept me reading (i.e. did he really have gills?).
I'm being generous by giving this 3/5.
Content Warnings
Minor: Mental illness, Self harm, Kidnapping
'Whether or not Brendan could actually breathe underwater, Cara couldn't be certain, but she knew that he believed that he could, that this was his truth.'
Introspective and mysterious. The library sticker on this labels it scifi/fantasy but this is a hard one to classify! Brendan seemingly has gills and claims to breathe underwater. Cara falls in love with him and they have a baby. Then Brendan disappears with their weeks old son. Such an intriguing story!
'He laughed. "Hundreds of thousands of soldiers out there, and they chose me as their guinea pig."'
Introspective and mysterious. The library sticker on this labels it scifi/fantasy but this is a hard one to classify! Brendan seemingly has gills and claims to breathe underwater. Cara falls in love with him and they have a baby. Then Brendan disappears with their weeks old son. Such an intriguing story!
'He laughed. "Hundreds of thousands of soldiers out there, and they chose me as their guinea pig."'
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
The narrator’s read for the characters Brendan (harsh Boston accent) and Moira were grating. Maybe i will return to the story as a hardcover but in the meantime I’m moving on.
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
The only part of this book I enjoyed was the laughter from the ridiculousness. The writing is immature and adds details about snack brands more than emotion. The main character makes decisions that only a 12 year old would make (no offense to 12 year olds). The mystery falls to pieces within the first 50 pages due to plot holes.
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes