Hello my lovely bookworms, I am currently on holiday and relaxing with my book and the sea. This is the perfect time for me to catch up on my reviews starting with this one.
I am really excited to be part of the Ultimate Blog Tour with The Write Reads for The Stranded and The Exiled by Sarah Daniels. My post is a little late due to end of the academic year, (sorry Dave) however, I read this book in 2 days last week and I loved every second of it. I have bought The Exiled with me on holiday as it’s sea themed. But enough about me, here is a little more about the book and my review.
The Stranded (Stranded, #1) by Sarah Daniels Published by Penguin Random House Children's UK on July 21, 2022
Goodreads
A gripping, near-future thriller - The Hunger Games meets Station Eleven, for fans of pacey, disruptive TV, such as the Noughts and Crosses adaptation
Welcome to the Arcadia.
Once a luxurious cruise ship, it 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 flat-out to have the rare chance to live a normal life as a medic on dry land. Ben 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 . . .
The first words of the book, The Arcadia, it instantly reminded me of the ship that was in the fourth film of Resident Evil. That drew me in instantly with the familiarity of it but the plot line itself was something I haven’t read before. I read this book in 2 intense days. Thrilling, heart pounding action that I couldn’t put it down.
Written in multiple POVs we meet Esther, Nik and Hadley have lived on the Arcadia all her life. For 40 years many citizen have lived upon this ocean liner that has protected these citizens, these refugees from the virus that broke out across Europe, it plagued the world into an apocalyptic war. The Federation States now govern the ships, that has built an autocratic state upon the Arcadia. A rebellion is building among the people and Esther has found herself caught in the middle. She has grown up in the uniform of the Federation, but when she is thrown in the opposite direction with Nik, the more she learns about them, the more she questions what is right or wrong, how do we save the people and their future for the master that is Hadley, or will the be Stranded?
Sarah Daniels has an addictive writing styling. What I really enjoyed was that the multiple points of views came from different roles and loyalties on board the Arcadia. We really got to see a sense of the dark, and oppressive world building and the atmosphere through their eyes. The tension built drastically the further along the story we went. The setting of book really reminded me of the Titanic, an enhanced, unsinkable (properly this time) version of it, that’s how I pretty much envisioned. The Arcadia itself had a story to tell, it has a history and I really loved learning about that through miniature descriptions woven throughout the events of the story unfolded.
What I really surprised me was though was that you really do get immersed into the story and also felt emotionally connected to each of them. There was a point where I gasped and cried a little as I honestly didn’t see it coming. I didn’t realise I could feel so much hatred and anger towards Hadley though. Esther I could really feel the confusion of what the truth really is and finally Nik, the guy that I felt was quite misunderstood.
The Stranded is Titanic meets The Maze Runner, if you loved either of those you will love this debut dulogy series. I would highly recommend having The Exiled on hand, like me as I will be diving straight into that book this week. I would do a spotlight for this book but, it would ruin the plot straight away so take from this review that it’s amazing and grab yourself both books.
Thanks to The Write Reads and Penguin for sending my copies in exchange for a review.
