Rated 3.5 ROUNDED up to 4 STARS
Lying in the Deep captivated my interest as soon as I started reading and I couldn't put it down until I finished (hence, the rounded up score). College student, Jade and her roommate (turned frenemy) Lainey and her ex-boyfriend Silas (who now dates Lainey) all attend Stanford (WHY do all of the YA books lately place characters at the most exclusive schools that are unattainable for the majority of students?? Other students in this book attend Harvard, BU, etc) and ALL find themselves on the Campus On Board ship (similar to Semester At Sea) for 4 months. The descriptions of the ship, the ports-of-call, the food, the characters and situations all brought the story and mysteries to life. There were several twists that added to the story (some were easily guessed, others were more complex), however I was distracted by the interactions, vocabulary and dialog that clearly placed these students more in the upper middle school to early high school category, vs the elite college they were supposed to be attending ("zillions" and "lots of" occurred several times, along with many other examples.). Had the interactions been a bit more realistic and age appropriate, this book would have been a solid 4 to 5 STAR read for me. I'm looking forward to reading more of this author's work!
Lying in the Deep captivated my interest as soon as I started reading and I couldn't put it down until I finished (hence, the rounded up score). College student, Jade and her roommate (turned frenemy) Lainey and her ex-boyfriend Silas (who now dates Lainey) all attend Stanford (WHY do all of the YA books lately place characters at the most exclusive schools that are unattainable for the majority of students?? Other students in this book attend Harvard, BU, etc) and ALL find themselves on the Campus On Board ship (similar to Semester At Sea) for 4 months. The descriptions of the ship, the ports-of-call, the food, the characters and situations all brought the story and mysteries to life. There were several twists that added to the story (some were easily guessed, others were more complex), however I was distracted by the interactions, vocabulary and dialog that clearly placed these students more in the upper middle school to early high school category, vs the elite college they were supposed to be attending ("zillions" and "lots of" occurred several times, along with many other examples.). Had the interactions been a bit more realistic and age appropriate, this book would have been a solid 4 to 5 STAR read for me. I'm looking forward to reading more of this author's work!