I can't think of many topics that are as imminently relevant as climate change and this book does an amazing job highlighting it.

That said, it's a bit slow to start. After the first few chapters though, I was hooked!

Synopsis (It's a fiction book, so it helps…from Netgalley, the provider of the book for me to review.)
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For fans of The Last Thing He Told Me comes a page-turning thriller about hidden identities and the terrifying realities of climate change.

The truth won't always set you free...
Ess wakes up alone on a sailboat in the remote Pacific Northwest with no memory of who she is or how she got there. She finds a note, but it's more warning than comfort: Start over. Don't make yourself known. Don't look back. Ess must have answers. She sails over a turbulent ocean to a town hundreds of miles away that, she hopes, might offer insight. The chilling clues she uncovers point to a desperate attempt at erasing her former life. But why? And someone is watching her…someone who knows she must never learn her truth.
In Ess's world, the earth is precariously balanced at a climate tipping point, and she is perched at the edge of a choice: which life does she want? The one that was taken from her—and the dangerous secret that was buried—or the new one she can make for herself?
A galvanizing riddle that is just as unmooring as it seems, this sharp character-driven odyssey explores a future challenged by our quickly changing world and the choices we must make to save what matters most.
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There is nothing quite like a book with a heavy dose of climate change shaming involved...it actually annoyed me at times. We get it, we suck at protecting the planet and you are better than us: the whole mantra ended up turning me off and it was hard to truly enjoy the book when it was being shoved down one's throat. Terrifying reality? I guess so, if you have kids which is, frankly, the worst thing that you can do, climate-wise if you look at it in a nitty-gritty way. (Yes, Alex Baldwin I am calling you out on that!)

As a Canadian, I enjoyed the setting of Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands. The story was ***mostly*** enjoyable to read if you ignored the lecturing tone being hidden in a fiction book.

MOTR for me ... 2.5 stars rounded UP only because I was not overly ticked off at the moment about the mantra hidden behind the fiction.
#shortbutsweetreviews

I so wanted to like this book. However, it was so slow, contrite and predictable.
Everything was so tied up neatly I thought I was looking at a christmas present.
The main character Ess, is wooden (not because of the memory loss) but overall interactions with others, no chemistry between any of the characters.

Everything was just off with this book. The bad guys weren't really that bad. The amnesia wasn't all that was supposed to be.

it was just a meh thriller book.

I feel that with time that the author may get better, but this book is going to be a hard pass for die hard thriller/mystery fans.

This novel starts with an absolute bang, and only gets more complex and interesting from there.

<b>Ess wakes up alone on a sailboat in the remote Pacific Northwest with no memory of who she is or how she got there. She finds a note, but it's more warning than comfort: <i>Start over. Don't make yourself known. Don't look back.</i></b>

Imagine waking up on the floor of a sailboat, nauseated and with a pounding head... and worse, absolutely <i>no memory of who you are, or how you came to be there</i>. That's the situation our heroine, 'Ess' is in. She finds a few clues in the boat - a name 'Sarah Song' (which she takes only the diminutive 'Ess' from), a note that warns her not to ask questions or seek out her past, and a faulty water tank, leaving her dehydrated, frightened and unwilling to follow orders.

Setting out on a quest to find out who she is and why her memory has been erased takes Ess to the coast of Canada and to a cast of characters including a charismatic Harbour Authority patrolman named Hito and his compelling, messy and electric sister, Yori. Yori is easily one of the best (if not THE best) characters in the book, and I was always pleased when she sashayed back into the fray with her wit, anger, flaws and huge open wounded heart.

Being set in the future, on an earth that is on the cusp of disaster from climate change, made this novel feel all-too-possible and all the more terrifying for it. The action seems believable and every bit of Ess' struggle after realizing she can't even remember how to be a HUMAN rings true. Consequently, her relationships with Hito and particularly, with Yori, tugged on my heartstrings more than once.

In the end, this is more than a thriller, and the ending proves that. Without giving away too much, it's about finding your sense of self, when everything that was *you* has been ripped away.

Great idea for a story but I just didn’t love how it all came together. It seemed to go on in the wrong places and it felt like it fizzled were we needed more.

just finished reading the advanced readers copy of this book and I liked it a lot. Ess woke up with amnesia and it shows how she started a new life. The relationships she formed were endearing. Book is full of mystery and intrigue. Can’t wait to read more from this author.

Adrift is the best book I have read in a long time. Everything about it - the characters, the setting, the pace, the scientific details - was spot-on. Lisa Brideau is an excellent story-teller; she knew when to build the tension, how to draw a storyline out, how to keep a reader glued to the page. I love an unpredictable book and this one wins the prize.

This was an engrossing story, and a lot of fun to read. Finding out what was happening and who was responsible was fairly interesting, but what I enjoyed most was putting myself in the place of the main character as she tried to figure out what to do. The sailing details and Canadian west coast setting were also enjoyable. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What would you do if you woke up on a sailboat without any memories of who you are or how you got there and armed with only a note warning you not to go looking for answers?

This is the exact situation in which Ess finds herself, and the amazing first chapter of Lisa Brideau's Adrift.

I was so lucky to get to read an early copy of this book. Tightly plotted, with amazing character development, this book had me glued to my seat as the clues to who Ess really is quickly unraveled. Brideau layers the suspense with the harrowing impacts of climate change on a not-so-distant future world, spinning in thoughtful commentary on the state of our current environment.

Mixing a bit of mystery, thriller, and speculative fiction, with a dash of sci-fi, I adored this book. I cannot wait for it to be released in May, and I'm so excited to read Lisa Brideau's future books!

The story is of a woman who wakes up on a boat, alone. She's drifting into the sea and has no memory of how or why she is there. She did find a note with instructions but has no idea what's really going on.

This story is set in the future tense. I did find parts of it to be interesting, parts to be a little off, but overall I think it's an okay read. I'd recommend it if your looking for something different. It definitely has that factor!

I really enjoyed this book and the main character, Sarah Song. She wakes up on a boat with a killer headache and no knowledge of who she is or where she is. This is the start of this novel.
She appears to live on a boat, but she truly is adrift in more than one way.

Sarah knows boats and things, but nothing relating to herself or people or places she has been. She has an identity and money and seems to be set to live her life, but all is a mystery and Sarah sets out to see if she can solve that mystery while she lives in fear of not even knowing how to conduct herself around others.
She finds a note, telling her NOT to try to find out anything about herself. Wow!

There are layers upon layers keeping her from finding out the truth. Is it worth it to keep digging?

I loved the pace of the story and the characters that get involved with Sarah and the ending was great!

Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the early read.

This was an interesting take on a potential future, it takes place in 2039) if climate change continues the way it is, it's also about a woman and her journey to find herself, Ess (short for Sarah) wakes up on a sailboat alone with no memory of how she got there, who she is or where she is. She eventually pieces together the who and where, but why she has no memory is disturbingly blank. She figures out that there are other people with amnesia that are showing up in southern British Columbia (she's in northern BC just south of Alaska), she decides to take a very hazardous 1,000 kilometer trip to southern BC to see if she can figure out why she has no memory. She meets up with a fellow and his sister and they help her to some degree. I enjoyed this book, though I found the thrill part of it a bit lacking, I found this more to be a journey of self discovery and what makes a person who they are, how past memories impact them. I would recommend, the writing was very nice and easy to read. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Source Landmark for the ARC.

In the world of dystopian fiction, “Adrift” cuts a strong profile with its unique premise and strong narration. The setting and character descriptions advanced the plot and were, at times, stunningly poetic (for example, “…like a maple leaf on the floor of a cedar forest.”). The author handled questions of a sense of self and memory loss with dexterity.

Sadly, I found the quantity of profanity to be a distraction from the strength of the prose. I also felt the climax was anticlimactic, the villains were underwhelming, and I did not feel like the given explanations in the final chapters answered the “why” questions raised in the beginning of the book. I would have liked to better understand the necessity for the terse nature of the original instructions.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

This is not the type of book I would normally chose, I don’t usually care for books set in the future. However, the storyline was an enjoyable read. You find yourself rooting for Ess who has no memory of who she is or where she come from. She manages to rebuild her life & her future.

What a pleasant surprise 😍😍 this book’s premise is so intriguing (woman wakes up on a boat with no memory of who she is or why she’s there) but this story is so much more than just that initial premise. I loved the commentary on the climate crisis (the book is set slightly into the future), refugee policies, sci fi/technology advancements, and the question of who a person is if they don’t have their memories. Don’t go into this one expecting a fast-paced thriller. While there are fast-paced moments, it’s much more of a mind bender that you have to take your time to appreciate. Thanks NetGalley for letting me read this one early, I’m excited to be on the hype train for it!! Will definitely be keeping an eye out for more from this author.

Adrift is the story of a woman waking up alone on a boat, drifting in the sea, with no memory of herself or how she got there. She finds a note with instructions but what is really going on?

Ess wakes up in a world that doesn't make sense to her or us. The story is set in the future and the world looks a lot different due to climate change. There is an air of confusion over the whole thing. The pace is pretty slow in the beginning as Ess tries to figure out what is going on.

Fans of boat stories or people who love boats will enjoy this as there is a lot of talk about sailing. The majority of the story takes place on the sea and is important to the plot.

The action picks up later as information is gathered. I wouldn't describe it as an action thriller though. The story is really about memory, and who you are as a person, with or without it.

This was an interesting read! The premise was unlike anything I’d read before, the futuristic setting was entirely believable. The characters were well-developed but not to the degree that I cared about them super much. The writing was strong, lyrical at times. My main issue was there was no real urgency. I kept reading because I was curious, but I never felt on the edge of my seat or like I couldn’t wait to turn the page or get to turn next chapter. Even when things got a little dicey at times, I was never really sweating. But it was good!! 3.5 stars rounded down to 3.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

𝔸𝔻ℝ𝕀𝔽𝕋 𝔹𝕐 𝕃𝕀𝕊𝔸 𝔹ℝ𝕀𝔻𝔼𝔸𝕌
⛵️⛵️⛵️
3/5

I received this from Sourcebooks and NetGally.

Ess wakes up on a boat, with no memory of how she got there, or even who she is. There’s a note taped to the boat telling her not to look back.

Ess tries to decide if she wants to move forward with a new life, or figure out who she is. The world is wrecking havoc through climate changes and flooding.

Ess wakes up alone on a sailboat with absolutely no memory of her past life. She somehow knows how to sail, yet she doesn't know why.

This is a slower paced climate fiction with bits of sci fi. Even though it was slower paced, it had those chapters with just enough of a cliff hanger to keep you up reading way past your bed time, lol.
I absolutely loved our main character. She was strong, decisive, and I loved reading from her point of view.

There was a bit too much info about sailing. As someone who has no interest in it really, I found myself skimming through parts of it.

All in all, I'm happy I picked it up and will definitely read from this author again.

I got this eARC from #NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.I saw this book mentioned in 2022 and put it on my TBR for my most wanted to read in 2023. It did not disappoint me one bit.It is a fast paced thriller. I loved the story and couldn’t stop reading it.Thank you for the chance to read it before the May 9,2023 publishing date.