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A review by smpearce
Fractured Tide by Leslie Lutz
3.0
I was pretty hyped for this book— A young adult version of Lost? Sign me up!
I really liked the concept and survival themes, and I thought it was cool to learn more about diving! Some of the descriptions were super pretty and I liked the analogies the main character made.
Things started out pretty exciting, with a mysterious monster and a shipwreck off the bat! I enjoyed the MC’s confidence in her diving skills, too, and her backstory was intriguing.
The book unfortunately fell a bit flat for me, especially towards the end. The idea is interesting but it didn’t feel especially well planned out—lots of plot convenience, lack of character development, and an unnecessary/unrealistic romance tampered the book’s potential a lot.
I think there was some missed opportunity with the writing-to-dad style too. The narrator was already kind of interestingly unreliable, and it could have been great to see that style of writing played with more. The Martian is one of my absolute favourite books and largely because of the way the journal/log style is used for humour, foreshadowing, character insight, etc and I think this book could have taken advantage of the style in a similar way.
I also love seeing siblings in fiction, so it was great to have Felix along, but I’d have loved to see them spend more time together/their dynamic be more developed.
Overall, the book had a great start and some awesome concepts/elements, but felt like it needed to be planned and developed a lot more. I’d recommend checking it out if you’re interested and like thriller/survival type stories!
I really liked the concept and survival themes, and I thought it was cool to learn more about diving! Some of the descriptions were super pretty and I liked the analogies the main character made.
Things started out pretty exciting, with a mysterious monster and a shipwreck off the bat! I enjoyed the MC’s confidence in her diving skills, too, and her backstory was intriguing.
The book unfortunately fell a bit flat for me, especially towards the end. The idea is interesting but it didn’t feel especially well planned out—lots of plot convenience, lack of character development, and an unnecessary/unrealistic romance tampered the book’s potential a lot.
I think there was some missed opportunity with the writing-to-dad style too. The narrator was already kind of interestingly unreliable, and it could have been great to see that style of writing played with more. The Martian is one of my absolute favourite books and largely because of the way the journal/log style is used for humour, foreshadowing, character insight, etc and I think this book could have taken advantage of the style in a similar way.
I also love seeing siblings in fiction, so it was great to have Felix along, but I’d have loved to see them spend more time together/their dynamic be more developed.
Overall, the book had a great start and some awesome concepts/elements, but felt like it needed to be planned and developed a lot more. I’d recommend checking it out if you’re interested and like thriller/survival type stories!