Reviews with content warning for Violence - Daughter of the Deep

Was this a chosen one narrative or nepobaby propaganda?

One could argue that all of Rick Riordan's protagonists are nepobabies. He mainly writes about children of literal gods after all. But these aren't real nepobabies, no one irl is actually a child of a god and have legit superpowers (I think). Ana on the other hand.

Ana is the descendant of captain Nemo and this makes her really important and special because she can access the submarine and also because she's supposed to be super smart for some reason?

Daughter of the Deep almost legitimately reads like nepobaby propaganda. WHY is Ana so important just because of her ancestry? She isn't especially smarter than any of the other students, she doesn't have literal superpowers, and yet she's treated as such.

Outside of the nepotism of it all, she's just not very interesting. The story is so focused on her, the history of the world, and plot none of the side characters shine through either. This would've benefitted from being a trilogy and stretching out the plot in order to flesh out everything or having fewer characters.

The world building is also boring. I wish that this was actually about Jules Vern, the actual technology he wrote about doesn't become relevant until the second half of the book. The academy is literally just a militant marine studies school for rich kids that blows up immediately.

I found the second half to be a little more interesting because of the sci-fi elements. Rick Riordan writes with a passion for Vern's work and he has already built a career off of making mythology accessible for children and I would love to see him move into other worlds and other topics. Just with more of the actual speculative elements and less nepotism.

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val_theburrowofstories's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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sannesbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Very fast-pased, action-packed, YA/middle grade book. Really nice diverse cast of characters and a few cute animals. Wholesome and adventerous story. If you like or are interested in the ocean and/or animals you would especially enjoy the book. The second part of the story was more interesting to me than the first part.

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whoizthis360's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Loved this - it feels like a step more mature than Ricks other books, which I love, while still being accessible to all. Also, canon autistic character and diverse cultural representations? Yes please!!

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runes_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I ADORED this book! I've always been a fan of Rick Riordan, but this has to take the cake. One of the main characters (not the protagonist) is autistic. They used identity first language and said she was autistic without tip-toeing around it. Being able to see a lovable character like that, who was like me? In a great story by one of my favorite authors would've been everything to my high school self, after I was diagnosed.

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