DNF at 42%. While this book grabbed my attention at first, I quickly found myself skimming the text. To me it was overly technical with the sailing of the boat and I found the amnesia aspect to be repetitive without giving more information. Unfortunately, this book was just not for me.

Adrift is a fascinating and riveting story that takes place in the future, about a woman who wakes up alone on a sailboat in the remote Pacific Northwest with no memory of who she is or how she got there. She finds a note, but it's more warning than comfort: Start over. Don't make yourself known. Don't look back.

Sarah Jane Song tries to find her way based on the little information left for her. Choosing to go by Ess instead of Sarah, tries to do as the notes say to keep herself in the shadows as she quietly investigates what happened, and where she needs to go to find the answers. Not sure if she is a sailor or not, she reads everything she can about the sailboat she now owns in order to set sail. Nearly drowning in the effort, she sails to a town hundreds of miles away, where she begins again looking for answers.

Ess learns that there are over twenty-five victims just like her, no memory, headaches, and seizures. All of these people are being held in custody until the truth about the Amnesiac Refugees is learned. Ess is determined to discover how she is connected to this group of people and how to survive without her memories as well as staying free from capture.

This is a suspenseful and intriguing plot involving amnesia and the choices that come as a result. I thought it was well written with great characters. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

First off, Thank you to the author and Sourcebooks Landmark for the e-arc to review!



It's the near future and the climate of the world is drastically changing. The ocean is swallowing up major amounts of land. The effects of climate change loom in the background of the story as Ess tries to navigate her situation.
It's hard to review this because at times it was exactly what I wanted, and other times it was just off the mark. I think I would have enjoyed it more had there been more going on. The main character had a lot of conflicting thoughts and decisions, and I just couldn't stand that. However there was a lot that I did like, and that kept me reading. I enjoyed the boating parts, the atmosphere, and the friendships Ess builds.

This debut novel by a Canadian author is very good. Set in 2038 in Canada, this is a story of a woman, Ess, with wiped memories who wakes up alone on a boat with a cryptic note to not dig around in the past. The novel focuses on the impacts of climate change in a future world, scientific advancements, and the role of memory - who are we without them? Ess is very likeable and rootable as she struggles to unearth what happened to her all while trying to build a new life. The writing about nature is very descriptive and there are some good tense/suspenseful scenes. A slight dystopian feel but woven through with character development and human relationships made this an engaging, captivating read. There are also some good secondary characters who round out the plot. I really enjoyed this read!

Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark for this complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

First I have to say that I just didn't enjoy this book at all. I stopped it at about 55% because it was just too out there for me.

A woman wakes up with no memories. There is a note saying to move on and don't try to remember. Of course that would make anyone want to know what is up right. Then there is the man who is rounding up people with lost memories. What is up with this.. Noting good I suspect.

It seems well written but just not a thriller like I thought.
I just didn't enjoy it enough to keep going. It just wasn't what I thought it was going to be. I"m very sorry.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. This is my. own true thoughts about this book.

2/5 stars from me. Read it yourself and decide.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for gifting me this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

SYNOPSIS: Ess awakes on July 5, 2038 with a splitting headache on a drifting, unmanned sailboat in an archipelago in British Columbia. Her memories are gone. She doesn’t know her name and doesn’t remember any life events or experiences. She discovers she’s been left a note that tells her, “There are pills in the drawer for the headaches. You want answers, but this has been done to keep you from them. This is the only way out alive. Start over. Don’t make yourself known. Don’t look back.” Not only does Ess have to navigate a boat, she also has to navigate how now to proceed in life, taking extra precautions along the way. What lies ahead for her and how she makes decisions could alter her course in more ways than one!

REVIEW: This debut novel was full of intrigue and suspense, and I loved her writing style! I found myself asking what I would do if I were in Ess’s situation, and how difficult it would be to trust anyone, especially given the instructions she’s left with This story takes place 7 years into the future and discusses the devastating effects climate control has had on the world – worse each year – not allowing communities to recover from floods, storms and fires before the next one. Without giving anything away, the title of this book is perfection in every sense of the word!

This one comes out May 9, and you’re going to want to get your hands on it!

Adrift centers on Ess, a woman who wakes up on a sailboat with no memory of anything before waking. This sounded like such a good premise but the execution left much to be desired. I went into this book thinking it was a thriller but it came across as more of a mystery. There wasn’t a lot of tense or suspenseful moments and I found myself not super invested in what happened. The pace was a lot slower than most “thrillers” although I’d still say it was a quick read.

I did feel at times there was too much sailing talk that left me a little bored. If you aren’t familiar with sailing, some parts kinda drag.

I ended up finding the ending pretty lackluster. Overall this book was just ok for me. I was entertained enough but it was forgettable.

Thank you netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

What would you do if you woke up with no memory? With a new ID and a note that said to move forward, don't look back?

Half of this seemed like a waste. Boring. And the ending, though predictable, was anticlimactic after finding out what really happened. Did I want it to go another way? Maybeeee. Give me a choose-your-own-adventure and give me the other option too! That would be pretty cool.

Absolutely enthralling thriller from page one. I was unable to put this one down. What an incredible debut.

Do we know what's going on? Nope. But neither does our main character, Ess. Trying to figure it out while she does too was fun. I found it really interesting in the beginning with her knowing things when she didn't think too hard on it. It really kept those earlier pages turning. There's a lot in this but you'll have to read it.

I like the premise of Adrift. Ess wakes up with no memories on a boat. The world is different from our own and on the verge of a climate disaster. As a result people are paying to be smuggled into a countries like Canada that are safer. As Ess struggles to find out who she is and why she has no memories, she has to come to terms with who she might have been in the past. I like the questions that the story raises about our responsibility for our own actions. The story picked up about half way through, and it was worth being a bit confused at the beginning for the ending payoff. While this one isn't quite a thriller in my eyes, the mystery and the story line are worth the read.

When she wakes up alone on a boat, with a raging headache, no memory of who she is and a not warning her not to look into her past Ess does what anyone who can't remember does. She looks through every inch of the boat looking for clues to her identity. She finds out she isn't the only person who has amnesia, and those that have been discovered have been detained by the government..

Ess decides that she has to find out why she has amnesia and why she is different from the others that have been found. This takes her on a journey uncovering her past, while at the same time trying to stay one step ahead of those who would take her into custody.

This is definitely a more character-driven story, and while there are plenty of twists and turns there isn't a ton of action-packed moments. I enjoyed watching Ess try and uncover her past, and her relationships with Hito and his sister Yori. All of the tidbits that we learn about the world that Ess lives in was super intriguing, and Ess herself really kept me interested and wanting to find out how it was all going to end.
I will be on the look out for anything else this author writes.

I did end up loving this book and the message of Ess finding her place in the world despite her lack of memories. However, I wish it would have taken a deeper dive into exactly what happened with the nanotech that caused her to want to wipe her memory. Essentially, I wanted to know the contents of that file folder!

I received a gifted copy of ADRIFT by Lisa Brideau from Sourcebooks Landmark.

ADRIFT is a mystery set in a not too distant future where climate change has had a drastic on the world. Ess wakes up on a sailboat out at sea in the Pacific Northwest with no memory as to who she is or how she got here. She can remember things like how to sail a boat, but doesn’t have a single memory from her past or how she came by the knowledge that she does have. All she has is a note without context telling her to start over and not look back.

Ess learns that a number of people have been discovered in somewhat similar situations. These people are adrift at sea, also with no recollection of who they are. Where she has a nice boat and resources to draw on, these mystery people are left in rundown boats with nothing to live on. With these people getting a lot of scrutiny from law enforcement, Ess must keep her own situation quiet while also trying to get answers about her past that she can’t accept aren’t worth finding.

The mix of climate fiction and a mystery / thriller drew me to this synopsis when I was offered a review copy and I really enjoyed my time with this book. I can’t imagine waking up in Ess’ situation and trying to figure out what comes next. While the note she’s been left is pretty clear that she is meant to move on and leave the past behind, how would you even have the ability to trust whoever left the note?

This book is definitely more character driven than plot heavy and I did really enjoy learning who Ess was as she was figuring it out for herself. There were a few twists to the story that I expected, but it was done in a way that kept me wanting to read more so it was a success.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this thought-provoking and interesting novel set in the near future (2038 -2039). In a dystopian near future, climate change has accelerated with disastrous results. Floods, stronger storms, unbearable heat, drought, crop failure, and famine are now usual. These are addressed urgently and are all too believable. People are fleeing their now unmanageable situations in the USA and flocking to Canada as refugees, where the conditions have not become as grim....yet. This is a slow-paced book, and its classification as a thriller is a mistake. It is more of a psychological drama where desperate choices are made. Are people willing to have their past lives obliterated and forge new ones? I regret I was not fully engaged. I failed to connect with some of the notable characters.

A woman wakes up on a boat in turbulent waters near the island of Haida Gwaii near the BC coast. She has lost memory of her past and cannot recall who she is and how she got there. She cannot recognize her face in a mirror but knows how to navigate the sailboat and read charts. Only her personal memories are gone. Documents identify her as Sarah Song and that she is the boat's registered owner, has access to a large sum of money, and other identification papers. She feels this is not her actual name and calls herself Ess. She has a strong suspicion that she is under electronic surveillance and is being followed. Is this to cause her great harm or to protect her? She worries that she may be fleeing some wrongdoing in her past. She finds notes saying: Start over. Don't make yourself known. Don't look back. These directions increase her unease.

I felt references to boats, sailing, and navigation took me out of the mystery. Later discussion of the neurology of amnesia was interesting but detracted from the story. After a mishap on the boat, Ess goes on shore to the beautiful, forested island where the people are welcoming, but she feels driven to uncover who she used to be and why those memories were erased. Was it deliberate? While sailing far along the coast of British Columbia, she learns that many refugees are showing up with amnesia, and without the resources that had been left for her. Why is she different? Her symptoms are similar.

She meets a man, Hito, who I a member of Harbour Patrol. Among his duties is rounding up amnesiacs, sending them for neurological assessment and then into detention. She knows she must keep her condition secret from him, even though a romance may be slowly developing. Hito's troubled and unstable sister, Yori, was once a talented artist. Ess and Yori form a deep and strong friendship, which I thought unlikely. Ess explains her present circumstances to Yori, who vows confidentiality, and she requests Yori's help. She keeps her distance from Hito but may be harbouring feelings for him. Finally, Ess learns that a flight to Vancouver can fully uncover her past life. A terrible storm puts Yori's life in danger, and Ess chooses to rescue her and save her life, missing her chance to discover details of her past in Vancouver. However, most of the mystery of why her memory has been blocked and the reasons are already known to her.

Now she must choose whether to pursue her old life or to live in a time of climatic disaster with an entirely new life, new identity and friends. How far would one go to avoid their grim circumstances at home for a place with a more stable climate but without their past memories?

Imagine waking up with zero memories of who you are, or anything from your life on a sailboat, in the future where global warming is in full swing and natural disasters are everywhere.

That is the general idea of this book. I loved the mystery of Ess trying to figure out who she is, what kind of person she was, and her connections she makes with two people she meets in Canada. I literally feel like I can’t say much about the plot because it would be giving you spoilers, but it was an enjoyable read! The plot went in a direction I didn’t expect at all, and the pacing was on point. It starts with a bang right off the bat so you immediately get sucked into the storyline. I’m not sure how I would classify the genre. It isn’t a thriller, maybe more of a psychological mystery? This was a fantastic debut novel!

DNF @ 38%

I think some people will really like this book - it is an interesting premise and well written; however, for myself, I found it too slow-paced and not as thrilling as I was hoping it would be. I think I could try picking this book up again and finishing it, but for right now, I just don't think I was the audience for it.

When a woman wakes up on a yacht Mord by a group of violence saying her name is Sarah with a bunch of cash and her financial and personal credentials she cannot remember her past and she finds a note warning her not to look for answers but to look towards the future and do not make herself known. She spends the first few days alone even for going getting her water system fixed and despite feeling thirsty and totally dehydrated when I man comes to check on her in his own boat and she can clearly see water in his she doesn’t ask for any due to being nervous and not wanting to give her situation away. When she finds a business card from a boat repair shop that’s on an island six weeks away she said the course to go there despite the talk of bad weather. After a treacherous trip that almost killed her she finally makes it to the island and goes to the repair shop where she meets Moe who instantly acts like she knows Sarah and even though this is what Sarah was hoping for she is a little taken aback after questioning Mo she finds out she went there with an intimidating man who acted more like her employee then the boss. Later on back on the boat the harbor police make their presence known and say they’re climbing aboard. after an inspection in an awkward conversation with a good looking harbor police S hand him the papers for the boat and find out that she is at a class level the that insist her and her boat be treated with kit gloves. Before the cop leaves however he a XS if she would like him to show her the island and unlike her past personality she said yes. OK I’m going to stop here because just like the book I’m totally losing enthusiasm to write this review it’s about a woman who wants the fine I’ll wash of them Knigge why she has to take these pills every day and who the hell watches before all this started. The things she will find out will be shocking and although they have many twists in this book it just wasn’t really my type of book that was romance adventure what’s that all falls under my wheelhouse but I don’t know if it was her ridiculous personality I DK I know the author is one of my favorites and so I thought I would absolutely love this book and even put it on the list of books I couldn’t wait to read but unfortunately it just wasn’t my type of book I finished it only for the purposes of this review but I would’ve definitely DNF this book had I read it on my own time. I received this book from NetGalley and a publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

This is more of a mystery book than thriller but I really enjoyed it. Ess wakes up on a boat with complete amnesia with a note saying Start over. Don't make yourself known. Don't look back. Should she do as the note says and start over or try and figure out who she is? I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

Lisa Brideau brings her debut novel to forefront with this psychological mystery, more than thriller, with Adrift.

Imagine waking up on a sailboat alone and not knowing where you are, or more importantly, WHO you are; then you find a note that say to move forward and not look back. This is our first introduction to the main character Sarah (Ess) Song.

With the undeniable knowledge of sailing, Lisa Brideau slowly reveals the thrilling journey of Ess as she attempts to figure out who she is and what happened that caused her amnesia. The revelations that she finds are unpredictable and intriguing.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for the ARC and for the opportunity to read and to provide an honest and unbiased review. 3.5 stars

Ess has no memories. The first thing she remembers is being alone on a sailboat, drifting near a remote island off the coast of Canada, with a note telling her to start her life over and warning her not to look back, telling her “this is the only way out alive.” But once she makes her way to civilization, she finds out she’s not the only person this has happened to - though all the others have been taken into custody and studied. In spite of the warnings, Ess feels driven to find out what happened to her, but she must do so without being found out.

I've seen plenty of books start out with the main character having no memory, usually in the sci-fi genre. Since this book takes place in the future during a climate crisis, and centers around memory-erasing technology, it’s definitely sci-fi, though it doesn’t really have the feel of a sci-fi book. I think it’s supposed to be a thriller, but it’s not especially fast-paced. I found my attention drifting (ha) frequently as I read this book. One of the most suspenseful things that happens, in terms of emotional stakes, was resolved quickly and easily, which was kind of a letdown because I thought the book was finally about to get good. The story revolves around Ess, but she’s kind of bland, maybe in part because she’s a blank slate memory-wise. I always found the side characters, like Raven, Hito, and Yori, more interesting. The side characters are what saves this book from a lower rating.

This is an okay book but there’s better climate change sci-fi, memory-loss sci-fi and memory-loss thrillers out there.