Unfortunately this book felt like a bit of a letdown to me. While readers who love dystopian stories will likely still be entertained by this new addition to the genre, it felt underwhelming overall. A bit too long, it had a good premise but delivery ultimately fell flat for me.

DNF at 25%

This YA Dystopian caught my eye so quickly and held on to it until a couple of chapters in.

We are following a few different POVs on a cruise ship decade after a pandemic took over. The idea is giving snowpiercer meets the titanic in a way and I wanted this to slap so hard.

It really fell so flat for me. The characters just continued to annoy me and I felt like I wasn’t making any progress in the story. Sadly a big disappointment for me.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an e-ARC of The Stranded by Sarah Daniels.

I loved the interesting setting for this dystopian thriller. It will definitely appeal to our YA readers and we've purchased it for our school district.

For fans of dystopian thrillers, this is a must read. Set in the future, after biological warfare has devastated Europe and a disagreement about borders has fractured the US, thousands of people survive and thrive on an old cruise ship off the coast of The Federated States. May and Esther are working hard to get good grades and get off the ship with jobs on land. But they live under harsh rules and restrictions with the ship controlled by one man. There’s a rebellion brewing.

I enjoyed the book. It took a couple chapters to get my head around some of the futuristic things and understand the world of the ship. But it’s such an interesting concept! As a frequent cruiser, it’s easy to visualize the decks and cabins and narrow stairways and walkways. Tons of action and a little heartbreak as well. Great read!

Okay if you have been craving a good dystopian in this very fantasy heavy world we are in the read this book!!! It has all the good dystopian points, and I found myself dying to pick it back up. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Standard Plot for a YA book. Dystopian, tension and love triangles. This has it all. Can these kids save the day and manage not to hurt each others feelings in the process?

I truly wanted to like The Stranded, especially considering how real the plot made it seem like it could be - while expecting the obvious tropes of YA fiction to boost the story further. But in a story that felt perfectly timed with the world outside, it was too predictable and the writing was a bit stilted. Still enjoyable, just not what I had been hoping for.

I really enjoyed this! While it has the typical dystopian YA feel, that’s exactly what I want to reach for sometimes. It kept me interested, and I enjoyed that it was 40 years in the future. Most dystopian books I’ve read so far are centered around the world ending event rather than how humanity is surviving in the future. This was a good read, and I’d definitely recommend it for teens or others who enjoy a nice YA dystopian book.

What I learnt from reading this book is I like my apocalyptic reads to be more about what destroys the world and how people survive while it is happening.
This book is set 40 years after the end of the world and there are only brief snippets of how the world ended and it left me feeling dissatisfied as I want to know more about the world during the end and how did these people end up on a cruise ship.
This book is part of a series so maybe we will learn more as the series continues.
From the first page though there is lots of action but I found myself getting lost trying to keep up with all the characters and who was on what side of the rebellion. And you don't really understand what the rebellion is about until the last 50 pages.

A pretty standard YA romp, albeit in an interesting setting. I don't know that I'm interested enough to read a second installment in the series.

Interesting start to a new series, though the premise is a bit samey: rebel kid and rule-follower, dystopian future, fighting for survival. The floating refugees on earth is an interesting angle and we'd definitely give the second book a chance, but it feels very of its genre.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an e-ARC of The Stranded by Sarah Daniels.
This book is a fast-paced dystopian novel that will be easy to recommend to teen readers. Sarah Daniels does a great job imagining a future where people are stranded on cruise ships for 40 plus years. The hierarchy, the control of the world leaders, the unknown possibilities of what lies on land. My only complaint with this book is that it is the first book of a trilogy and now I have to wait for the next book!

I’ve tried reading this book several times and each time, I simply cannot get into it. I think I made it 20% in before I called it quits. It has potential but there’s nothing going in and it’s slow moving.

For forty years the Arcadia, and a number of other former luxury cruise liners, have been anchored off the east coast of what used to be the United States. Filled with those who fled war-torn Europe, and a virus that took no prisoners, and their families, a precarious community of sorts has been established.
On board, Esther dreams of her feet feeling land as she pursues medic training to earn a coveted spot at a university in the Federated States, following in the footsteps of her cadet sister, May. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Esther, May is hiding a completely separate life from the collaborator facade she presents. As everything Esther thought she knew falls to pieces before her eyes, she has to decide where her loyalties lie and what she’ll do for May and Nik.
Daniels does a great job of keeping the plot moving quickly, often difficult in a debut novel, while developing characters who are forced to make life altering decisions at relatively young ages. Creating futuristic technology and an antagonist that’s too easy to hate, the reader can’t help but hope for the best as a rebellion unfolds aboard the Arcadia. I look forward to the next book!
Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Brace yourself. Imagine boarding a cruise ship for a week’s vacation and not ever get off the ship. Forty plus years later, living on a crowded, rusting, smelly ship you either fight a rebellion, die trying, or go down with the ship.

These are the choices the passengers and their descendants have to make. They are living in a state of fear. The Federated States have forbidden them to leave the ship stating a false narrative for their reason. They have a police force, the Coalies, on the ship to control the inhabitants with a leader determined to break up any form of resistance.

However, there are many people determined to resist. They seek nothing more than a better life for themselves and their children. They are willing to die for that freedom. As the Coalies, work to find dissenters and break them, the dissenters find different ways to survive. The question is – who will survive?

If you love fast-paced action, suspense and villains vs. heroes, you will thoroughly enjoy this book. The first of two books takes you on a unique journey that will never end unless the ordinary person steps up. Will they?

I love a good dystopia type thriller and this one was no exception. I enjoyed the mysterious plot and waiting to see what would happen next. I'll definitely be recommending this one.

It’s been decades since the passengers on the cruise ship Arcadia have floated near the coastline of the Federated States, left isolated because of possible exposure to a deadly virus. In that time, life aboard the ship has devolved to the haves and have-nots, to the upper and lower decks, to gangs and military police. Esther has never stepped out of line and is studying to become a medic with the hopes of being one of just a few citizens who are granted land access. But then she finds herself unwillingly drawn into a plot to rebel against the order of the ship, and is forced to make choices she never thought she’d have to.

The author focused this work on three main characters – a rebel, a medical trainee, and the leader of the military police aboard the ship. This was a fun way to get a glimpse into the main three factions aboard the Arcadia. The characters were interesting, and their varied personalities and goals made for an enjoyable cast, but I felt that they were lacking in true development. They all felt like caricatures of typical YA dystopian characters, especially the main antagonist (who was absurdly evil and felt more comic than threatening).

The pacing of the work is a bit off. It starts off quite slowly, introducing characters and situating them in their daily lives aboard the ship. Action slowly builds up, then lags, then the last fifth of the book is nonstop. There’s not much conflict interspersed throughout the work; the only real conflict is the commander versus the people of the ship, and again, with him not being a relatable/realistic/engaging villain, it was lackluster. I would have loved to learn more about the rebellion, the people themselves, and some of the interpersonal conflicts that were common aboard the ship. This would have brought the setting and the characters more life.

I did enjoy this work overall though I probably won’t continue the series. My thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Alternating between three POVs, in this YA dystopian novel passengers have been stranded on the cruise ship Arcadia for forty years due to a virus and war on land.. Passengers are segregated by wealth and Hadley, who is clearly the villain, is charged with keeping the status quo. Ester is a sixteen-year-old medical cadet who gets swept into the rebellion by Nic, also sixteen, and a planner of the rebellion.

In light of COVID and the reality that cruise ships were quarantined, YA and adult readers who enjoy dystopian novels may well enjoy this novel by first-time author Sarah Daniels. Adult readers may be slightly disappointed at the lack of character development, but I do not think that will interfere with YAs enjoyment, which is the target audience.

We have The Stranded on our most recent order list. Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for allowing me the opportunity to read this book pre-publication.

I wanted to love this so bad, the concept sounds amazing and I was really intrigued by it but for me the execution fell a bit flat. I thought that the beginning dragged on for way too long before actually getting to the interesting bit and even then I wasn't intrigued by it at all and I had to force myself to pick it up. I felt that the concept of the lesser people who rarely get to see the sun similarly to snowpiercer was incredible and could have really packed a punch but I felt it was glossed over unfortunately.

I was so excited for this story. And I honestly can't tell you why because dystopian, sci-fi thrillers are not my usual genre of books. But something about this book and synopsis was so compelling to me! I think I was most intrigued by a former luxury cruise ship being used as a refugee camp during an apocalyptic war. This was such a unique premise for a story!

My biggest complaint with this story is that I felt like there was so much back story missing. It jumped right in to the action, which I normally prefer, but it seemed like there was some info missing that would have helped to fill in some confusing gaps I encountered.

It looks like there is a second book coming, but I'm not sure that I'll be picking that one up.