Screenwriters, please make this awesome book into a movie!!!

The Stranded is an action-packed, edge-of-your-seat dystopian thriller about people that are trapped on a ship for many years. They are being quarantined because of a virus that isn’t even a threat anymore and they are being detained and controlled by a corrupt government. The people on the ship have separated themselves based on wealth- some have a chance to attend school, some receive military training, gangs run wild and others scrape by on whatever they can get their hands on. Nothing is as it seems and everyone seems to be living lies. Some of the ship’s residents have joined forces and become the rebellion and are trying to take down the government and find freedom and survival. I love the combination of old relics and futuristic technology throughout this book! The plot is deep and full of surprising twists too. I couldn’t put it down (except I had to for work) and I was not ready for it to end! Thank you NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I don't do this often, but I did not finish this book. The description had Nik and Esther working together, but I got 25 chapters in and they still are not.
It is a very detailed - very long book.
I think it would probably be a great TV mini-series, but it is just too long. I read for my students, and they will not read a book that is 464 pages.

After reading the description of Sarah Daniels' "The Stranded", I was immediately excited by the idea of this near-future dystopia. Heralded as a mix of "The Hunger Games" and "Station Eleven", this book had the potential to be something great.

Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. I found that there were a lot of plot holes that caused certain expanses of the book to happen dreadfully slowly while other portions occurred much too fast. Many elements did not add up and there was a lack of depth to the character arcs.

While I did enjoy certain aspects of this book, I simply feel it was missing something essential for it to be great.

This not-so-distant-future dystopian novel takes recent real events and fleshes them out to the worst possible scenario. A horrible disease has ravished the world while the Arcadia, a pleasure cruise, sails the seas. Decades have gone by and peoples lives have gone on all while stuck aboard the ship, unable to dock for political and world health reasons. What emerges over the years is an unfair class system, and a brewing rebellion is finally ready to take action. Cool technology and strong characters await this plot-driven novel!

I thought “The Stranded” by Sarah Daniels was an interesting book but overall it was just an okay read for me. I didn’t have any expectations going into the story other than knowing it’s dystopian and intrigued by the idea of being quarantined on a cruise ship.

The story picks up in the year 2094 off the coast of the Federated States (a split of the US) with the survival of inhabitants and their descendants who were on a cruise ship 40 years ago when war broke out in Europe. The ship fled to the States where they hoped to find refuge but instead were forced into a martial law quarantine for 40 years. The story revolves around the rebellions attempt to free the people of the ship.

What I really did like about the story was the author’s use of multiple POVs (which I’m not usually a fan of). We get to see a naïve teenager learn the truth of her life, a young rebel, and the commander of the ship’s security forces (also known as the bad guy). I like that we get to see the development and frustration of each of the characters and I think the author did a fantastic job moving seamlessly from character to character to portray the events happening.

There’s plenty of young love, heartbreak, and betrayal in the story and that definitely kept my interest, but overall there was nothing super exciting about the story. I noticed the author mentioned this is a duology so I’d probably read the next one since the ending left me with so many questions.

This was a lot more YA fantasy than the creepy drama stuff that I like. Perhaps suitable for a younger person or one that likes a fantasy series. As I go back and read the summary, I know it was my mistake. I got more of a locked room mystery vibe at first.

It was still perfectly splendid! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

A world ravaged by a virus and thousands of people have been kept on large ships off the coast, in the fear that generations later they are virus carriers. The resistance is rising and fighting for their opportunity to have a life on land.

Really tense moving plot, great setting and characters I was rooting for.

I'm not always a fan of speculative fiction but I loved The Hunger Games series so this appealed to me. Having been on one cruise in my life, I can now say I'm pretty sure I'd be skeptical of another! Yes, I realize the book takes place in 2094 but people were evading "the virus" so it hits pretty close to home! I enjoyed the strong female characters, Esther and sister, May and also liked the multiple points of view as they gave varying perspectives. Good guys, bad guys, hunger, drones...what's not to like? It's an action-packed, fast-paced read and I'm actually exhausted after racing through it. But now I can't wait for a movie version to be made!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

I honestly wasn't sure what to expect, but I really enjoyed this novel! Perfect for YA and I was completely hooked from beginning to end.

DNF @ 50% - I couldn’t get past the juvenile plot and storyline. I would definitely consider this on the younger side of the YA spectrum of books. it was a copy cat of snowpiercer but for a younger generation and on a boat. I would definitely give this a try for younger age groups (around 10-14).

I received this book as an ARC and this is my review. Plunge yourself forty years in the future for this dystopic story. The characters are interesting and the situations are dark and dismal. This is a debut novel for Sarah Daniels and she does a masterful job of creating a nightmare that is believable and terrifying. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy horror and appreciate an exciting but deadly premise.

(2.5 stars)

Based on what goodreads says is two stars (it was ok) and three starts (liked it) this is a solid in between. I really liked the setting of the ship and the beginning starts off with a lot of action and hooked me immediately. Unfortunately, as the book goes on and our characters reveal more of themselves, I started to lose interest. The three separate POVs didn't make much sense to me - there's Hadley the bad guy, Nik the main boy character and a rebel, and Esther the main girl character who's just kinda some how gets wrapped up into all this. Usually in these kinds of books the POV is told from the romantically interested parties but in this Nik seems to be dating Esther's sister and Esther has her own boyfriend. Hadley's POV didn't really add much for me personally, I think I would have enjoyed this more had it been told just by Nik and Esther and maybe if Esther's sister got a POV chapter here or there.

The plot here is pretty standard, run of the mill YA dystopian band together to fight the man type scenario. In a genre where there's a lot of the YA dystopian band together to fight the man type scenarios, this one kind of just fades into the others for me but it's not bad by any means.

For me, it just had a bit of a predictable plot and some not so likeable characters but I can definitely see the appeal in it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of The Stranded in exchange for an honest review!

This is a young adult distorts book. The people that f this book have been stuck on a luxury boat for 40 years sent away from Europe which had an apocalyptic war and they are now moored by the coast of the Federated States. This book is told with three different view points. One of Ester who is a medical student hoping to be sent to the Federated States to practice medicine, Nik who is a rebel hoping to liberate the boat and Hadley who is the bad guy tormenting the citizens of the ship.

Mi really enjoyed this story! There was a lot going on, and it all came together in the end. I was interested right from the beginning and would have read it in one sitting if I hadn’t started 10:30 at night. I can’t wait for the second part of this duology comes out!

SUPER interesting and inventive world which is my favorite thing in speculative fiction!! Really looking forward to more from Sarah Daniels

An excellent debut YA thriller novel. I have gotten away from YA in the past year or so because I felt I was growing out of it so this was a refreshing read for me. I loved the dystopian setting and the Hunger Games feel. A great first novel for this author and I will be looking forward to more.

It was entertaining but not the best in this heavily populated genre. I put it down a few times but in the end did finish the book. Interesting concept, could have been better.

I lost interest in the story and didn't end up finishing it. I don't read a lot of YA, but I do enjoy the dystopian angle, but this was ultimately more action-y than world-building. I think others could enjoy it though.

I would Sourcebooks and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC.

I really wanted to like this book, but sadly I didn't enjoy it. It was slow paced and it took me a bit to figure out what was going on. We are just thrust into the story and get to explore the story without much background on what was going on. The concept was what drew me to this book, but unfortunately there wasn't much in the actual story that I enjoyed. I didn't connect to the characters or the story.

A fun, fresh take on the dystopian genre!

The story starts with a bang and only goes up from there. Daniels has created a cohesive, wonderfully contained world reminiscent of The 100. The pace is fast, the world intriguing, and I especially appreciated the themes of how constricting paranoia can be and the dangers of sacrificing freedom in the name of safety. We saw a lot of tech that’s been in other stories, but it all has a fun twist or unique compilation.

I’d highly recommend The Stranded for lovers of dystopia, ship settings, and uprisings.

Thankful to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc!

-A

This has been out over a month now and there are lots of helpful reviews out there already, so I'll just recommend this to YA and sci-fi fans. This is a fun one.

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!