I was hooked as soon as I heard the intriguing concept of this book—a cruise ship turned refugee camp that has become its own micro-society. The dystopian setting shows a post-Civil-war US that is now split into two countries, which of course provokes thoughts about the state of our own divided nation. And the story also reflects themes of the handling of immigrants and refugees, all while catching the reader up in the action of a rebellion that does not go according to plan. The book is told from three points of view, a boy who is directly involved in the rebellion, a girl who is unknowingly swept up in the conflict, and a ship security officer who is bound and determined to crush anyone who even thinks of sowing discord and ruining his plans to finally make his way back to dry land. When I was finished reading, I was ready to pick up book two and find out what happens next! Looks like I’ll only have to wait until July?

***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley so I could provide an honest review. No compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced review copy of “The Stranded” by Sarah Daniels. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

The setting for this book is a really cool idea and seemed well researched. Cruise ships freak me out (especially from the pandemic horrors) and I would never willingly get on one. But this story really intrigued me to have this dystopian setting on cruise ships stuck at sea.

That being said, it did seem like the characters shouldn’t have had as much knowledge of things since they’ve been on the boat for generations and not everyone gets an education. It pulled me out of the story a little every time I had to wonder if the characters would actually know about certain things.

There are a few different POVs. I kind of wish we didn’t have the antagonists POV. It reveals there’s a traitor and I would have liked to not have seen that coming and been as taken off guard as Ester. I liked Ester and Nick’s POVs but I really hope they aren’t going to end up in a romance in the next book. From reading the blurb it seems like that is the direction the book is going and I wish it wouldn’t. Can’t they just be friends? Plus Nick was in love with Ester’s sister.

The ending was a bit frustrating as Ester’s constant indecision causes a lot of problems. I think this was realistic as she’s just a kid but it was still frustrating to read. Her indecision is a big reason why she and Nick shouldn’t end up together since it has tragic consequences. I didn’t understand why Nick kept feeling obligated to protect Ester. One minor thing was how the characters have parents but don’t seem to care how their actions could endanger their parents. Ester has this very late afterthought about what’s happened to her parents when it was way too late to try and get to them. I know there’s kind of a stereotype of YA books killing off parents but this book treated the living parents kind of strange and like an afterthought.

I might pick up the second book. The first one set up some interesting things in the sequel. I’m just really really really not rooting for Ester and Nick to be a couple.

Also not every dystopian book needs to be compared to The Hunger Games. This had an interesting setting but did not give me Hunger Games vibes. Every dystopian book is not the Hunger Games.

3/5 stars

The premise of this story really intrigued me. I love dystopian fiction and the idea of a group of people forced into quarantine on a ship for literal generations was ingenious! I wish I loved this book the way I expected to, but even though the worldbuilding was fantastic, the characters were so wooden and the plot was so predictable that I just didn't care what happened. The villain was a revolting person, but he was still the best character in the book, in my opinion, because he had a compelling backstory and showed his teeth; everyone else simply felt like a pawn to further the story with no emotion to back up their motives and actions, and I felt I could see the events unfolding well in advance. I'm sad to say I don't have any interest in continuing the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy of this book.

I'm conflicted. I am an adult reading a dystopian young adult book, so I'm not the intended audience. I liked parts and will probably read the second in the duology to finish it I just didn't connect with the story as much as I was hoping I guess.

I am sad to say that young adult dystopia is not for me anymore. The characters were flat to me and not connectable at all.

I always enjoy a dystopian book with new concepts so being stuck on a ship after a virus outbreak caught my attention. The multi-perspective style had me skimming a bit towards the end of the book but it was overall a quick read.

**3.5 Stars**
I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty disappointed by what this book was. I feel bad saying that, and overall it was an ok book- But I thought I was getting a possible zombie/outbreak story and that was not this even a little- even the cover has super ominous vibes. Instead, The Stranded was about a naive clueless girl and a lovesick skilled boy helping to bring a revolution to the ship they live on. Keep in mind there was action, death, destruction, betrayal, bombs, conspiracy, trauma, ... lots of great and very fast paced storytelling so it was easy to read through the book, the pacing was great.

But no mysterious virus, no scary zombies. Yes, I am super sad about that. I love a good outbreak scary read. This was not that. I am pretty sure this is a case of it's me, not you which I get and is totally my fault. But even the announcements the captain makes on the boat mention the virus and waiting for an outbreak...maybe the sequel has an outbreak, hmmm.

Keep in mind that this is the first book in a series and the end was a huge hot mess where nothing is resolved so be aware that you will need at least another book to get some answers.

This book was a little long but very interesting. The setting was really cool. It was interesting to figure out what was truly happening and how this world worked. The characters were good and I liked most of them.

I really enjoyed the idea of this book, being stranded out at sea, a rebellion, a little bit of romance. The only thing I had an issue with was, It didn’t grip me as best as I was hoping. I really wanted this book to have more of a hold on my attention, and it didn’t. The main problem for me, was that I became very confused on who was who. Some of the characters just mash together, and had me so confused. What I did enjoy about the book was the relationship of the sisters, they would burn the world down to protect each other. And it hit the feels.

It might have been just me, I’m a very big mood reader. But I felt like it just wasn’t as entertaining as I would’ve loved to be. But it was not bad at all. There were several points in the story that did grab my attention, and I was hoping it would hold onto it. So I did enjoy that, some thing else that really caught my attention was the ending I feel like, there could be more added to the story may be a sequel? They left it on a good cliffhanger, and it makes you want to know what is going to happen next.

The Stranded is a YA-Dystopian novel, the cover and synopsis of which grabbed my attention right away. The cover emits quite the vibe. I love it. It's so Ghost Ship. I was lucky enough to receive an early copy, but then put off reading it for a bit after seeing some not so encouraging reviews. I wasn't sure I was in the right mood to get into it at that time.

Recently, I felt inspired to go for it. I was itching to get into a dark and high-stakes YA-Dystopian world. Unfortunately, this book was a complete miss for me. After the initial set-up, I'm talking the first 5-8%, I was feeling good about it, but then nothing happened.

It never took off for me; fell flat with a vengeance. I dreaded picking it back up after I put it down and never felt compelled or intrigued in any way.

Honestly, I should have pulled the plug, but for some reason, I just felt like if I kept going, maybe I would have a light-bulb moment with it. All would make sense and I would suddenly feel connected with the characters and the story. The narrative follows three different characters, none of which I felt were particularly well-developed. Additionally, I didn't feel the world was developed at all. I wanted so much more from it.

One of the things I tend to enjoy about Dystopians are that, sometimes, if done well, you can see glimmers of your society in them. You think to yourself, this is creepy because this could happen. I never felt that with this, because I didn't feel like I really knew anything about the world, or what led them to be in the current state. The stakes were ambiguous, the tension was nonexistent and I couldn't have cared less what happened to any of the characters we were following.

I don't want to beat a dead horse with this review, too late, some of you may be thinking, nevertheless I shall bow out gracefully here...As always, please take my opinion with a grain of salt. I am by no means an expert on all things YA Dystopian novels.

If this synopsis sounds intriguing to you, give it a go. You may love it and then you can circle back and tell me how very wrong I am. I look forward to it!

Thank you to the publisher, Sourcebooks Fire, for providing me with a copy to read and review. Although The Stranded wasn't for me, I know there are a lot of Readers out there who will really enjoy it. I look forward to seeing their thoughts on this one.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a new and different take on a post apocalyptic society. Set on an old cruise ship just off the coast of the former USA, life on the boat is tough. Ester is a hard working "citizen" of the ship but something big is about to happen and she finds herself in the middle of it all.

I am really looking forward to the second book!

THE STRANDED • Sarah Daniels

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Goodreads Synopsis: Welcome to Arcadia! Once a luxurious cruise ship, this ship 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 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...

Oof. Reading the synopsis again gets me so hyped. This book was marketed as a thrilling, Hunger Games-esque, YA dystopian. But sadly, I found myself quickly underwhelmed.

This story was told via three alternating POVs: our naive heroine, our "good guy" rebel, and our "bad guy" leader. This could have led to heightened excitment and suspense throughout the story, but instead it fell flat due to the almost nonexistent character development. Each POV is boiled down to exactly how I wrote it here, giving readers shallow caricatures of good versus evil instead of actual personality. The motivations of the characters were also rarely fleshed out (e.g. Alex, May). As for the few instances this was not the case (e.g. Hadley)? Motivations were dryly written out without any feeling behind them. This made it hard to connect with the characters or really care about the stakes.

When a story fails to be character-driven, books can normally be redeemed through a plot-driven narrative. Again, I was let down. It took a long time for this book to actually get going. And even as tensions rose and fights broke out, I was left a little bored. Not even a character death or cliffhanger could shake things up for me!

My biggest gripe though was the writing style. Specifically how EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER decided to just leave off the first word of a sentence. For instance, instead of saying "I walked home" Daniels would write, "Walked home." This seems small but it drove me insane throughout my entire read through.

TL;DR: This book was not for me and I do not intend on picking up its sequel.

Honestly this book made me want to avoid cruise ships for the rest of my life. The idea that these people have been stuck on the boat for years is absolutely brutal. I enjoyed this book but I would've enjoyed less switching between character perspectives.


Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book, I think it had great storytelling. It held my interest well.

I liked all of th different character POVs, however I didn’t like the change from first person to third person. I found that really confusing and hard to mentally switch between the two.

Thank you NetGalley for this book exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited for this - I love Sci-Fi and Dystopian and this sounded like it had the vibe that I love in that genre.
Unfortunately I just didn't love this. While the concept sounds really cool, I just found it to be lacking in explanation and detail. Things I thought would be important were just kind of glossed over and barely mentioned. The relationships were weird and I wasn't sure who I was supposed to be rooting for. I also really struggled with the character descriptions - maybe I just missed them, but I really didn't know what anyone looked liked.
And the villain was so cliche and when he was first introduced I never got the impression he was an adult. I honestly thought that he was a Young Adult and was going to be an opposing love interest or something.

This seems like a great idea and concept for a story, but I found it to be lacking in a lot of areas. I don't know if I;ll pick up the next one.

The premise of this book is amazing...a mysterious plague has hit the world and people are stuck on a cruise ship. What???!!! I enjoyed the characters and the setting, but wish the plot was a bit more fast-paced. I will be purchasing this book for my school library and have encouraged several students to read it.

I feel like maybe I'm just burnt out on new YA? I have my OG authors that I've been reading since the beginning but as an adult who loves young adult I keep coming up short on the new YA authors I try. I think this one would be a win for true teen audiences as it definitely skews younger and I'll definitely recommend it to teen patrons looking for something unique and dystopian. As for myself I think I'll keep with my tried and true for a while and give the new to me authors a break.

I’m not a dystopian fan, so you know this book has a great hook. Coming through the pandemic, this story feels like it could leave the fantasy realm and become reality.

This may be a spoiler, and I apologize if it is, but the description says this story is after an apocalyptic war though I read it as a plague of sorts wiping people out.

Told from multiple POVs, you get a good feel of what’s going on throughout the ship at any moment.

If you like YA dystopian, you’ll probably like this book. I did although I was screaming at the characters a great deal.

The concept of this book was very interesting to me, but unfortunately it fell short. The idea of a dystopian world where people are protentially being kept prisoner on a cruise ship seems super creepy and opens up a lot of oportunity for horror. I guess it's my bad that I was expecting something this book was not. Otherwise, I enjoyed the relationships between the characters and the "Big Brother Is Watching" energy the people running the ship was giving off.

I liked the thought behind this novel but it did not hit home for me. I did finish and wanted to like it but I found the writing a bit underwhelming and the execution of the story to be the same.