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A review by hanbart19
The Vanishing Deep by Astrid Scholte
1.0
*CONTAINS SPOILERS*
When I first started this book, I was intrigued by the premise--a post-apocalyptic world covered in water, where the dead can be revived for 24 hours on the mysterious island Palindromena. A girl determined to find answers, who wants to know the truth about her parents' deaths.
Tempest Alerin chooses to revive her sister, Elysea, who she believes is responsible for their parents' deaths several years before. They embark on a journey to find their parents (who may not be dead after all), and are joined by Lor, an employee of the island with a dark past.
I wish I could say I enjoyed it.
It required a lot of suspension of belief, especially as a bio student. They can revive the dead, but only drowning victims? Other diseases (like 'crystal lung') are completely incurable. The revived are linked to a living person, a Warden, through bracelets connected to their heartbeats. Sure. Okay.
The characters themselves are what bothered me most, though. Tempest was insufferable. Her whole personality was being angry and full of grief, which may be understandable given her whole family is dead, but it got grating after a while. Surprise--they're not actually dead! So lighten up. Elysea didn't have much of a personality besides being a dancer. Lor was just weird. 90% of his chapters was self-loathing, and the other 10% was him drooling over how hot Tempest was, even though they were in a life-or-death situation. Read the room, bud.
The plot was supposed to be built on tension: a countdown heads each chapter, the clock ticking away to Elysea's second (and final) death. They had to be back on Palindromena before her 24 hours ran out, or else they would get caught (and someone--either Ely or Lor--would die). Yet, there wasn't a sense of urgency to any of their actions.
That said, time was a greater villain than anyone else in the novel. The Remorans, a band of pirates that boarded their boat, were nothing more than a nuisance. I expected more from a group that was rumored to be ruthless and cannibalistic. Nessandra, the leader at Palindromena, was a stronger contender: her unethical experiments on people, both living and dead, were horrific. The MCs' actions were a direct threat to her research, which she was supposedly very protective of, but she was totally apathetic when she found out Elysea had escaped. She even tried to help them save her son's life.
Ah, yes. Lor's tragic ending. What was the point of the last fifty pages if their rescue plan was doomed to fail? I found myself hoping he wouldn't survive, because it would have cheapened his sacrifice, not that I was overly impressed or surprised by it to begin with. Even still, it feels like a frustrating loose end, since his body can be preserved for years. Perhaps the author was laying grounds for a sequel..which I won't be reading.
Oh, well. Should've DNFed.
When I first started this book, I was intrigued by the premise--a post-apocalyptic world covered in water, where the dead can be revived for 24 hours on the mysterious island Palindromena. A girl determined to find answers, who wants to know the truth about her parents' deaths.
Tempest Alerin chooses to revive her sister, Elysea, who she believes is responsible for their parents' deaths several years before. They embark on a journey to find their parents (who may not be dead after all), and are joined by Lor, an employee of the island with a dark past.
I wish I could say I enjoyed it.
It required a lot of suspension of belief, especially as a bio student. They can revive the dead, but only drowning victims? Other diseases (like 'crystal lung') are completely incurable. The revived are linked to a living person, a Warden, through bracelets connected to their heartbeats. Sure. Okay.
The characters themselves are what bothered me most, though. Tempest was insufferable. Her whole personality was being angry and full of grief, which may be understandable given her whole family is dead, but it got grating after a while. Surprise--they're not actually dead! So lighten up. Elysea didn't have much of a personality besides being a dancer. Lor was just weird. 90% of his chapters was self-loathing, and the other 10% was him drooling over how hot Tempest was, even though they were in a life-or-death situation. Read the room, bud.
The plot was supposed to be built on tension: a countdown heads each chapter, the clock ticking away to Elysea's second (and final) death. They had to be back on Palindromena before her 24 hours ran out, or else they would get caught (and someone--either Ely or Lor--would die). Yet, there wasn't a sense of urgency to any of their actions.
That said, time was a greater villain than anyone else in the novel. The Remorans, a band of pirates that boarded their boat, were nothing more than a nuisance. I expected more from a group that was rumored to be ruthless and cannibalistic. Nessandra, the leader at Palindromena, was a stronger contender: her unethical experiments on people, both living and dead, were horrific. The MCs' actions were a direct threat to her research, which she was supposedly very protective of, but she was totally apathetic when she found out Elysea had escaped. She even tried to help them save her son's life.
Ah, yes. Lor's tragic ending. What was the point of the last fifty pages if their rescue plan was doomed to fail? I found myself hoping he wouldn't survive, because it would have cheapened his sacrifice, not that I was overly impressed or surprised by it to begin with. Even still, it feels like a frustrating loose end, since his body can be preserved for years. Perhaps the author was laying grounds for a sequel..which I won't be reading.
Oh, well. Should've DNFed.