Reviews

Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan

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katie_loveless's review

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adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

strawberrycherry's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

After reading all of the Riordanverse books, its nice to enter a whole new universe with his writing. I loved getting to know Ana and her friends, and I had to know how they saved the day. The reveal of the traitor was a little predictable, but it was still a good pay off. I also really appreciate that Ana didn't have a love interest. Other writers would have shoehorned one in, but the story didn't need it, so I'm glad it didn't have it. I'd love to read more of the HP Crew's adventures, if Riordan chooses to make this a series.

annamickreads's review

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5.0

JUST when I thought that I could not be more impressed by Rick Riordan. At 24 without the nostalgia blinders of 12-year-old me re-reading Percy Jackson for the 329045yth time, I thought this was no small task. I am so pleased to say I was entirely wrong.

"Daughter of the Deep" is the story of Ana Dakkar, a young woman who is attending the mysterious Harding-Pentcroft Academy in California. When a terrible accident befalls the Academy, it's up to Ana and her classmates to navigate an emergency and some serious revelations about the deaths of Ana's parents (and the founding of the school itself.)

There are so many things to love about this book. One of them is that Rick's writing somehow manages to quickly give personalities and individual stories to Ana's many equally talented classmates — no easy feat for a book under 400 pages. I think what really worked in Rick's favor was having his two sensitivity readers, Riddhi Kamal Parekh and Lizzie Huxley-Jones, in addition to Roshani Chokshi's guidance. All of Rick's books until this point have been primarily told from a white male perspective, but Ana's voice and experiences felt so distinctly her own I was really proud of how far Rick's storytelling has come.

From a story perspective, it's clear that so much thought and research has been put into every element of this book. From the marine biology components to the basic ship knowledge to the references to "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and "The Mysterious Island," I learned a LOT that I didn't know about underwater exploration in these pages — more than I expected to, to be honest. Sometimes this can be a challenge especially to sea-incompetent readers like me, but if you are patient, there's a lot to love about the story.

While some of the twists in the book felt a little predictable to me (did anyone read Caleb's lines in Luke Castellan's voice? no? Just me? I'm broken? Ok cool) I don't think predictability is a bad thing — it gives the reader the ability to feel satisfied with the ending, which I definitely was. Also, no spoilers, but potential redemption arc for [redacted]? I'm here for it.

Ultimately, I really loved that the themes in this book were centered around collaboration, cooperation, and COMMUNICATION. There's a truly brilliant line Ana has about overcoming obstacles by being in open communication with other people, and I am so excited to continue to see these themes play out in future books.

TL;DR once a Rick stan always a Rick stan I guess!

srujana_reddy_vusirika's review

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adventurous challenging emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

debyik's review

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adventurous challenging mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Full of character-building and exploration at a fast pace. The focus is mainly on the characters and the plot, so the world-building is good albeit a bit sparse. The storyline is engaging and highly enjoyable.

I had such a fun time listening to this book, the audiobook was great and Soneela Nankani did an amazing job with the narration.