Those We Drown by Amy Goldsmith
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
(A Spoiler-Free Review)


Apparently sea creature-based atmospheric horror is my jam because this is the second book in a row I’ve read with that theme! And, much like the last, this one did not disappoint.

Despite being just a little too slow on the pacing for my personal preference, the slowly unraveling moments of increasingly creepy uncertainty that Liv experiences aboard The Eos lends itself to a wonderful level of growing dread from page to page. The reader is left wondering how much is her own overactive imagination - not uncommon for a writer - and how much is an actual conspiracy brewing around her to the point of ship staff gaslighting her into thinking she didn’t see what she believes she did on a daily basis.

The writing weaves horror aspects that rely equally on both mythical powers and selfish human nature. The author blends these together to create an eerie atmosphere and cast of characters you can never fully trust at any given moment.

This is a wonderful tale that puts into question whether those we love are ever truly who we think they are, and explores the lengths some will go to for money, power, and youth.

After all, the sea provides… but only if you feed it.

(Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for my ARC epub! All opinions are my own. )

This one felt very much like a debut. Now that is not a bad thing. I just think that the story could have been more epic or just more. It felt like the author was trying not to over step their writing but I wish it would have gone all out. It was very surprising in some parts and in others it just wasn't. The pacing was very fast and the characters were mostly fleshed out. I just think that the story itself would have been better if it would have been just more.

Loved the synopsis of this story along with the cover art (it’s what drew me in). The horror at sea was suspenseful and atmospheric very well detailed! The characters, for me, were too stereotypical (the poor girl, the high society, social status ladder, etc), but they did their job well enough with the plot that I could over look the unoriginality. Over all, a solid YA horror read!

THOSE WE DROWN 🌊🪸🚢🦑🐚
Pub. date June 27, 2023
★★☆☆☆

Summer-y YA horror on a cruise ship, potentially overrun with sirens? By this description alone, this was one of my most anticipated summer releases. I was so so sad when this one just missed the mark for me.

Let's start with the positives! Goldsmith wrote some of the most frightening imagery I've seen. She does a phenomenal job of creating unique and terrifying scares in impressively succinct ways. I have so many highlights and notes of one-of-a-kind frights that I loved.

I also love a closed-off setting. A cruise ship is a weird liminal space that begs for horror. The images of repeating hallways and empty spaces gave major Shining vibes.

My biggest issues were with the pacing. Our main character Olivia became too unhinged too fast. From the first moment she suspected that something wasn't quite right, she went all in trying to figure out what happened. That left nowhere for her character to grow. She couldn't slowly devolve in the insanity of being trapped at sea. She was all in from day one. It felt like an emotional groundhog day of her doing the same things again and again.

Most other characters felt flat, too. The snobby rich girls were just posh and rude and that was all. Hot rich boys were just hot and rich. That led friendships to feel empty and romance plots to feel unsatisfying. I felt like I didn't really know anyone.

Beyond the characters and pacing, there wasn't much of a mystery aboard the ship. Too much was on the nose for it to be satisfyingly horrific or mysterious. A group of hot influencers named The Sirens? Wonder what's up with them. Everything on the ship being named after Greek legends and mythology left no room for originality.

I hate to write negative reviews, I really do. I know how hard it is to get a book published, and getting to this point alone is worth celebrating. However, this book sadly missed the mark for me personally. If you like mythology you might like this one, but other than that, I don't know who else would enjoy it

3.5 Stars ( I hate that GR doesn't let you do half stars)

Four stars for me means I REALLY liked the book. Three stars means it's a good book but was missing a wow factor. Both are GOOD ratings on my radar and BOTH mean I would recommend. I fell in the middle of those two ratings with this book and here's why.

While this is considered YA there's a good amount of drinking and sex talk. I love both drinking and sex talk but with that said I would rate this as Mature YA 16 and up. Not 12. But that's just me. Has nothing to do with my rating or review just wanted to put that out there.

So, this book left me with the question, is it possible to like a book while hating the MC??? Answer: Yes! I liked several things about this story. I felt the horror, mystery, cult, and body count were all good. As a seasoned cruiser the descriptions of the ship from the decor, food, entertainment, and overall atmosphere were dead on. From the overcrowded moments to the isolated dark ones. For me, it was spot on.

What I struggled with was the FMC. She was immature, dramatic, spoiled, lacked common sense, impulsive, and had communication issues. She was nosey AF for no reason and not in a cute Murder She Wrote snooping kind of way. He inability to read people and make smart choices irked me to the end.

With that said, is this the first time I've disliked an MC?? NOPE. I think I may be a little hard on my FMC's in horror stories because I want so badly to shake them, and I can't and it's frustrating. Also, I have a bad habit of siding with villains. About 60% in I had picked a side and it wasn't our girls, and I feel like that's okay.

The ending to this left me wanting more. If this were a movie, I'd be one of the three sitting through the end credits waiting for an extra reel.

Overall, I liked this book, I would recommend this book, you should read this book.

Liv thinks she has just landed an opportunity of a lifetime with an all-expenses-paid semester at sea on a luxury cruise ship. It quickly becomes clear that all is not right on this ship and the Eros and crew are hiding big secrets.

This was such a delightful debut. It was a little slow to start but once the story got it’s legs it took off running. As an anxious person I could relate to Liv so much and often times found myself wanting to yell “Run, Liv, Run!” The author did a nice job of making us question all the way until the end who knew what, who was involved, and frankly what was going to happen. I’ll definitely recommend this to the teens in my life who want a spooky read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

Liv was excited to join the SeaMester program aboard a cruise ship for weeks. It was an opportunity for something that would look good for university and help mend the broken relationship with her best friend. Almost from the moment they board the ship, things seem off-kilter and strange. When her best friend suddenly disappears the same night they sail away, Liv realizes that she has to find him before it's too late.

Oof. I wanted so much to love this book, but it was barely passable. There was nothing thrilling or mysterious about this book. Everything was basically laid out for the reader from the get-go. The characters were all different stereotypes without much change. The meathead jock, the popular girls, the cool girl, the misfits, the untouchable hot guy. Everyone fits into a neat little category and stayed there.

The biggest travesty of all, other than the lack of twists, was that ending. The ending just...stops. No resolution to anything, in the middle of a scene. It didn't feel artsy or like a style design. It felt like the writer didn't know how the book should end so she just stopped writing. It was lazy.

What if Mean Girls occurred on a cruise, and the Plastics were mythological Sirens instead? What if there is no happy acceptance of others at the end of the story? Now throw in a locked room mystery, a main character with severe anxiety, and strange squid-like monsters, and you essentially have the plot of Those We Drown by Amy Goldsmith.

Unfortunately, Those We Drown suffers from inanity and a complete lack of character development. Every character in the book is an archetype that never evolves beyond that. Even the main character, Liv, is too one-noted. Her rampant anxiety becomes a plot device, and the reader must plod through page after page of her questioning what she sees, hears, and experiences. I understand the need to show how much Liv's anxiety stifles her, but it becomes very redundant very quickly. 

There are elements of Those We Drown that could be brilliant. The references to Greek mythology and the Sirens are among those elements. Ms. Goldsmith could have done so much with the mythological references. Doing so might pull the rest of the story together in a way that makes more sense. I say this because the story is a bit of a mess. The cohesion between plot points is missing, and it is up to the reader to make sense of them and how they fit together. 

Another area of potential brilliance is the "did she or didn't she" part of the mystery. Ms. Goldsmith uses Liv's anxiety to draw out this mystery, but as I said, that quickly gets old. I believe Ms. Goldsmith could have done more or at least mixed up the reasons for Liv's uncertainty to prevent the redundancy that makes up most of the novel - Liv sees or hears something, she then spends the next two chapters questioning what she saw or heard followed by mentioning it to her classmates only to have them finally convince her she was wrong. Rinse and repeat.

While it appears that Ms. Goldsmith means for Those We Drown to be a coming-of-age horror novel (as if coming of age isn't horrifying enough), she fails to create a story that is either enlightening or scary. Liv doesn't grow up as much as others finally provide answers to her that she didn't even know she needed. Ms. Goldsmith does such a poor job of describing the horror elements it is all but impossible to feel anything but mild suspense when Liv finally confronts them. Those We Drown is Ms. Goldsmith's debut novel, which explains some of the issues. I am hopeful, however, that any future efforts will be better for her and will watch her career with interest.

A thrilling and deliciously creepy debut! The setting for this one is so unique, and the ocean-inspired horror imagery is nightmarish perfection.

I really enjoyed the concept of the story and the mystery the main character, Liv, was trying to figure out. However, Liv kind of drove me crazy. She would learn all of these things and repeatedly tell the people who she was starting to get suspicious of and not sure she could trust these people. She would continuously do this over and over again. It was to the point where I wanted to yell at her repeatedly, like she could not possibly be this naïve.
The mystery was pretty easy to figure out, for me, and I think it is supposed to be easy to figure out for the reader, but not for the MC. Which I feel as if Liv was not so naïve in her telling people all the things she has learned and seen she would have figured it out a long time ago. Constantine is another character in the book. I liked him and I completely get his denial of the weird things that are happening on the ship. However, it does get a little frustrating after a while, but that is the point because Liv is supposed to feel this way about Constantine.
I did like the ending though, however, I see the ending making a lot of people mad.

This one didn't pull me in as much as I had hoped. I think it's a case of it just wasn't for me. The mystery didn't draw me enough to keep reading. There also wasn't any character that drew me in, so i stopped halfway.

thanks to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review

⭐️=3 | 😘=3 | 🤬=4.25 | ⚔️=4 | 14/15+

summary: Those We Drown follows a girl on a cruise ship (for some scholarship??) where people start disappearing and there's sirens and snobby rich people and the MC sees spooooooky things everywhere when no one else does.

thoughts: eh? this was fast-paced with a decent concept; a ship is a unique confined space for a horror/thriller with different inherent stakes than a haunted house/hotel, which I liked.

the ending could've used a dramatically vague third person omniscient epilogue or something because I was definitely left hanging, and it didn't feel intentional, just lazy, like it's completely missing the last three percent or so. I also didn’t feel that I knew anyone besides the MC––the author was too focused on making every side character Super Mysterious to actually spend time creating real, distinguishable people. the book started out hinting at some class commentary (and there was a note from the editor-in-chief at the beginning raving about the book because of it??) but it didn't follow through imo.

(also, some of the character interactions were painful––like some gen x's interpretation of gen z dialogue conventions after twenty minutes on TikTok three years ago.)

despite this, I finished it in two days, so it must've done something right? and yet??

Pure escapism, this excellent debut is about what happens when you get everything you think you want. Liv receives a scholarship to attend an educational cruise ship around the world. In fact, she is the only one who is not insanely rich and popular. She’s there with her BFF Will who disappears after the first night. The staff tells her how he’s quarantined and everything makes perfect sense, but Liv thinks that there’s something sinister going on. Is she paranoid and missing out on a wonderful opportunity, like everyone tells her? Or why is the cruise so creepy? Scary-looking fish (or, more properly, cephalopods), strange noises and a claustrophobic ambiance aren’t helping. The plot is twisty and suspenseful, none of my suspicions were right. The characters that were meant to be unlikable, shallow rich kids, grew on me. Liv could have been grating, growing increasingly unhinged, but I was really rooting for her. As much as the novel required a considerable suspension of disbelief, in the end I was all in… it was gratifying and a lot of fun.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Random House Children's, Delacorte Press!

Those We Drown by Amy Goldsmith was an incredible YA horror debut.
A highly entertaining story from Goldsmith.
The writing style and the character depth as well as the storytelling made me addicted to this book.
The storyline was very interesting and kept me glued to my Kindle.
A great YA mystery that was utterly compelling me very entertaining.
I will be picking up Amy’s future books for sure.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Delacorte Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I did not enjoy reading this book. I will highly preface this by saying that I am fully aware of the fact that this book is intended for teenagers and I am in my 30s so my opinion absolutely is not one that matters and I accept that. This is simply my own personal feelings on my experience reading this book. Those We Drown is a sea based horror about a girl going on a semester at sea that almost immediately goes poorly. The premise of this is so interesting and I was really excited for a fun horror story. Unfortunately, almost from the beginning, the hints and clues about what was really happening on the ship were so painfully obvious that the only conclusion I could come to for the main characters actions and thoughts was that she was a complete and total idiot. The clues felt like they were beating me over the head and still the main character either was not seeing them for what they were or was intentionally choosing to ignore them and either way, it just made me feel so frustrated with her as the main character that I didn't enjoy reading the book.

Those We Drown is a YA Horror/Thriller set on a luxury cruise liner. The story was intriguing, group of teens get the opportunity to travel, along with a group of influencers know.n as the Sirens.

I really liked the main character, Liv, who was chosen for a scholarship. She really grew and came into her own by the end of the book. I also liked the chemistry between Liv and Con, a rich boy whose dad owned the cruise line.

There was horror in the form of traditional Greek mythology. Sirens (evil singing mermaids), lots of tentacles and talk of sacrifices to the sea,

Overall great book and am looking forward to more from this author!

Those We Drown by Amy Goldsmith

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children’s for this e-arc!
Liv thinks she is going on a trip of a lifetime, only it isn’t what she expects!. A dream quickly turns into a nightmare in this suspenseful debut novel. This book gives me murder mystery vibes with a big splash of Greek mythology. A solid 3.5 stars out of 5.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
I was super excited to read a mystery taking place on a cruise ship! A ship is a closed off location I was excited to feel a claustrophobic type of mystery.

The book opens as Liv and her friend Will go on a luxury cruise ship for SeaMester- a study abroad program before the head to uni in the fall. I did not like the characters and even the protagonist, Liv, who was meek and shy, did eventually get a stronger personality towards the end. I felt the cast of characters kind of blended together and was hard to differentiate between them at time. I liked the idea of the Siren influencers being a ‘mean girl’ type group, but the almost everyone looked down on Liv as the scholarship girl and not good enough or rich enough to be there.

Will and Liv get into a fight on the first night and the next day he disappears; the staff claiming he’s in quarantine due to illness. As the days progress Liv tries to check on him and also starts to hear and see strange things around the ship.

I found the book to be a little slow paced; it was a slow burn type mystery. Even with the characters and the abrupt ending I did enjoy it overall.

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for a free digital copy on exchange for an honest review. This book will be published 1 JULY 2023.

A creepy, fast paced YA mystery about a group of students spending a semester on a cruise ship. Liv is the only scholarship student amongst a bunch of rich kids and influencers, and things start to get weird right off the bat. When her best friend Will goes missing the first night, Liv is convinced that something terrible happened to him, but no one seems to believe her.

This was actually pretty dark at times and I was definitely creeped out. There are cults, sea monsters, sacrifices, and sirens. It had me on the edge of my seat and I really had no idea what was going to happen. While I enjoyed the story and was thoroughly entertained, I found Liv to be a little too gullible at times and I wasn’t sold on any of the side characters - I wish Liv’s relationship to Will was developed more. The ending also wasn’t very satisfying (unless it’s a series?), but I would recommend this if you want a quick spooky read.

Thank you to Random House for the Arc!

2/5 stars

What I liked:


When I first read the blurb for Those We Drown, I was excited to read a horror-mystery set on a cruise ship. Although I liked the overall premise, the execution of it isn’t quite where it needs to be.


What I didn’t like:


The two biggest problems I had with this book was the execution of the mystery element and the character development. For the mystery element, it didn’t read much like a mystery since I was able to figure out the mystery within the first 40% of the book, and so did the protagonist. I was hoping that maybe I was wrong and that we were being misled, but that unfortunately wasn’t the case. Liv, the protagonist, was piecing everything together from the start, but the only “mystery” that was created came from her writing herself off as “crazy” after every strange encounter. Because of this, the suspense was lacking and the cliffhangers didn’t pack much of a punch like they should’ve.
As for the character development, a majority of the characters are rich and arrogant, and their entire personalities revolve around those two characteristics. When they were first introduced, there were a few things that distinguished them from one another, but as the story went on, those unique traits were quickly forgotten since the characters ended up being written all the same—too similar personalities and rude mannerisms. This made it difficult for me to connect with any of the characters. Also, the romance Liv gets drawn into seemed to be written in a way that was supposed to be more of an enemies-to-lovers, but they simply had no chemistry whatsoever, and during their interactions it definitely felt very one-sided. Liv would mention via her thoughts that she took a romantic liking to him, but nearly all of her body language and actual dialogue said otherwise, making her character feel inconsistent.

The ending of the book (not going to spoil with specifics) didn’t feel complete. The climax was very anti-climatic, and I was waiting for it to pick up, but it didn’t. When I read the final chapter, I thought there was a scene missing initially. It felt like it cut off mid-scene, but after reading it through again, it seemed like an unpolished ending that was hurriedly written, leaving me disappointed.


Overall:

This is probably my least favorite book I’ve read this year. It has a neat premise, and I wish I could’ve enjoyed it, but the execution needs work.


*Thank you NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.