A review by shereadstales
The Stranded by Sarah Daniels

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.