Reviews

Fractured Tide by Leslie Lutz

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laurenbookishtwins's review against another edition

5.0

I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you kindly to Blink for my review copy.

This was a ride, from start to finish. It follows Sia as she, and a small group of survivors, wash up on a deserted island after a deadly encounter with a mysterious creature during a dive to explore a shipwreck. Fractured Tide is an incredibly atmospheric thriller with a sharp as nails protagonist and a mystery to unravel. Fast-paced, immersive story-telling, and an emotionally driven narrative have secured this as one of my favourite reads this year. Full review to come, but this book should be on your radar if you love creepy, twisty-turning mysteries.

lakediver's review

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5.0

This book has everything you could want in an adventure story ... diving, sea monsters, weird time loops, and more! Sia is an avid diver who's been diving three times a day for god knows how long. She helps her mom run a dive charter, leading tourist divers on dives in the Florida Keys. But then it all goes wrong. First, she loses a diver. Then her boat and another boat get stranded at sea, engines mysteriously refusing to start. And then the attack comes. Something in the sea, pulling people off of the boat. Sia ends up stranded on a deserted island with three other people, the only apparent survivors. But they've got more than food and water to worry about. That thing in the sea is still hunting them, and the jungle - curiously devoid of life - seems to be watching them. And is it just your imagination, or is that the exact same group of birds doing the exact same things they did a few hours ago?

I absolutely loved this book. It's told through a series of journal entries that Sia writes to her father. I rather enjoyed this approach, because it gives you a look inside Sia's head and all the things going through it as this drama unfolds. The plotting was fast-paced, with lots of twists and turns along the way. Lutz did an excellent job of making this island feel creepy as hell, so I was write there with Sia when she was afraid of the creepy jungle or literally anything else about this island. And throughout all of this incredible action, you get Sia's family history seamlessly interwoven through the story. Sia also talks to her father throughout the book in a heartbreakingly honest manner - she's blunt, heartfelt, and pulls absolutely no punches. I was also thrilled to see that Lutz got the diving parts right. I'm also an avid diver (not quite as avid as Sia), and Hollywood almost never gets it right. Lutz did. I loved her descriptions of diving, the way that it makes you feel free and peaceful and weightless.

Thanks to NetGalley and Blink for an advanced copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review. All views and opinions are my own.