The Stranded by Sarah Daniels | Book Review
The Stranded
Author: Sarah Daniels
Pages: 448
Genre: Fantasy | YA | Sci Fi | Dystopian
Publication Date: July 21, 2022
Buy the Book: Amazon
Happy Friday everyone! How has everyone’s week gone and what are you all reading this weekend? I’m currently reading The Exiled by Sarah Daniels which is the sequel to this absolutely incredibly book I have reviewed for you below as part of The Write Reads Ultimate Blog Tour!
Synopsis
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. Nik 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 . . .
My Review
It’s been a while since I’ve read Dystopian, which is surprising to me as it used to be one of my favourite genres. There aren’t really any that have caught my eye recently. So when I saw The Write Reads doing this tour, I signed up straight away because it was the perfect excuse to get back into the genre.
I loved this book from start to finish and I found it really hard to put down. I got completely lost in the story and I found the world building amazing. The author has done a great job at painting the lives of the different groups of people aboard the Arcadia cruise ship that has been stranded at sea for 40 years after a deadly virus was released. It can be a bit slow towards the beginning as we learn about the upper and lower class passengers, how life is run in 2094 and what actually went wrong in the world that resulted in everyone, well nearly everyone living aboard these cramped cruise ships. All of this information we get is totally worth it though. It felt like I became a part of the life on this ship and could picture everything and everyone in this eerie and deadly world.
As well as having amazing world building, there is great character development and also a lot of brutal action that helps pick up the pace of the book. I could really feel that these people are fighting for their lives and a better future, that’s how consumed I was by this book. I’m also a big fan of multiple povs and I LOVE that we get to see this world from so many eyes around the ship. Esther and Nik are my absolute faves though and I can’t wait to see them in action again.
One thing I would have liked because I love a good deadly disease (fictionally), is more about the virus. What it is, what it does and where has it gone? I’m hoping there is more of an explanation in the next book.
Overall, The Stranded is such a gripping, unexpected book full of action, betrayal, rebellion and even has some very slight romance in and I loved every word of it. It checks all of the boxes for me and I can’t wait to start the next one to find out what happens in this twisted world!
About the Author
Sarah Daniels is an ex-archaeologist who escaped academia and now writes stories from her home in rural Lincolnshire. Her work has been published in various online magazines and has been nominated for best British and Irish Flash Fiction and Best Small Fictions.
If you want to contact her, you can do so at the following locations:
Buy the Book: Amazon
Thank you The Write Reads, Penguin and the author for a spot on the blog tour.
