booklvrkat's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Mini blurb: 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.
My thoughts: The notion of being stuck at sea for centuries on a dilapidated mega cruise ship due to politics, biological warfare, country upheaval is chilling. Our author has created an entire dominated world, class system and pecking order under the rule of a dictatorship. Where you would expect to be dining on lobster, Creme Brûlée, and sipping on a Macallan Double Cask 18-Year-Old Single Malt Scotch, Daniels takes us on a trip that won’t be forgotten. Surprisingly, this is a debut novel and I’m sure I should not have read this story before going on a cruise in late November. *facepalm*
"On the Arcadia, we live under the constant threat of being arrested. Look at a Coli wrong,? Arrested. Break a rule in front of one of the many surveillance cameras? Arrested. Stand too close to someone doing something shady? Arrested. Wrong place wrong time is basically the ship's motto."
tamreel_stitches's review
3.0
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for this arc. The story was good, it reminded me divergent. It makes you think of what could have happened if people were made stay on ships when covid hit. Kind of a scary thought.
yeagleyreads's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
lawbooks600's review against another edition
3.0
Trigger warnings: Shipwreck, pandemic mentioned
6/10, where do I begin with this, so I was hoping that after reading the Nine Emperors by David Logan which was OK but not the best novel ever this would be better but it ultimately turned out to be a very underwhelming debut from Sarah Daniels and I had a lot of problems with this which I'll get to later on. It starts off with an interesting premise where the characters were stuck on a ship called the Arcadia in 2094 after a pandemic swept through Europe in 2051 so they escaped and stayed off the coast of the Federated States. The writing style was fine but rather basic and non-descriptive and fragmented so that bothered me a bit but I didn't mind since I think it was intentional to make the story more action packed.
Esther and Nikhil weren't the best characters ever since they were quite bothersome to read and I don't like the decisions they made since they were questionable at best and jeopardising at worst and I couldn't care for them since they never really developed themselves. It also kind of dragged on for 300 pages, and the action was a bit too quick since the characters planned to escape the Arcadia and crashed it into the port despite the antagonist Hadley's best efforts to stop them but he was in the background most of the time so I never really saw him and it already ended on a cliffhanger but I hope the second book might be good. I think this was inspired by 1984 by George Orwell and definitely not the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins but it was full of action but I recommend those novels over this.
6/10, where do I begin with this, so I was hoping that after reading the Nine Emperors by David Logan which was OK but not the best novel ever this would be better but it ultimately turned out to be a very underwhelming debut from Sarah Daniels and I had a lot of problems with this which I'll get to later on. It starts off with an interesting premise where the characters were stuck on a ship called the Arcadia in 2094 after a pandemic swept through Europe in 2051 so they escaped and stayed off the coast of the Federated States. The writing style was fine but rather basic and non-descriptive and fragmented so that bothered me a bit but I didn't mind since I think it was intentional to make the story more action packed.
Esther and Nikhil weren't the best characters ever since they were quite bothersome to read and I don't like the decisions they made since they were questionable at best and jeopardising at worst and I couldn't care for them since they never really developed themselves. It also kind of dragged on for 300 pages, and the action was a bit too quick since the characters planned to escape the Arcadia and crashed it into the port despite the antagonist Hadley's best efforts to stop them but he was in the background most of the time so I never really saw him and it already ended on a cliffhanger but I hope the second book might be good. I think this was inspired by 1984 by George Orwell and definitely not the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins but it was full of action but I recommend those novels over this.
elva08's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
ishouldbewriting's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book! Its setting is terrifying in how realistic it could be. I love the characters and the depths of their personalities. There were a few bits that had be worried a certain relationship would set sail and I would've absolutely hated it, but I'm so glad we didn't go down that route. We have crazy science and fighting for freedom from two angles and a smidge of teenage drama. Oh and heartbreak. Can't have a good book without heartbreak that makes me hate the writer while also respecting her dearly. I don't know if there's a plan for a sequel but I would love to see more of the story, while also being totally content with it ending here.
shereadstales's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the digital galley of this book.
The Stranded takes place in such a world. Forty years ago, people boarded this ship fleeing a war. Now, it still floats near the coastline of the Federated states (what’s left of the US), its inhabitants surviving in their own little world and hoping for a chance to live on land one day. Ester is a loyal citizen, a hard-working medic in training. But there are rebels who want to liberate the ship, and when she gets embroiled in their plot, she’ll have to make some tough choices about her own future that may affect her people’s whole way of life.
I ended up doing this one on audiobook, and I may not have finished it in print. It felt long, and there were so many characters, motivations, and plots going on that I sometimes had waning interest. It’s not confusing, and the jumping around POVs helped move it along, but overall, it was just ok for me. If you like revolutionary dystopian books with more speculative reality than scifi, give it a chance, though. It might be right up your alley. It’s out now wherever you get your books.
sila109's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
yo. how do people still manage to publish books that are this trash??? i am astonished at how bad this book was oh my god. the concept seems so cool and the synopsis makes it sound epic. not only was the writing incredibly repetitive and the dialogue BEYOND cringey, but the book also made no sense. zero sense. after finishing the book and supposedly getting all the answers to questions, i still have no idea what everyone's goals were. felt like the author didn't even know what everyone's motives were. what in the actual hell were the rebels trying to accomplish??? were they trying to get to land? get only themselves to land? get everyone on the ship to land? blow up the ship? get off the ship? make the ship more liveable? kill Hadley? like who are we mad at??? what are we trying to accomplish rn??? are we mad at the federated states?? are we mad at the ship? like what is going on. literally if there was a gun to my head i could not tell you what the goal of the rebels is. and that's the ENTIRE plot. so wtf. also what is Hadely's goal??? what is he doinggggggg. and why was there suddenly so much death at the end? like shut up, you're a YA book at best and you're killing off people as if every character (who is a child!!!) is suddenly capable of murder. Esther was the most inconsistent, stupid, annoying character i've ever read. she needs to stfu. also Nik needs to shut up. i can't say this enough, WHAT WAS EVERYONE'S GOALS?????? WHAT ARE WE DOING?? WHO ARE WE MAD AT??? AND WHY? this book is so so so bad. never will i ever pick up a random book because the synopsis sounds good. i've learned my lesson. there is no way anyone could possibly like this book. i cannot believe it got published. i also cannot believe i forced myself to finish it. took me fucking forever to read bc it is just so bad and i never wanted to read it. definitely skimmed the last 50ish pages bc stfu you can't make me pretend to care anymore. this book needs to fuck right off.
amandau's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0