Leyla is a submersible racer. Nothing brings her more peace than speeding through the streets of London, viewing the mixture of Old-World items as well as the new buildings under the sea. Her mother passed away many years ago and Leyla has been raised by her father ever since. A few months prior to the start of the novel, Leyla’s father is arrested. They claim that he has been worsening the seasickness disease that some people suffer from, a disease where they become obsessed with the Old World and their mental health deteriorates drastically. Leyla knows her father would never do such a thing as he had personally saved a few of their friends from seasickness, but the government will not even tell her where her father is being held. When she is offered a chance to compete in the prestigious yearly marathon, she knows she will get the chance to beg for her father’s freedom if she wins. Things could never be that simple though and soon she is on the run from the government that she thought she could trust to protect her.
I love dystopian novels and this one was pretty realistic. I already expect within my lifetime for issues of sea levels rising to come up due to global warming. I’m not expecting an asteroid to completely throw off the sea levels, flood the earth, and cause disastrous storms within my lifetime. But you never know! This dystopian world seems less into the far-off unknown future and more in the present than most other novels in this genre. I actually felt more of the pain and stress of these characters as I could see myself in their position.
Leyla was one of the more realistic teen female MCs that I’ve read. She was determined to save the life of the only parent she had left, but she didn’t know how to go about it due to being kept in the dark by the government and those trying to protect her. She makes mistakes, she hurts those trying to help her, and she feels hopeless from time to time. She still never loses sight of her goal and is determined to save the father she loves.
The one thing that I wish had been expanded upon further was exactly how the world had adapted to life under the sea. I knew that the creatures named Anthropoids could swim and were basically horrific villains with superpowers, but could humans swim? If they couldn’t swim at those depths, how were they able to build a world to live in? I don’t know how things really came about after the asteroid hit the earth. Did they have warning? Did they have underground bunkers prepared for people to move into before the rock hit? I wish there was a prequel to this duology to find out more about what happened in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a new science fiction YA novel to enjoy.
I received a copy of this book and this is my voluntary review.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 books.
