Sue's Reviews > Deep Blue

I picked this up because it's by Jennifer Donnelly, has a gorgeous cover, and sounded fun. First, it's no "A Northern Light" which is a powerful book. Second, I came to this review prepared to tell you all that's wrong with the story as a good reviewer should: the first few chapters are like drinking from a firehose as you are immersed in the politics and lore of this world. And yes, the water references are unavoidable. But as I sat here thinking, I realized that when I read it, I had just unloosed my buried preteen self and had fun with it. And the target audience will definitely have fun. There are fun word tricks throughout. The money is currensea and you become invisible with magical transparensea pearls. The undersea world is imaginative, fully realized, and interesting with a history and lots of magic. The girls are average teens with lots of slang who discover they have powers and are better when they work together, so there's a lot of girl-power stuff going on. Basically, it's a really fun middle grade story written by a good writer who knew how to make it interesting. So relax and enjoy! #2 comes out next year.