The Stranded by Sarah Daniels, 464 pages. Sourcebooks Fire, 2023. $18.
Language: R (43 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH
When a virus broke out in Europe over 40 years ago, the Arcadia was already planning on setting sail, but they were never allowed off the ship at their destination. Esther (16yo) was born here and is focused on passing her medic test and earning her way off the ship. Then a rebel gets shot, and Esther is the one taken and threatened to help him – or else – placing her in the middle of a rebellion she never wanted.
The points of view in this book take readers from rule-follower to rebel to antagonist, showing how the actions of each affects the whole. Everything is set into motion because of the risky plan executed in chapter one. As everything unravels, readers scramble to understand the whole plan – like the antagonist – while worrying about getting caught – like the rule-follower and rebel. It’s a bumpy ride aboard the Arcadia, and one that isn’t over yet.
The majority of the characters are European. Esther, May, and their family are implied White; Nik and his family are Indian. The mature content rating is for drug use. The violence rating is for gun and knife use, blood, brief description of torture, and murder.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I have mixed thoughts on this book. It is such a fascinating idea and pretty well executed but I wish there weren't so many POVs and there was more focus on character development and the virus. Definitely give it a try!

Hunger Games: boat edition. I found it a little slow to start, albeit necessary to lay the foundation. I enjoyed the 3 POVs, especially Hadley’s, who was the ultimate villain. Once the action starts, it is pretty non-stop. I also enjoyed the choices the author made to depict various social classes. I had hoped the virus would play a larger role, but maybe it will become relevant in future books.

The Arcadia is a cruise ship carrying hundreds of passengers. The passengers and their ancestors have been stuck on the ship for over forty years. War and a pandemic forced The Stranded onto a destination free voyage. It is survival but at what cost? Teenagers Esther and Nik both hope to have found a path toward land. But will the brutal Federated States crush their aspirations?

There was a lot going on in here. The three POVs made me continually feel like I was missing something important from another’s perspective. The book also felt overlong and dragged a bit at times. Still, if you enjoy a young adult look at what could happen in a dystopian near future, The Stranded might be the perfect book for you. 3 stars.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

Though I appreciate the advance copy of The Stranded, I struggled to connect with the characters and immerse myself in the story. Unfortunately, this is a DNF for me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

In a near-future dystopian world, residents of the cruise ship Arcadia have been prohibited from making landfall for forty years. We follow several teens, one of whom is trying to work within the system to secure a better life, and another who is entrenched in the on-board rebel cause.

Billed as Snowpiercer meets The Hunger Games, The Stranded only sort of manages to stick the landing. Perhaps it would have been too on-the-nose to liken this to The 100, which sees a society trapped on a spaceship rather than a cruise ship, but I couldn't help wishing I hadn't gone into this thinking I might finally get a good comp for The Hunger Games. If your favorite part of The Hunger Games was the fighting against a dystopian backdrop, then sure, The Stranded has some action moments you might enjoy. But in the areas of thematic depth and round character development, where The Hunger Games excels, The Stranded leaves a lot to be desired.

I did enjoy the fast-paced, multi-POV tilt of this book, and the idea of this kind of dystopian near future so greatly impacted by a deadly virus was certainly interesting. I just wish it had lived up to my perception of its potential a bit more.

DNF and could not get into this story’s plot or characters. I got 11% into the book and just couldn’t read anymore.

I think this would make a great movie. It kind of reminded me of the tv show 1899 i liked this book the writing was good and held my interest and wanted more from this author. Characters could have been written better tho but it was a nice read

The quick cut: In a dystopian future ravaged by a virus, a ship named Arcadia is struggling with rebellions and keeping the peace.

A real review:
Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for providing the arc for an honest review.

After living though COVID, I think we all have a better appreciation for life as we know it. However, have you ever imagined what the world would look like if COVID won? This is a world brought to life on the ship Arcadia.

Arcadia used to be a luxury cruise liner, but for forty years now it has become something else entirely. After the virus decimated Europe and changed life for everyone, the Arcadia has become a floating city very few can escape. People want to get back to the land, but aren't able of escaping the dangerous place the ship has become. Can they change their fate and escape?

When I read the description for this book, I definitely expected a different story than I got. So I'll admit my disappointment in a different story colored my impression. After living through quarantine, this story just felt to me like they were trying to pretend COVID didn't happen.

The part that frustrated me the most is that the world puts a big focus on the virus that ravaged the planet, but it never really plays into the plot. I'm sure it will eventually, especially since it's clear this is the start of a series. It definitely felt like the virus is a sword hanging over the head of the entire plot and you're just waiting for it to make it's inevitable entrance.

There are three narrators: Esther the doctor trainee, Nik the rebel, and Hadley the First Mate. Each one has its own perspective and they do work well together. I didn't particularly connect to any of them though. It felt like the characters needed more depth and the world building more clarity. It was easy to get confused in the process.

A book setup with a lot of potential that's missed.

My rating: 3 out of 5

Esther and May are sisters that have been raised aboard the Acadia, a huge ship that harbors tons of people that have been floating at sea since a virus outbreak over 40 years ago. The sisters each harboring secrets; May is part of a rebellion that aims to free the people from the shop and Esther becomes a part of it without even knowing. Will the sisters be able to work together with their allies and boyfriends to get to land? Or will the Acadia be as doomed as so many other ships that have tried and failed for freedom?

If I had read this book prior to 2020 I would have rolled my eyes. A virus that spreads and leaves people stuck out at sea with fear of them coming back to land to spread the virus sounds absurd. That same scenario happened in my lifetime. People did exactly what the government asked of them and followed all the guidelines no matter what they had to give up in the process. Throw that in with the year being 2094 and more technology, you have this book! It was an interesting ride, for sure!

The Stranded was a very compelling and propulsive dystopian novel, and I look forward to the sequel! At first, I didn't like the multiple viewpoints, but the structure grew on me, and I don't think you could tell this story from a single character's perspective. I do wish there was a bit more background and world-building, but overall I enjoyed this book a lot and I'd recommend it to fans of The Hunger Games. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for early access!

I enjoyed the story and the different characters' points of view. I was confused a few times forgetting who was narrating. I know some readers may also find this difficult to follow. I am looking forward to reading the next book (I really hope there is another book!).

The only thing that bothered me a little was some of the saying the characters would use. I was surprised they would know the common sayings (from now) yet they were being isolated on the ship. I would think they may have had their own sayings that the people on land wouldn't understand what they meant. I guess they still had contact with those who lived on land from them coming and going from the ship. I can't remember any specific examples, but when I came across one, I would always pause and think, how would they know that if they lived on the ship all their lives? Did their grandparents tell them about that or speak in that way? And so on.

I still enjoyed the story and recommend it for all libraries.

This is a YA book for YA readers. I feel like I would have absolutely loved this book as a teen but as an adult, it just didn’t work for me. And that’s fine! I found the pacing really strange. Some parts I flew through and some parts were so slow. It took awhile to really get into the story and know what was going on. I would be interested in reading future books by this author.

For forty years, the Arcadia, once a luxury cruise ship, has been moored on the edges of what's left of America. Its residents are prohibited from leaving the ship, which has turned into a wild city in its own right. Esther, a loyal citizen, has been training to become a medic, one of the only ways to leave the ship behind. Nik, a son of rebellion, desperately wants to liberate the ship. The Arcadia is hurtling towards an ending. But will it be freedom? Or will it be death?

THE STRANDED is a dystopian debut novel that marks the beginning of a duology. It's marketed as a marriage between the 2014 movie Snowpiercer (apt) and THE HUNGER GAMES, which is a bit of a stretch. I find this book a hard one to describe without giving away too many of its secrets. 3 stars.

The novel is split into three points of view: Esther and Nik (as of this review, some editions are calling him Ben), both in first person, and the officer that oversees the ship, Hadley. In this near-future world, war has decimated Europe, and the people that were aboard cruise ships crossed oceans to anchor in what would later become a fractured version of America, unable to return to their home ports yet prohibited from making landfall. For four decades, the passengers and crew have made the ship into a city of haves and have-nots, all of them under the intense scrutiny of Federated States officers and soldiers, most of whom want them gone.

The setting of this novel is intensely interesting. A floating, rusting city with a rigid social classes, it reminded me a lot of MORTAL ENGINES (Reeve.) For me, the setting of the Arcadia is by far the high point of the novel. It gives off a strong dystopian atmosphere, one that's worn down by time and studded with fear of the conditions the people live under.

But, unfortunately, the characters of this novel failed to grab me. Esther, Nik, and Hadley are easily the characters with the most depth, but even then I didn't quite connect with them. The rest of the supporting cast have some intricacies, but they never feel fully realized.

This book is both a debut novel for the author and the beginning of a series. And so while it does have some aspects that are decidedly lacking, I can't deny that I have an interest in what happens for these characters. The book did not take the path I thought it would, and so I continue to wonder what its future holds. Some major pluses and some considerable minuses leave me hovering somewhere in the middle with this one.

Posted to Goodreads on December 15, 2022.

I have been wanting to read this one ever since I saw it on NetGalley, as I am a huge lover of dystopian novels. Safe to say, this one did not disappoint! The plot and the characters were all so interesting!

I have a love-hate relationship with multiple point-of-view books, but this one worked very well. I loved getting to see through all of the different characters' eyes and seeing their opinion on certain things. For a debut novel from Sarah Daniels, I am so impressed.

This book was definitely one of my favorite reads this year and I am crossing my fingers for a sequel because... what a cliffhanger!

I highly recommend this one!! Thank you. NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for this free arc in exchange for my honest review.

I was craving a good YA dystopian novel and I got it!

Talk about a cliff hanger!!!

Ok, enough with the exclamation points.

This story follows the path of two sisters sometime in the future. A virus causes mayhem and panic across the world and governments topple. People are stuck at sea on cruise ships and generations of families live on these ships. Many of them have never been on dry land.

I don’t want to throw any spoilers out there but I loved May and Esther’s story lines running in tandem.

I have a hard time with multiple POV’s in a book and that slowed me down a bit. I was frustrated until about halfway through. Towards the end of the book when it’s mostly Esther and Nik, I feel like the plot really started moving quickly. Then it ends and I said “what the heck I want more”.

I enjoyed the authors story telling and that this is truly a YA novel.

Can’t wait for the next one!

I received this eARC from NetGalley.

The Arcadia was once a luxury cruise ship, but is now a refugee camp for those fleeing an apocalyptic war. Not only are the survivors battling other survivors, there is also a deadly virus.
As you can imagine, with any refugee situation, there are those who have power and those who don’t.
A good premise, I wish there was more of a backsory as to how everything ended up the way it did.

I have had my eye on the debut book ever since Sourcebooks had posted it. An apocalypse on a ship.. umm yes please!

A cruise ship is now a refugee camp after an apocalyptic war broke out. For Forty years the people aboard have been refused to step foot off into land until now. Everyone on board is finding ways to survive.. so can landing finally help or make it worse.

This was such a fun, quick book I didn’t want to put down. I haven’t read a good apocalypse book in awhile. Water our main character is training to be a medic, which will help her when she’s back on land. My only downfall was the name of the ship. Just reminded me too much of Resident Evil since that was also the ships name. But all in all I enjoyed the characters and the struggles of survival and finding one’s footing.

Loved the Multiple POV, the plot in this book was pretty awesome, I loved the comparison to Hunger Games, which was the vibe I was getting. But there were parts that lagged for me, it’s a fast paced read, but it took a little longer for me to get hooked.
Thanks Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Thank you to Sarah Daniels, the publisher, and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for my review.

I was intrigued by the setting of this book, but for some reason it was really hard to get invested into the story and the characters. Usually I like a multiple POV perspectives in fantasy and thrillers, but this one did not work for me sadly.