sssssoup's reviews
46 reviews

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would. Everything about it is executed so well and I have no complaints with it all. The characters, the worldbuilding, the plot!!! It’s all so wonderful, I was smiling while I read!

The writing style itself was so fun to read. It had a lot of description, but it felt balanced with the dialogue and it didn’t feel overly flowery. The plot was also very well done. It has a lot of moving parts and I was impressed with how everything got resolved. You could argue that the ending was too convenient, but it made sense and felt natural to me, so I’m not complaining.

I also really liked the characters a lot. The progression of Tal’s arc was very well executed and I really liked seeing how he changed over the course of the story. I also felt like

the romance between him and Athlen was very well written as well. It felt more natural and realistic than most romance subplots I’ve read in other YA books. It didn’t feel forced or rushed like romance often does (in my opinion) and it was really nice to see something where they didn’t jump straight from meeting right into being in love.

I also liked the worldbuilding and how the author took time to really explore the world’s history. I think it would’ve been nice to have a map, but I was still able to understand without one.

Overall I just really really loved this book!! It’s definitely a new favorite of mine, and it exceeded my expectations by miles. The messages and themes in it as well as the ending really made me smile and I think it’s an important book that a lot of people would benefit from reading. I will definitely be thinking about it for a long time and will be recommending it to everyone I know!

Content Warnings

Out of the Blue by Jason June

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful lighthearted 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

2.5

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for over six months, but unfortunately, I found it to be a huge letdown. The premise was really interesting and it had so much potential, but for me, it ended up being incredibly mid.

Things I liked:
-The casual representation was really nice to see
-I thought the world building with the merfolk and their culture was interesting and pretty well done. I especially liked the stuff about gender
-I liked Crest’s exploration of gender presentation
-It was a pretty fun and quick read
-The portrayal of teenagers felt pretty realistic. Teenagers make a lot of stupid choices, as did the characters in this book (I myself am a teenager)

Things I didn’t like:
-Personally, I found all the mer-slang to be cringy and overused
-The extent of Crest’s confusion about human culture didn’t make sense to me. They supposedly took human culture classes for years, yet they didn’t know how to cross the street or open a door? Also, in one of the first chapters, it says that Crest has mer magic to help them understand human things if they get confused, but it’s only used one time and never mentioned again?
-I was uncomfortable with how much the teenaged characters talked about sex-related topics (I myself am a teenager and I thought it was weird). It’s not bad to have teenage characters who aren’t ashamed of being horny or anything, but I felt like Sean and Crest were often reduced to their sexual attraction and I found it took away from the other more important parts of their characters. I also didn’t like how their relationship was built so heavily on physicality and lust, yet they kept talking about how they were in love
-The pacing was also off in my opinion, especially toward the end. It felt like the author kept adding in more and more things just to add to the drama of the situations. I saw another reviewer who said that they should’ve focused in on a few things instead of having so many, and I’m inclined to agree

Overall, it was a fun, quick read that you don’t have to think too much about, but I was disappointed because I didn’t love it like I thought I would. I don’t hate it, but I definitely won’t be recommending it to anyone either.

Content Warnings