Do I think I have claustrophobia? No? I mean I think have a healthy fear of being trapped, but I’ve never considered it one of my top fears. Until… I read this book. I caught myself holding my breath and feeling so incredibly freaked out.

I did enjoy it, but again, I’m 35 so when I read about 18 year olds or high school students, I feel pretty distant from them. That being said, I feel like the author wrote them in ways I didn’t mind reading.

If you’re into movies like Fall or 47 Meters Down with an Outer Banks vibe/atmosphere, I think this book will be a hit with you. If you’re like me and are already anxious enough, maybe pick something different.

Out of Air is a thrilling YA dive into mystery and the supernatural. Phoebe “Phibs” Ray and her friends, known as the Salt Squad, embark on a final summer trip to Australia, aiming to explore the ocean they love. But their discovery of a hidden sea cave leads to strange changes—unhealing wounds and eerie whispers. As treasure hunters close in, Phibs must protect her friends and confront a terrifying new reality. With its blend of suspense, supernatural elements, and deep-sea adventure, this book keeps you hooked from start to finish. If you're into atmospheric thrillers with a touch of the unknown, this one's a must-read.

Out of Air by Rachel Reiss

This book caught me off guard in the best way. I picked it up expecting something quiet and YA —and while it definitely delivers on that—it also took me on an unexpectedly layered journey. Out of Air balances emotion with moments of reflection and adventure, making it a surprisingly refreshing read for such a deep story.

One of the most compelling parts of this book is how scuba diving is woven into the emotional arc. The dive scenes aren’t just adventurous scene in the book— I felt them! There’s something haunting and beautiful about descending into the deep, quiet world underwater while carrying emotional weight you haven’t quite unpacked. Reiss captures both the thrill and vulnerability of being submerged, the physical risk mirroring the internal one. It adds a whole new dimension to the story and makes the journey feel even more immersive.

If you’re looking for something introspective, honest, and emotionally resonant—with a dash of underwater adventure—Out of Air is one of those reads that lingers long after the final page.

I loved this book. It was atmospheric, chilling, and twisty.

I really enjoyed reading it. I did not want to put it down. What Phibs and her friends experienced was so hair-raising, I couldn't stop thinking about it when I had to put the book down. When they dove, I felt like I was in the water with them. I gasped when they screamed. I gulped when their pulses started racing. I loved the friendship and how issues kept resurfacing. (eh, get it? heh) It felt authentic because there are a lot of personalities in this friend group, and it added to the tension and twistiness of the book.

I loved the answers we got, and I loved that I'm still left with so many questions.

Thank you netGalley for early access to this novel in exchange for an honest review.

A group of high school graduates who are spending their last summer before college go scuba diving and get more than they bargained for. I enjoyed this as a YA sci-fi/ thriller. I love a good ocean book especially when it involved the unknown that lurks the deeper you go. However, some of the characters and their decisions grated on my nerves, but overall not a bad read.

This book is such a change of pace when it comes to YA thrillers, and I adore that! The setting is evocative, obviously written by an author who has spent hours immersed in the waves. I just wish this book had embraced the horror aspects it presents. It felt too timid once it veered into body horror, and you really can't do body horror halfway. It's an all-or-nothing deal, and this book didn't give its all.


PROS
Watery Depths: Though this book didn't come together like I would have wanted, Rachel Reiss nonetheless creates a very vivid world here. Reading this book is like going on vacation, sinking your feet into the sand and enjoying the waves. It feels tangible, this seaside life, and I loved that! It's the perfect beachy, watery read.

Inside-Outside: This book quickly veers into a body horror territory, and one of the things Reiss gets really right is the sense of fate, unavoidable and set in stone. Without spoiling two much, two of the main cast find themselves... infected. And they get to watch each other slowly change for the worse. Readers get to see what's happening from the outside and the inside, from the narrator watching herself change just a bit behind another Salt Squad member. And that lag in transformation, that dawning horror, really does a lot of heavy lifting here. In a good way. It feels very much like when a character is bit in a zombie movie and running now on borrowed time. It can't last. The change is inevitable.

Generational: Since YA books are so focused on characters growing and coming into their own, family members are often left on the periphery to give those younger characters room to shine. That's just the nature of the beast. But in reality, family plays a big part in the lives of teens, and this book really highlights Phoebe's life with her grandmother. Her grandmother is on her mind, a part of her past, her present, and her future, too. Phoebe knows her fellow squad members will be off to college in the fall, but she's facing an immediate future as a caretaker now that her grandmother is facing mental decline. This felt very real and very important, and it fleshed out a character who might otherwise have been a run-of-the-mill YA thriller protagonist. Phoebe adores her grandmother. She was raised by this woman, and her future is being shaped by her, too.


CONS
Snail Pace: This book really does move at a snail's pace. By halfway through the books, things are really only just starting to get started. There are stakes in this book, but you don't ever feel them since everything's just creeping along. And that's unfortunate, in a book that's meant to fall into the realm of thriller/horror.

Familiar Setup: The setup to this book feels a little too tried-and-tried-again for anyone who has read any recent YA thrillers. Do we have a group of bougie friends? Yes, we do. Is our protagonist part of the group but also not (i.e. she isn't part of this rich-rich upper class)? Also yes. And are all of these friends supposedly really close but actually just kind of catty and mean to each other? Absolutely yes. So all said and done, these characters slot into familiar roles and don't really stand on their own. Which is a disappointment.

Anti-Climax: For as slow as this book was, it does start to come together... only to fall pretty flat at the ending. I wanted this book to lean into its thriller aspects. I would have adored this book embracing the horror is presents. I would have liked this book to be much of anything, but it doesn't really escalate. It doesn't really go anywhere. It doesn't really reach a climax, aside from some mild (and thrown-in-just-because) external threats at the eleventh hour. This book just doesn't do much, and that was sad. Especially because the potential was really, really here.


Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
6/10
Fans of Lauren Muñoz's Suddenly a Murder will adore following these well-to-do friends as their beach vacation takes a sharp nosedive toward life-or-death stakes. Those who loved Courtney Gould's What the Woods Took will love diving (literally) into a long-untouched wild space that should have been left well alone.

This book was really good! The story is full of suspense and mystery and drama and secrets. I really liked the use of dual timelines to tell the story. I did get Outer Banks vibes…but then the story takes a turn into something completely different. I think this would be a great beach/summer read!

A group of scuba diving friends (they call themselves The Salt Squad) head to an island in Australia to do something diving and they discover a hidden cave that might have buried treasure in it…but is there something more sinister lurking in the cave?

There are some really good twists and I loved how we see their friendships develop and possibly grow into something more. The paranormal elements were done really well - we get this almost creepy sense of tension and unease.

As a scuba diver myself, the details and experience felt so authentic to me. I would definitely recommend giving this a read!

✨What To Expect:
🔱YA Paranormal Thriller
🩸YA Horror Vibes
🌊Ocean Setting
🫧Suspense
🪄Curse
🐬Action & Adventure
🤿Scuba Diving Friends
🪙Buried Treasure
🧜🏻‍♀️Found Family
💋Sprinkle of Romance
⏰Dual Timelines

My thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books/St. Martin's Publishing for the ARC of "Out of Air" in exchange for an honest review.

Now here's the very definition of a breathless adventure.......breathless in the sense that it kept me worried that our five 18 year old, scuba diving aficionados would run out of oxygen during their dangerous underwater explorations.

Phoebe (or 'Phibs') and her Scuba-Doo gang (Lani, Isobel, Will and Gabe) actually do find some rare ancient coins during one of their many dives in those wondrous waters off the Florida Keys. But that discovery comes back to put them in no end of danger while on their 'final-farewell-before-college) diving adventure near an island off the Australian coast.

There, their discovery of a long hidden underwater cave, (and its potential huge buried treasure) touches off not only internal strife and external threats for the group but brings them in contact with something unknowable.....and horrific.

I can't think of a better summer action-adventure beach read than this one (or also perfect for those cold winter nights, too) It's filled with all the beauties, mysteries and terrors of the deep along with some startling twists and turns for its characters. Some readers may not get on board with the story's rather fantastical turn in its final pages, but I myself embraced it fully and enjoyed a vicarious, refreshing blue water armchair vacation. So wipe off your diving masks, check your air supply and sign up with this crew real soon.

First of all, this cover is amazing! It’s one of the first things that captivated me about this book. The other is scuba diving, especially in a secret cave with lost treasure.

I’ve never scuba dived but I am so intrigued by findings of lost treasure or sunken ships. You never know what the ocean is hiding.

Phoebe (Phibs) Ray and her group of friends aka “the salt squad” found ancient coins diving in the Florida Keys six months ago. The story took off on social media. Fast forward six months, after high school graduation, the salt squad decides to spend their last summer together diving off a distant Australian island.

Phibs and her best friend Gabe find an underwater cave as they surface, so do strange & horrific physical changes.

Out Of Air reminds me a bit of the movie, The Ruins. Full of mystery and suspense, this young adult book does not disappoint.

Rachel Reiss’ stunning descriptive writing puts you in the depths of the ocean surrounded by coral reef and stalactites.

This was so good & the ending was satisfying.

I’ve always been fascinated by the mysteries of the ocean and the idea that there’s still so much we don’t know about what lurks beneath those fathomless depths. If there’s a book about an underwater adventure, especially if it involves diving, I’m going to read it!! Despite my love for the ocean, I’ve never been brave enough to try diving because it feels so claustrophobic and unsettling being in an entirely different world - but it turns out Rachel Reiss can make me feel ALL of those things without me ever having to leave the couch!

🌊 Phoebe, “Phibs”, is taking a graduation trip with her friends - the Salt Squad - to a remote island off the coast of Australia where they will dive some of the most spectacular sights in the world. Phibs has always had a knack for finding hidden things, and on one of their dives, she’s drawn to a crack in a sea wall that leads them to a mysterious underwater cave. But some secrets are meant to stay hidden, and when strange things start happening once they surface, the Squad realizes the cave may have given them something terrifying they may never be able to escape.

🤿 My favorite parts of the book were the vivid, immersive underwater scenes that had me on the edge of my seat. From the intriguing mechanics of diving to the beautiful and terrifying ocean life that surrounded them, I was completely captivated. The Salt Squad themselves had interesting relationship dynamics which added layers of emotional depth. We get a few different mysteries rolled into one, and each of the friends had their own vulnerabilities and motivations, which made me doubt who I could trust.

The tension in 𝗢𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗶𝗿 crests and crashes like a giant wave into a satisfying conclusion, leaving behind a fantastic message about staying true to yourself and protecting the people you love. Highly recommend this one to teens and adults alike for a thrilling, escapist summer read!!

Thank you Wednesday Books, St Martins Press and NetGalley for the physical ARC and eARC!

This was a well done thriller for a Ya audience. There was enough plot to keep me intrigued, but as some points I did feel it drag just a tad. that ending was SOMETHING though.

Once I started this book I couldn’t put it down. The characters were wonderful and the story kept me on the edge of my seat!! I loved the found family they created. The author wrote so beautifully that I felt like I was there in the story with the characters. I hope to read more from this author in the future!!

Thank you NetGalley and Rachel Reiss for the ARC!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙧𝙚 🎭: YA horror/thriller
𝙎𝙥𝙞𝙘𝙚: 🚫
𝙋𝙖𝙘𝙚 🏃🏼‍♀️: fast
𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 🖤: Outer Banks but darker

Ooooh boy I love a little bit of ocean horror. Make it YA and it's even more fun. It has the vibes of Outer Banks, but with cave diving and some slight atmospheric body horror/sea monster themes. You've got the unbalanced friend group, a little bit of romantic drama, secrets, and a ton of suspense.

The audio is REALLY good. Thr narrator sets a great pace so listen at 1.75 or 2x to get the full experience. I binged this.

You'll never catch me cave diving or scuba diving but I am obsessed with everything beneath the surface.

3.5!! I enjoyed this book more than I expected to - when I first opened it I wasn’t really sold, but the more I read the more I liked it. It fell off for me a bit toward the 75% mark, but honestly I don’t have to understand what’s going on if the vibes are right, and I can safely say I was encouraged to keep reading with the writing style & overall plot lines.

Thanks to NetGalley et al for the ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley, Rachel Reiss, and St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I think 2025 is THE year for publishing; I don't think I've been so excited to read so many books before. I’ve been reading a lot of debut novels this year--most of them are ARCs--and obviously some are good, and some of them...not so much. I'm glad to say that this debut by Rachel Reiss was amazing, and I get to continue to add to my list of great debuts that I hope that more people read and give a chance this year!

Phoebe "Phibs" Ray, along with her four best friends, twins Will and Gabe and Isabel and her girlfriend, Lani, are the Salt Squad, a group of friends who went viral on social media for their scuba and diving content but also for finding five Spanish gold coins in a dive once that was worth millions of dollars. As their last hurrah for the last bit of their summer after high school graduation and before they all head their separate ways to go to college, they decide to head out to Lani's uncle's home on a remote island off the coast of Australia to do some scuba diving. When Phibs, Will, and Gabe come across a hidden cave and resurface, Gabe and Phibs start to change--weird injuries that only get worse with time, voices in their heads, and the feeling that something is destroying them from the inside out. As their situation grows more deadly and treasure hunters on their trail trying to find the same cave they did in search of treasure, the crew has to figure out what's going on with Gabe and Phibs before it's too late. The story has a dual timeline, alternating between the present day and five months prior to the Australia trip.

The Outer Banks vibes were definitely here. I know it's also pitched as Outer Banks meets Wilder Girls, but I haven't read Wilder Girls to make that comparison. It's clear that there's a lot of influences from the TV show, from the way the characters are and their roles in the Salt Squad to the treasure hunt subplot. If I were to make comparisons between the book and Outer Banks, I'd say that Lani is like John B in the sense that she's the "leader" of the group, Isabel is like Pope where she tries to be the peacekeeper and keep things in order, and Will is like JJ where he's constantly searching for the next big thing and acts impulsively at times. I don't think Phibs and Gabe 100% fit the personalities of any of the other Pogues we see in the TV show so they're unique in that sense, but I guess you could say Phibs is sorta like Sarah when it comes to being a little boy-crazy (more on that later), but even that for me is a stretch. You also get the "Pogue" and "Kook" vibes from the story with the characters; it's sort of like a reverse "Pogues" situation where all of the members except for Phibs come from wealth instead of the other way around in Outer Banks. Even with all of that, you can tell right away that the Salt Squad is tight-knit, and I loved the summer vibes that the book gave me!

I think the one thing this book did right was the horror aspect. Now, I'm not the kind of person to get queasy over body horror, but I will admit that even I was ever-so-slightly cringing at the body horror throughout the story, so count me impressed in that department. I will say that if you're the kind of person who can't handle body horror, I would suggest proceeding with caution or skipping this book entirely because the descriptions do get somewhat graphic.

The only critiques I would have about the book are about Phibs, the communication among the characters, and the ending. For starters, I felt that Phibs was a little too boy-crazy at times with her crush over a certain someone in the story, although I will admit that I think it was good that the romance overall was just a subplot and wasn't a major factor in the story considering the Salt Squad had ah...bigger fish to fry. It was cute, though! She was also very quick to jump to conclusions and point fingers and accuse people--well, more like a certain someone-- without hearing their side of the story first.

The miscommunication trope was alive and well in this story, specifically with Lani. She's supposed to be the Salt Squad's "ringleader," so you would think that she would keep communication transparent and open with everyone, but nope! I feel like this book could've ended about 100 pages in if Lani explained everything the group was getting into with the Australia trip, but the miscommunication, Lani's crypticness and gatekeeping of information was what made the story keep going, and I feel like the entire story wouldn't have happened the way it did if Lani just...used a few brain cells. As for the ending, I feel like it was more open-ended and left up to interpretation as to what happens afterwards, which may bother some people because it doesn't 100% resolve. I don't know if that means there'll be a second book later on down the line, but I also have a feeling this book will be a standalone, and we just have to live with not having a perfectly tied-up ending with perfect closure.

If you're looking for a debut YA thriller/horror novel to read this summer that's giving all the summer vibes, I think this is the book you'll be looking for! It was a fast read, and I can't wait to see what Rachel Reiss has in store for the future! (and as always, continue to support debut authors!)

I cannot believe that this is a debut novel! Rachel Reiss had me hooked from the chapter with this one.

I was born and raised in Miami and spent many weeks at a beach house down in the Keys and this book brought back so many of those memories and so much nostalgia for my childhood.

I am someone who for much of my childhood wanted to study Marine Biology and who has always had an interest in and immense awe for the ocean and all of its hidden secrets. This book brought so much of that back to life within me. I am sitting in Las Vegas in the middle of the desert but felt like I was on those dives with the characters.

I loved friendships and found family aspects of this, the descriptions and the way Rachel was able to take me right into the water with the characters is worth 5 stars.

What keeps me from giving it that final star is the ending. I am not someone who enjoys opened stories and I don’t like when books leave me with more questions and answers.

Other than that, this book was perfect!

Out of Air follows a group of young people known as the Salt Squad. These five teens share a passion for diving off the coast of the Florida Keyes and have run a joint social media showing off their adventures to the world. Phoebe, the latest edition to the friend group, is the photographer of the group and has always had an abnormally close connection to the sea. One day, though, that connection leads her to a location that is more than meets the eye and may pose a threat to the relationships she's built. The friends have to act quickly to neutralize the threat before it alters them forever.

I love underwater horror. Anything to do with the deep blue is lifeblood in my veins - mostly because I am thoroughly afraid of the ocean in real life. This book is YA, so there was a bit less of that actual horror than I was hoping there would be. I didn't go in knowing it was YA, so that bit is on me - I think I would have had different expectations had I known. Still, the body horror present in this book was pretty gnarly for something aimed at people under the age of 18. There isn't a lot of gory detail, but there is a good amount of description that comes in the latter half of the book that scratched the itch (pun intended) I was hoping for.

I was slightly disappointed by the relationship between the Salt Squad themselves, and I felt like there was a lot of "Tell" instead of "Show" happening. We are supposed to feel like the five are inseparable best friends, but I found myself questioning multiple times whether these people even really like each other. Obviously Lani and Isabelle are a couple at the start, but neither of them seem to be particularly interested in anyone else in the group. We are told that Isabelle and Phibs are very close and that Isabelle looks out for her, but we don't really get to see that in the book. Will comes off as a classic prep school asshole and, again, doesn't seem to care too much about anyone other than himself. I didn't even catch that he and Gabe were brothers until 1/3rd of the way into the book. I think this had a lot of potential for a found family story, but things just didn't really shake out that way.

Pacing and writing were both done well and at no point did the writing pull me out of the immersion (except that one scene with the sea wasps.) Pacing is often something I complain about in these reviews, but this book gets a pass. At no point did I feel like things were dragging or going to quick to follow. This is honestly one of the best compliments that I can give a book, because I am super picky!

I'm biased, I think, in my review of this book because its one of my favorite subgenres of fiction. There were some definitely some things that I found less-than-stellar, but the overall effect was enough to earn 4 stars. I will definitely be recommending this to other people who are obsessed with underwater fiction like I am!

Any book that I can read in a single sitting is a book that I enjoyed. It is along the lines of an adventure horror story that combines hidden treasure with an unknown entity.

What really stuck out to me is this book is dark from start to finish. The tone is set and continual, just dread of what’s next (in the best way). This isn’t something I’ve come across in a lot of YA, so I loved that piece.

This book centers on multiple fractured relationships. Some fractured by circumstance and others by choice, revealing the full story over a current timeline and a recent past timeline that converges with the present story.

I haven’t read anything by this author before but I will definitely be checking to see if they have a backlist after this!

Out of Air follows a group of close friends with Phoebe as our main character. They are accomplished divers and love exploring the ocean at least until they find a hidden cave. They had no idea what they were in for when they gathered for their last moments together before most of the group heads off to college.

I love the dynamic between the friends, the descriptions of the cave are beautiful and eerie, and the supernatural aspects had me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what was going to happen next. The buildup throughout the story was great, and I thought the ending was fine; it felt like a bit of a letdown after all the buildup.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this and will definitely be checking out this author's other books.

This book was okay...nothing spectacular and I got bored about halfway through. The Deep by Nick Cutter was a favorite book the year I read it and this sounded a little similar to it being underwater horror, supernatural, etc. however, it just felt too teen drama and not enough underwater cave exploration for me.