Thank you so much to the publisher, Penguin, and The Write Reads for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and allowing me to join the blog tour!
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 . . .
I am always on the lookout for a new and exciting dystopian novel to jump into. So, when I saw The Stranded I was excited to see how this dystopian, set on a once luxurious cruise ship, would play out. It hooked me from the first page and was a wild ride.
It is safe to say one of my worst nightmares is going on a cruise ship. So, the idea of being on a ship for years has me terrified. I loved seeing how this has affected those onboard and how life is for those people. Especially those who have been born on the ship and know nothing but ‘ship life’. Despite never being on a cruise ship myself, the writing drew me into the setting immediately and I felt like I was on the ship with the characters.
This book is told from three perspectives. The perspectives of Esther, Nik and Hadley. Each of these perspectives brings something unique to the story. I feel that the change in perspectives was one of the reasons I was constantly on the edge of my seat with this book and couldn’t put it down.
I loved reading Esther and Nik’s chapters. They are both interesting and chaotic main characters. It was interesting to see how the pair of them interacted especially as they are from different sections of the ship. Hadley is an excellent villain who I despised immediately. His chapters sometimes made me want to throw my book across the room. There is an excellent selection of side characters in this book too. All of them are unique and bring their own thing to the story. This book has an excellent cast of characters that is for certain.
I loved the action that this book has. It starts immediately and continues all the way throughout the book. It helped to build the tension for the reader and had me on the edge of my seat a lot. I found myself worried for the main characters and hoping their rebellion would go well.
Sarah Daniels’ is certainly an author I will be reading more books from in the future. Her writing captivated me and I loved the world that she built. It was so easy to visualise the ship and see how the action was playing out. The moment I finished The Stranded, I picked up the sequel The Exiled because I just had to know what happened next. The story and characters had me hooked.
Overall, I would highly recommend reading The Stranded if you are looking for a YA dystopian that is set somewhere incredibly unique. It will have you hooked from the very first page and you won’t want to put it down!
Be sure to check out all the other posts on this massive blog tour. I have a review of The Exiled coming out in just a couple of days so look out for that and give The Write Reads a follow on Twitter!
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