*Posted on my bookstagram account on June 13th, 2021*
3.5/5 Stars


This book needs to win some sort of award for originality because it seriously takes the cake (or should I say jellyfish haha). It chronicles the story of a group of people in a post-apocaleptic world who are stuck on top of a giant jellyfish… yes you read that correctly. I was totally in love with the concept of this novel from the get-go and I thought that it was done really well. I thought that the plot was especially handled well. It could’ve easily gotten repetitive, but new developments kept on coming up and I definitely could never have guessed where it would end up. I also enjoyed the unique cast of characters. 


The thing that I didn’t love about this book was the way that time was approached. The author never really made it clear how long these people had been stuck on the jellyfish for or how long it had been between each new plot element. There also wasn’t much discussion of how they had gotten onto the jellyfish or what the main characters’ life had been like before (or even their exact ages, though it was implied that they were teenagers). This all ended up making me feel a little disconnected from the plot and the main character.

I do wish that this book could’ve wowed me a bit more, but it was still definitely worth the read and I was inspired by the author’s creativity. Thank you so much to the publisher for the review copy in exchange for an honest review!

DNF - The initial premise is really quite interesting. However, the book suffers from a case of bad writing. The jokes and snarky remarks come off as odd and gross rather than funny. The characters feel very comic book style and bland as well. I wish the writing was more engaging too. There was way too much nonsensical dialogue and talk about stories. Overall, Jelly had an amazing premise, but horrible execution.

This book sucked. I liked the idea of survival on top of a giant jellyfish but I was left with so many more questions than I had at the beginning of the book. Like how did they get there? If the jellyfish had some intelligence, why didn't it move farther out to sea where land couldn't be seen? In addition to the numerous questions I had at the end, I felt like the characters never changed that they were the same boring kids as in the beginning

2 out of 5 stars.

This book as such a wild concept, and ENTIRELY new to me, for a kind of post-apocalyptic-universe type plot. First, I've read a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction, and for a new concept to be presented to me, well, good flippin' job! Second, this book is for younger audiences and it's definitely clearly for the younger set (in terms of writing style and plot development/resolution).

The plot of the book opens with, quite literally, an entire group of people (mixed ages) trapped on a football-field-sized jellyfish. This jellyfish delivers fish, usually daily, for food - no description about how they go about their freshwater consumption, but we can assume they just worked something out. They do somehow have a fire made from dried out driftwood and kept underneath a shelter made of plastic bags and other driftwood. But a large part of the overall enjoyment of this book is just accepting that you don't get all the backstory and inside information about how they got there, how they survive, how long it's been, etc. You just have to accept a good amount of the story, which I really didn't have trouble with because it's all so fascinating. The jellyfish doesn't let anyone go, going so far as to retrieve and place escapees back on the surface when they get to a certain distance. So there's quite a bit of plotting to get off and back to the distant shore they can see from their floating place on the water. They can see giant crustaceans they call "kriks" walking the shore sometimes, and it's alluded to that these things are violent and potentially the reason not many people are ever seen. They can go really fast and they have huge snappy crab claws. So that's really the whole thing, not a lot is happening, it's more about day to day happenings, planning to escape, planning what to do, interacting with various oddballs, etc.

The other big part of this book is environmental issues/global warming. We learn that sea levels have risen to the extent that shorelines totally changed, large sections of houses and roads are submerged. There are also so many plastic bottles and bags in the ocean that the people on the jellyfish have no problem building a structure for shelter, making clothes of plastic bags to protect from the elements, making sports balls from bottles and bags, etc. The message about plastic waste in our world's oceans is obvious.

And lastly, I'm so glad I read the acknowledgements by the author at the end, because I learned that this story began as a teaching tool made by a teacher to teach about environmental impact of plastic and global warming. The students then got into it and wanted more story, so the teacher embarked on a project to essentially write a book, with various input from students and friends. I love that, and it really makes the book even more enjoyable!

Jelly by Clare Rees, 304 pages. Harry N. Abrams (Amulet Books), 2021. $19.
Language: PG13 (27 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
You know, when climate change was acknowledged as an issue, why did no one predict that people could get stuck living on a giant jellyfish? Martha definitely would not have been in a boat when the world was ending if she had known this would be the result. After multiple escape attempts, no one takes them seriously, resigned to live the rest of their days on the jellyfish -- until a boat floats near enough to grab.
I was so confused. The whole time. Rees is imaginative, but I could not accept the giant jellyfish in this post-apocalyptic scenario, and that severely hindered my ability to enjoy the creativity and weirdness of the book. Furthermore, while I recognize that Martha and her friends were doing things, the action felt passive because her point of view was of a teenager watching the adults take on most of the responsibility and difficult tasks. The ending was as unbelievable as everything else, though the growth of Martha and her friends helped me feel like something was worthwhile about the odd story. The mature content is for innuendo and mentions of sex.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

This was really excellent, and I wish I hadn't waited quite so long to get into it! An excellent addition to any collection.

The premise of this climate change YA survival tale: a group of apocalypse survivors have been trapped on a rugby-pitch-sized jellyfish floating just out of reach of a partially submerged coastal town. They've been living as such for years, though it's not clear how many years, but the four "kids" in the group are old enough to resent being called kids, and old enough to realize that pretending sea monsters (and climate change) don't exist isn't going to erase their catastrophic effects. None of the story is believable in a strict reality sense. Incredible is a constant and so is narrator Martha's intimate-pal tone that implies, 'I don't know why this stuff's happening. It just is. But check this crazyness out. Can you believe it?' Thus, I was all in from the start. However, the narrative's pacing lagged in the second quarter of the 304-page novel. By the midpoint, though, the action accelerated and the tension mounted. A fun read that will have you rooting for these characters and their (our) world.

[Thanks to ABRAMS Kids/Amulet Books and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an ARC of this book in exchange for my opinion.]

If you like survival stories, this is an interesting take on that genre, as the story is centred around a group of people trapped on a giant jellyfish after what seems like the end of the world. I feel like this plot had potential, but ultimately it wasn't for me. I wanted more history/backstory about how the world got to this point, and didn't get that, which left me feeling confused. I think people who enjoy quirkier, somewhat "grosser" writing will enjoy this (there are a few scenes that talk about human corpses that I just could not stomach), and I think this book will work well for younger YA readers.

DNF at 12%

Too weird, even for me. While I am grateful to have been given this advanced copy of the book to read, I am not jiving with it. In theory, this should be my type of book but I found the writing style dragged and the book just didn’t hold my focus.

A huge thanks to NetGalley, ABRAMS Kids, and Clare Rees for the eARC of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily, all opinions are my own.

This book was so hard for me to get into. It was so hard to pin down and figure out, the age of the characters wasn't easy to read either. I just found myself so bored, it focused so much on the menial details and stuff, I just didn't enjoy it.

It has an interesting premise, and I could see younger teens especially enjoying the book, it just wasn't for me.

This one was a hard one to pin down. I picked it because it seemed like such an odd premise. In ways I could see Gary Paulsen fans enjoying this book because of the survival aspects. It centers heavily around every day aspects like where you go to the bathroom on a jellyfish (but not actually a jellyfish) and trying to escape a creature that doesn’t want you to leave. This would be appealing to a lot of younger teens. It was hard to place ages of the kids. Sometimes they seemed young and like middle grade students while other times they seemed older. I did have a lot of questions about different parts of the plot, but that just may be my adult brain overthinking it all.

This book is about a girl named Martha who’s literally trapped on a massive jellyfish and obviously wants to get out.

The concept of the book is so unique, set in a post-apocalyptic world that isn’t so far fetched from what could actually happen in real life. It was a fun, quick read and i enjoyed it more than i thought i would.

As for the parts i didn’t like that much were that it kind of reads like a middle grade, but with some not-so-appropriate content here and there. The main character felt kind of naïve and immature but i guess that’s what happens when you’re stuck on a jellyfish for years.

overall, i enjoyed this book.

What a wonderfully weird book. It is exactly what you'd expect: a group of people are stranded on a giant jellyfish (although whether or not it's a jellyfish in the truly scientific sense is a topic of hot debate) and are determined to escape. This is probably the most light-hearted post-apocalyptic story I've ever read. Instead of rivalries, alliances, and betrayals that typically coincide with dystopians, there is almost a celebration of the mundane. When you're stuck on a giant squishy sea monster, it's easy to get bored, so you gotta do what you can to find enjoyment, from plastic bag fashion to jelly rugby.

It wasn't until near the end of the book that I realized the jellyfish is not only a metaphor for climate change, but also for childhood. The heroes of our story are four teens of indeterminate age and even though they're constantly referred to as "children" and dismissed just as quickly, they are the brains behind all the plans that actually work. And just like the environmental crisis of today, we place all of the burden on young people to carry on, yet refuse to take them seriously because of their age. Won't somebody please think of the children.....because we don't want to.

The future is scary. It's easy to look back at the past and fool ourselves into thinking it was safer and happier and secure, but of course it wasn't. Things definitely aren't safer now, so maybe they never were. What changes are our perceptions of danger. Choking hazards aren't really a big deal for adults, but that's a whole different story for a toddler. Jellyfish aren't so terrifying right now, but maybe one day they will be.

The summary of this book had me immediately. The book itself didn't have my until almost half way through, right before I was about DNF it. Then it gripped me for about 50 pages and just dropped me back to wanting more. It's creative, incredibly creative. I appreciated that aspect of it but I would have liked for it to have been better thought-out and to have engaged me earlier. I typically stop reading about 50 pages if I'm not engaged and I hung in there way longer here in hopes that it would get better. I'm not sad I finished it, but I can't see myself suggesting it to anyone. And the ending...if you have watched Lost or The Sopranos, prepare yourself for another one of those let downs where nothing is really resolved and you have no idea where you went or how you got there or what happened after. I feel like there's a real niche here for certain readers who will probably love everything about it - it just wasn't for me.

This book was weird. There's no getting around that. Martha, Kate, James, and Lana, are teens trapped on the jellyfish.
So, that's different for sure. I'll bet the pitch was hilarious. I'm weird and I liked this story. I stayed with it just to see how it would all turn out and for a teen that truly wants to read something different- this is it.

Jelly, by Clare Rees, has a somewhat unusual premise: a group of people are trapped upon the back of a giant jellyfish, just off the coast. They can see the coastal town, though it has long since been abandoned, by try as they might, they cannot escape the back of the jellyfish.

This book is odd through and through, from the strange premise to the funny little details that are included, like the fact that they spend much of their time aboard the jelly playing rugby. It is clearly written for a younger audience, with a non-zero number of bodily humor jokes, and little romance to be found. However, it is undeniably fun, laugh out loud funny at times, and bewilderingly enjoyable at others.

It is also at times almost uncomfortably relevant for this pandemic world we are all living in. The folks on the jelly are stuck together, with little hope of escape and essentially no privacy. As with the best science fiction, in spite of this almost otherworldly premise, certain elements feel extremely close to home.

I found myself in turns laughing and almost tearing up while reading Jelly. Rees has created something truly unique and truly brilliant, and I know I will revisit it again and again.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amulet Books for the ARC!

This story didn't have quite the depth I was looking for, but it was a fun concept and also that cover is great. I'm sure a younger audience will be a lot more satisfied with it than I was!

I don’t know what I was expecting from this book, but it was a complete surprise. The characters are literally trapped on top of a giant jellyfish floating around the ocean.

As the oceans rise and pollution increases, long-buried sea monsters come out of the depths. The kriks, giant crab creatures, rule the land and are hunting humans to extinction. On the seas, a giant murderous jellyfish is keeping a collection of humans as pets - feeding them fish and trapping them in its gigantic tentacles if they try to swim away.

This book was charming in a ridiculous way and brilliantly plotted. It kept me turning pages to see if the characters would ever find a way to escape and live on land again. I also loved the descriptions of the jellyfish and the ocean trash that floated their way. The world came alive in my head.

The characters - Martha, Kate, James and Lana, the four teens trapped on the jellyfish - win the reader’s heart.

The story didn’t address a few things I wish it did. We never find out why the jellyfish wanted to keep humans on its back. And I’d have loved a few more pages at the end. But definitely one of the most unique books I’ve read in a long time!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an odd book, but definitely one that is worth giving a shot. It is about a group of people stuck on a jellyfish and all the tension that such a strange and mysterious circumstance would bring. It is a bizarre premise, while at the same time remaining witty and compelling. I do wish that there was more to the story and that the plot had been fleshed out more so that it felt a little less like a character story with the post apocalyptic setting being as interesting as it was. Still, worth a shot and the cover is absolutely beautiful!

For middle-grade, dystopian sci-fi set in an ocean, this book was an interesting read. I liked the utter creativity of the story and world that Rees creates and appreciate her fresh approach to the dystopian genre. It seems much more fitting for middle grades than what I see in YA titles.
Sometimes creativity is hard to completely flesh out, though, so impatient readers may struggle with getting through this one.
Thanks so much for the interesting ARC!