Drowned by Nichola Reilly is an unique dystopian novel that takes place in one of the most terrifying settings I've seen to date. Though I didn't expect to enjoy this one (mostly due to the ambivalent reviews), I found myself turning the pages voraciously and I needed to desperately find out what secrets lie in the Tides. Drowned is as refreshing a read as a cold glass of water on a hot summer day and this is an excellent start to a new series.
Coe lives in a world where water threatens the lives of each islander's life and the current is extremely unpredictable, slowly taking lives and decimating the Tides's population. She has a disability, she only has one functional arm and so, she is viewed as a waste of space. The king of the Tides is on the verge of death and the islanders are frustrated with the lack of progress in regards to survival; the island is getting more dangerous with each day and the islanders are tired of living in fear. Coe suddenly gets the opportunity of a lifetime and suddenly, she's thrown into the middle of the conflict.
I think one of the most significant aspects of this book is the fact that this book features a disabled main character. Though the world is filled with people with disabilities, there are so few books about disabled people which is extremely troubling. Disabled people deserve to be represented in literature and Drowned is one of the select few books I've ever read that featured a disabled main character. Though Coe's disability could be viewed as a handicap, she never lets this fact get to her head and she tries to live her life without letting her disability hinder her life. She still tries to live in her devastated world and be the kind, benevolent person she was raised to be.
Another extremely promising aspect of Drowned is the Tides island where the entire story takes place. Reilly has created such a claustrophobic, tense environment that really puts each character's survival skills to the test and that ensures that no one is truly safe. It's incredibly shocking how someone could live their life constantly in fear and be forced to submit to mothernature. There was something so frightening about the platform on the Tides and how citizens were required to stand on it during high tide.
Drowned kept me engaged throughout most of the book and I loved how Reilly kept surprising the reader with twists and turns. This was an extremely quick read for me and I read this one in no time at all because I was really enjoying it. The fast paced plot never slowed down even for a second, but I lost a bit of focus towards the ending and the conclusion could've been trimmed a bit. The conclusion was still quite shocking and completely altered my opinion of this book, it was a total cliffhanger and it has made me eager for more. This is a series opener that is worth checking out and I feel that Reilly has so much awesomeness planned for book 2
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