I received a review copy from the publisher as part of the blog tour in exchange for an honest review. It has not affected my opinions.
Genre: Dystopia Age Range: YA Star Rating: 4 stars Series: first book of duology
Blurb:
Welcome to the Arcadia. Once a luxurious cruise ship, it became a refugee camp after being driven from Europe by an apocalyptic war. Now it floats near the coastline of the Federated States – a leftover piece of a fractured USA.
For forty years, residents of the Arcadia have been prohibited from making landfall. It is a world of extreme haves and have nots, gangs and make-shift shelters.
Esther is a loyal citizen, working flat-out to have the rare chance to live a normal life as a medic on dry land. Ben is a rebel, planning something big to liberate the Arcadia once and for all.
When events throw them both together, their lives, and the lives of everyone on the ship, will change forever . . .
Blurb taken from Goodreads. Add to your shelves here.
Review:
THE STRANDED is the start of a dystopian series that calls back to the “classic” YA dystopia age of the early 2010s while standing as something new.
The setting is a luxury cruise ship turned into a refugee camp. It has its gangs and inequalities, making do and mending as best they can while the government the ship has fled to ignores them, abuses them, and keeps them on the edge of death. It’s definitely very easy to see the parallels to refugee camps around the world today and the way governments treat them.
The crumbling luxury cruise ship is a really cool setting as it lends itself well to territories. Instead of different parts of a city, different decks belong to different groups. Plus there’s a flotilla around it because, in 40 years, they’ve needed more space. There’s a real vulnerability to it all – a breach in the hull and they’re all gone. And the ship is not exactly undergone routine maintenance in four decades.
The book is told from Esther, Nik, and Hadley’s perspectives. Hadley is the head of police, working for the government and with a vendetta against the ship-bound people. I liked getting his perspective on events, seeing the behind the scenes of his plans to destroy the ship to get a better sense of the threat.
The book ends quite explosively, with plenty of action scattered throughout the book too. I am looking forward to reading the duology conclusion!
Read my reviews of other books by Sarah Daniels:
The Stranded (this series):
- THE EXILED (#2)
Sifa Elizabeth Reads 