wow. this book was so amazing!! i can't believe netgalley let me read this early .thank you so much! it was amazing and wonderful and fun and the characters were just so so so great!!!

This was an interesting book. I thought that the two PoVs were very different and interesting. I was hoping that the two would manage to become friends again and well…. I won’t tell what happened. I did find the twists to be surprising and I didn’t see the ending coming which is always good. It’s rare for me to not guess twists.

However it just didn’t captivate me enough to give it four or five stars and I had trouble connecting with some characters. Still it was a good story.

Always love me a good murder mystery! This book follows a lot of the notes that other YA murder mysteries follow, but it also brings its own little twists to the table. I enjoyed this one a lot, and I will admit that I had some indication of where the ending was going, but I'm happy to report that I didn't guess correctly 100%. Things are not convoluted and is a fairly linear plot, but it still leaves you wondering what is going on and how it will all go down in the end.

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. Books written by two authors are always a unique art to me, it can't be easy to build a world, and a plot with someone else. I applaud Ms. Cast & Ms. Dunn for being able to do so. I liked the story presented, however I must say the choice to have two MC's with similar names confused me many times. I thought the mystery was well developed, if not a touch predicable, but overall was a joy to read. A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book. It was hard to put down this book by the end. Both authors did a great job making the book seamless that I was surprised two authors wrote this. Also the book made me question if I want to go on a cruise ship because to be suck on a ship with a murder with no where to hide makes for a tense reading experience. It’s edge of your seat action packed book. The reason behind the murder was as honest as it gets in real life and shows how far people would go for what they want. I can’t wait till the authors write a new book.

This was a quick-paced read that went from zero to one hundred quite quickly. It’s definitely more suited for younger readers (teen/young adult) and reads like an enjoyable Netflix series. I was surprised how much I ended up enjoying it, as I wasn’t all together hooked from the beginning. It ended up coming together nicely. Yana and Naya were great main characters, and it was really great to see both of their perspectives and journeying together (even though I can understand from other reviews why it would be confusing with their names being so similar. The rest of the cast was alright as well, and I liked the individual interactions from character to character. I was happy with how it came together and how the ending formed, but I was a tiny bit perplexed because one of the characters at the end definitely didn’t know how to swim and it felt a little questionable to me how the ending came to be. Overall, enjoyable and an easy read to blast through, and I think any murder mystery enthusiast would enjoy it a lot.

Thank you so much to Random House Children’s, Kristin Cast, Pintip Dunn, and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

(There was a small mistake on I think the page for Chapter 34, where the time read PM instead of AM, and I thought we’d propelled quite a bit ahead in time until I realized it was a typo!)

I was excited for this because I loved locked-room mysteries. I just couldn't get into this one and had to DNF. I'm sure there is a audience that will love this one, but it just wasn't me, sadly.

This was awful. First of all, the two main characters are named NAYA and YANA. Way to confuse your audience. Also, the dialogue was clearly written by someone who once had teenagers described to them in passing but has never actually met one. The plot was predictable and everyone in this book was insufferable. I hated it and wish I had those hours back in my life.

This was a great concept for a young adult thriller novel, I always enjoy a thriller where you can’t escape from the threat. This uses that element perfectly and builds that suspenseful atmosphere. Kristin Cast and Pintip Dunn write a great story and I enjoyed the team-up in this novel. The characters were strongly written and interesting in the story, it felt like I was there in the boat with the characters.

I adore locked room and isolated location mysteries. In fact, they're probably one of my favorite troupes. I went into this hoping it would be a bit of a YA Death on the Nile, and... it's not. I shouldn't have expected so much. I rate YA novels differently, and probably with more leeway, but even by those standards I found it unenjoyable.

The characters were essentially all unlikable and made it incredibly hard to care about their fate (as in I didn't. At all.) Odd choice to have the two MCs have such similar names. The reveal wasn't shocking, and there were just too many things that didn't make sense.

Unfortunately, I wouldn't recommend this to my YA/Thriller friends.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's for the e-ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

A fun mystery story. Main characters names are very similar and can be a bit confusing at times.

Thank you to the publisher and author for this ARC!

I received an advanced copy of this book from Random House Children's via NetGalley.

Aboard a luxurious yacht, two estranged friends, Naya Morgan and Yana Bunpraserit, find themselves entangled in a deadly mystery. As members of an exclusive society for recent graduates from Yatesville High, they embark on a celebratory journey to Bermuda, navigating through microaggressions and their complex history. However, their voyage takes a sinister turn when a classmate is brutally murdered, leaving them trapped at sea with a killer among them.

I had high hopes for Seasick, anticipating a blend of Below Deck allure with the thrill of a whodunit, all set against the backdrop of youthful intrigue. However, the novel fell short of my expectations. The pacing, at times, felt uneven, with several lulls and a dragging conclusion that hindered the overall engagement.

The cast of characters was, unfortunately, largely unlikable. Narrated through the perspectives of Naya and Yana, the story might have benefited from additional viewpoints, providing a more comprehensive picture of the students and their dynamics. The killer, could not possibly have done everything in the book, it stretched the bounds of capabilities.

One of the notable letdowns was the premature unveiling of the villain's identity. Clues scattered throughout the book offer readers insight into the perpetrator, diminishing the suspense that a well-executed mystery should evoke.

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

As far as mysteries go, this one had me questioning what I knew and who I believed throughout most of it. A good sign of a mystery is that you suspect everyone and trust no one, and I felt that throughout the book. Aside from the mystery aspect, the narrators are two outsiders in amongst a group of rich, popular friends. Biracial Naya is a part of the friend group, but she often finds herself wondering if she really fits in and if they really like her for who she is or for who she pretends to be. Thai-American Yana, never fit in with the popular kids and never really wanted to. Through tragedy and fear, can these two girls find their way back into a lost friendship?

Seasick is a YA contemporary locked-room mystery that takes place on a megayacht over the span of 24 hours. Eight students are selected to attend a luxury trip to Bermuda. Most students who are selected are from the richest and most powerful families in Oklahoma. Not coming from such backgrounds, Yana and Naya, former best friends, find themselves feeling like outsiders. Naya may have been accepted by the popular group, but she still doesn't feel like she belongs, and Yana has simply never felt like she belonged. Despite everything, both girls are determined to make the most of this epic adventure. Unfortunately, on the first night, one of the students is discovered brutally murdered and that student isn't the last. The trip soon becomes one of survival rather than luxury. As secrets are revealed and lies uncovered, the bodies begin to pile up. Who will survive? Who is the killer?

While I do love a good locked-room mystery, Seasick just didn't do it for me. The pacing was a bit off - there were quite a few slow parts and the end dragged on. The characters are all quite unlikable. The story is told through two POVs, Naya and Yana. I actually think it could have been more interesting if there were more POVs (if some of the other students had chapters). The deaths were also quite gruesome. Finally, I thought the killer, while predictable, was also unrealistic. The killer just couldn't realistically have done everything that they are believed to have done. There were also some editing issues. I feel like the author included some clues that were later deleted but then were referenced later in the book, which was a bit confusing. Overall, Seasick just wasn't that enjoyable.

This book was so good! I really liked how things played out, it was very unexpected and every time you thought you had everything figured out, something happened to completely change the story!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Even though this was a YA book I still enjoyed it.
I love “locked room” mysteries and thrillers and this is definitely one of those.
Definitely worth the read.

This review was made possible via an ARC through NetGalley

Seasick by Kristin Cast and Pintip Dunn is a YA contemporary mystery where Naya and Yana, two former childhood best friends are on a megayacht on their way to Bermuda when some of their classmates end up dead. Yana is Thai-American while Naya is a biracial young woman in small town Oklahoma; both have had their ups and downs with their classmates and there are references to microaggressions and Thai culture, but it takes more of a backseat to the plot.

Naya’s boyfriend, Etienne, a French exchange student, is also on the ship as well as Yana’s almost boyfriend Gabe, several of Yana’s friends, and Everly, a popular girl who runs a blog exposing other people’s secrets. Naya, Yana, and the others are inducted into an exclusive society formed by Seraphina Yates, a multimillionaire who is leaving her entire fortune to her secret grandchild…until the discovery of a second grandchild risks splitting the fortune in half.

Seasick is fairly fast-paced and isn’t as focused on feelings for the interiority so much as focused on the past friendship between Naya and Yana and how they stopped being friends and the relationships between Yana and Gabe and Naya and Etienne. Naya and Yana really carry the book and the dual-POV aspect lets you see from both sides how much they miss each other.

I would recommend this to readers looking for a YA mystery with strong romance and friendship subplots.

Thank you to netgalley and Random House Children's, Delacorte Press for allowing me to read this book. This was a quick and fast paced thriller read and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this book ahead of time in exchange for a review. It didn't disappoint! Must read!!

I loved the idea of this book. Ex friends having to work together if they want to survive made the dynamic of these characters very interesting. I liked the plot a lot. The constant confusion in switching scenes totally threw me off though. I found myself having to reread or realize too late that a scene had switched which totally ruins a good mystery.