Lost meets Stranger Things in this eerie, immersive YA thriller, thrusting seventeen-year-old Sia into a reality where the waters in front of her and the jungle behind her are as dangerous as the survivors alongside her.
Sia practically grew up in the water scuba diving, and wreck dives are run of the mill. Take the tourists out. Explore the reef. Uncover the secrets locked in the sunken craft. But this time … the dive goes terribly wrong.
Attacked by a mysterious creature, Sia’s boat is sunk, her customers are killed, and she washes up on a deserted island with no sign of rescue in sight. Waiting in the water is a seemingly unstoppable monster that is still hungry. In the jungle just off the beach are dangers best left untested. When Sia reunites with a handful of survivors, she sees it as the first sign of light.
Sia is wrong.
Between the gulf of deadly seawater in front of her and suffocating depth of the jungle behind her, even the island isn’t what it seems.
Haunted by her own mistakes and an inescapable dread, Sia’s best hope for finding answers may rest in the center of the island, at the bottom of a flooded sinkhole that only she has the skills to navigate. But even if the creature lurking in the depths doesn’t swallow her and the other survivors, the secrets of their fractured reality on the island might.
Fractured Tide Is and eerie and immersive YA thriller told through journal entries from a daughter to her father
Unfolds through the eyes of a narrator who keeps you guessing until the final pages
Is a gripping mix of suspense and horror; perfect for readers ages 13 and up
[I received a gifted copy for an honest review]
“The salt breeze shifted, turned rotten, and chill spread through me. I turned my head toward the ocean, its immense darkness. A faint green glow appeared, about fifty yards off shore. I watched it, breathlessly, for a long time. Or maybe it was watching me.”
Fractured Tide is a YA sci-fi thriller with a story that is bound to unsettle you. The synopsis says it’s “Lost meets Stranger Things” and I think it’s a perfect description of it. I couldn’t stop my self from constantly finding similarities between it and Lost. An Island that is there at one moment gone the next. A place where time seems to be moving faster than normal. A place where you can’t trust what you’re seeing before your eyes. A place that makes you face yourself and your true nature.
I enjoyed pretty much everything about this story. It was creepy, nail-biting and mysterious. I think what’s keeping me from giving it a five stars was I that wanted just a little more. More of the things I probably would have been giving if this wasn’t a YA novel but an adult one instead. I wanted to see the characters pushed to the breaking point in more detail. But given that it is YA I think it did do a really great job at portraying the helplessness of the teenagers situation and their reactions were believable. I enjoyed our main character Sia who had an unconventional upbringing and was more equipped for survival than the other teens. She was still relatable in her struggles to face herself and her relationship with her parents. The supporting characters each lent something important to the storyline and I actually liked that while there was a bit of a “romance” as a side plot the book really didn’t need it.
Fractured Tide is one that will be finding a spot on my shelves and I look forward to having my preteen read it next. This is a great YA that I think many will enjoy with its ominous setting.
“This will sound totally irrational , but the shadows watched me trudge through the sand, like they were alive or something.”
OnceUpon_A_BookDream 