The Abyss Surrounds Us (edició 2016)

Lesbian pirates. Need I say more?

Seriously though, this was such a fun read! Loved the world building, never read a book with pirates in it so this is the first but I genuinely enjoyed the fun-ness of it. There's action, some queer romance, a great protagonist and then some. I liked how the protagonist questions her actions and how she essentially turns into an anti-heroine throughout the book. Didn't know I liked that trope till I read the Villains series by V.E Schwab(another great anti-hero series that you should totally read btw) but here I am! Also, SWIFT. Can't wait to finish the sequel. ( )

Too bleak for my tastes. ( )

So, this was as fantastic as I was hoping it would be. I'm so late to the party but I'm glad I finally read this gem of a book. It's like Pacific Rim if Pacific Rim was gay and there were pirates and the monsters were your friends and kind of adorable. So basically its everything I didn't know I wanted, but I'm so glad exists. ( )

This book was honestly such a surprise! I picked it up because I saw a good review, and thought it sounded vaguely interesting. Like, ALL I knew coming in was sapphic pirates, and something about sea monster trainers.

Which sounds amazing, of course! It was enough to make me pick this book up after seeing only one review, which I rarely do. But still, I went in with exactly zero expectations.

And then the beginning was a bit slow...

But this book blew me out of the water! (I'm sorry, bad ocean puns... I can't help it...)

I LOVED this book! It was SO good! And I haven't stopped flailing about it and yelling at everyone to read it ever since!

Okay so the CHARACTERS!!!

Cas was an awesome protagonist! I really liked her, and something about her voice was just... really refreshing to read. She was just... I don't even know. She wasn't perfect. She wanted to stay alive, and she sometimes went against everything she'd been taught in order to do so. But she wasn't selfish or anything either. She was just... I don't really know how to explain it (by which I mean I read this too long ago and only half remember...). But I loved her. A lot.

Swift was also amazing! Swift was honestly my absolute favourite! She was so hard and prickly and rude, but she had a heart of gold inside, and I just adored her! Also her snark and sass was great!

The other side characters were great too! I just... don't remember any names, so I can't really offer much more in the way of details. But they were great.

And the ROMANCE!
It was adorable. And look, just don't question my definition of 'adorable', okay? They were adorable as they spat insults at each other and threatened to murder each other, and they were even more adorable when they had their soft, sweet, touching moments. And AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

The world-building was good too. It wasn't as developed as it could have been, but the book was really short, so it was pretty good for it's length, and I'm hoping we'll learn more in book two as well. And the development truly was good, just not spectacular.

Plus the plot was fast paced and I couldn't put it down.

All in all, this was an amazing book, and I would like the sequel RIGHT THIS SECOND PLEASE?!?!

***Initial Reaction, June 1, 2018***

SO. GOOD. Can I have the sequel RIGHT NOW please?!?! RTC. ( )

Title: The Abyss Surrounds Us

Author: Emily Skrutskie

Publication Date: Feb 2016

Genre: YA Fantasy

Score: 2/5

I was totally “meh” on this all the way through. This is described as YA, but it felt middle grade to me. Everything was very shallow. Plus, I don’t think the author knows what “smirks” means. I mean, the primary couple of characters felt like they were mugging all over the place. Not recommended.

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