Definitely quite strange and unique. I highly appreciate that in today's world of homogeneous fiction. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy!
Aqueous is Jade Shyback's debut novel. It is a post-apocalyptic young adult novel centered around a young girl named Marisol. The story starts with young Marisol and her mum traveling the desolate lands to a fortress where they hope to find shelter, food, and water. The surface of the Earth is uninhabitable due to extreme UV light from the sun. No food or water is available, and that fortress is their last saving grace. The people inside the fortress did not want to let anyone inside, but when they opened the gates, many vehicles exited and headed in the opposite direction. Marisol's mother interpreted this as a bad sign – they were probably leaving because they ran out of resources. One of the cars stops in front of Marisol and her mum. The man and woman who step out are Admiral Blaise and his wife. They decide to take Marisol from her mum and bring her with them to a sort of port. They explain to Marisol that they must go to a merstation, an underwater city called Aqueous.

Fast forward ten years later, Marisol is settled into her life underwater. She is about to turn sixteen and nearing graduation. She is at a point where she has to choose a specialty, and she wants to become a diver. Divers operate hydrodynamic vehicles (pods) and go on semi-dangerous missions of merstation maintenance. They have only accepted male divers, but Marisol is convinced they will give her a chance. She is at the top of her class, and her father is the Admiral. The rest of the novel chronicles Marisol going through the trials she must complete to graduate.

Aqueous has good worldbuilding. When Marisol and her adoptive mum take a ride in one of the pods, she explains the functionalities of a merstation. We discover how the merstation generates power, filtrates water, and where they grow crops. I like how Shyback portrays their mother-daughter relationship.

Marisol's best friend Naviah is ten years older than her, and they met on the day of the underwater migration. Naviah is a wonder with textiles, and she promised to sew a graduation dress for Marisol. Their friendship is cute. Since this is a YA novel, we see a lot of typical teenage drama. Lilith is Marisol's opponent in everything. Marisol sees Lilith as prettier, smarter, and all the boys swoon over her. Lilith is also one of the top students in their class, but she is more inclined toward arts and performance, and she sits with Creighton, Marisol's crush. There are plenty of other Marisol's classmates introduced. We meet all of them at once, which is a little overwhelming at first. Shyback solved that issue by giving each classmate one characteristic to help us remember and differentiate them. None of the characters are particularly developed, but that is expected of the first book in a series. Not even Marisol stands out until the trials. I applaud Shyback for not reducing her main character to a trope. She did not write Marisol as a girl who hates other girls because they are prettier or smarter. Marisol and Lilith's relationship develops into a heartwarming friendship by the end, a clever subversion of the mean girl trope.

Without spoiling anything, I have to say the novel ends with a cliffhanger. There are so many questions left unanswered. I hope we get a second book in the series because I would love to see what happens next, how Marisol grows as a character, and how her friendships evolve. Aqueous reminds me of Illuminae, and the Night School series, but set underwater.

It's a cautionary tale about how climate change can change the world. I enjoyed the book and could relate to the lesson.

Still reading this title and the archive date is in 3 days. The link provided will update when I finish the book to reflect my full review of the title!

Conclusion: I liked the story and will read the next book(s) in this series which the cliffhanger is suggesting there will be.

Writing Style:
Honestly, the book is in desperate need of an editor, because there are a lot of avoidable mistakes disturbing the flow of the book. There is a lot of repetition, a lot of listing adjectives or objects like an inventory. Instead sometimes less is more. Other than that the book felt like it was written form the third person basis for the beginning with random first person parts. Throught the book it got a lot more cohesive and I assume it might have started out that way due to the author being new in business. Following books should be better.

Storyline:
I do like the idea and setting of the book. There were flashbacks of the protagonists childhood especially in the first half of the book which should have been marked as these with a small header like "10 years ago", because it was quiet difficult to differentiate and understand what was happening at first.
Also the love story could have progressed a little slower at first as it kinda came out of nowhere for the protagonist as well as the reader and then did not further develop at all.
**SPOILER** I did not like the main love interest at all. He made the protagonist uncomportable more times than I can coun't and there was not chemistry at all. The second love interest was much better. I could actually relate to him and all the little things he did to support her were very sweet. **END OF SPOILER**.
There was no character development for any character and they were a bit shallow, but with potential in a following book.

4,25☆

Thank you NetGalley for an opportunity to read this book.
I enjoyed this quite a lot. I love the concept of a dystopian novel set underwater as I have only read ones set in space or on the ground on earth before.
I also really liked how we got to read chapters from the current time as well as from the beginning. One minor think that stuck out about these was that maybe there could have been 'then' and 'now' headers on the chapters as I was a bit confused at the beginning of some chapters as to what time period they belonged to.
Otherwise I liked most of the aspects of the novel. I think the characters were well established and the world building was well done as well. All in all, the writing style was good and flowed well with the events in the novel. I usually do not like cliffhangers, but the one here seemed fitting and left me exited for what is to come in the next book!

I don't know if it's the fact that this still needs editing or if this is a style, but either way I found the writing marginal at best. Right from the beginning sentence, the narrative is so distanced from the reader that I really didn't care. The writer made a conscious choice to right, at least the beginning, without people or even animals. It is in the passive voice and makes absolutely sure that the reader doesn't have a chance to be interested in the story. This writer is sadly in need of some guidance on how to write a novel that people will be interested.

A fun new dystopian novel with a coming of age story. Realistic and makes you think. Characters are well developed. Ends on a cliffhanger so I'm waiting!!! Thanks #Netgalley and #Redhenpress and #Xenobooks for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed Aqueous. It was dystopian, but the end of the novel felt hopeful. Mixed with a beautiful coming of age story, Jade Shybeck has written a fantastic start of what may become a new favorite series. It ends on a cliffhanger, and I can't wait for the next installment to find out what happens next.

« A watery womb rebirthing our race »

Apocalyptic, yes, but with hope. It is exactly the feeling I had reading this story.

Following the ecological colapse of the planet, dwellings are built under the sea to ensure the survival of the human race. Everything is regimented there to ensure a healthy existence and a gradual evolution of society.

I really like the writing that alternates between the past and the present which allows us to be quickly at the heart of the action.
The past that makes us live the last stressful moments of the survivors racing towards survival.
The present with the story of a group of young people who, after completing several years of training, must undergo trials to determine their future position in this new society.
The description of the underwater world makes you dream. The eco-energetic system and the technologies created by the survivors are fascinating.
I recommend this book without hesitation and I look forward to the rest of the adventure.

Thanks NetGalley for providing this EARC

After humans polluted the Earth so badly that life is not sustainable on the surface, underwater merstations are built to house a select number of people to continue the human race. Marisol Blaise has been on the merstation for 10 years with the 'parents' who saved her from the gruelling Earth's surface, but also took her from her biological mother. This story follows Marisol and her peers as they prepare and undergo trials that will define their adult roles within the underwater community.
I enjoyed this book, it did feel a bit slow to begin with, but once the trials started it ramped up speed, and then hit with a ending I did not see coming!
I'll definitely keep an eye out for book two so I can find out what happened to Marisol, her friends and the human race as a whole!

Aqueous is the best YA book that I have read this year! Thank you NetGalley for the e-arc provided in exchange for an honest review.

The efforts to stop climate change were fruitless, and now disaster faces the residents of Earth. The food is gone, the water has dried up, and the unforgiving sun has burned up anything in its rays. A young girl and her mother, searching beyond all hope for salvation, have come to the end of the road. In the eleventh hour, salvation arrives, but to be saved means to be separated. The young girl is rescued by an admiral and his wife and taken to live in the underwater city of Aqueous. Ten years later, 16-year-old Marisol Blaise is preparing to face "the trials" that will determine the job that she will undertake within the city of Aqueous. Her dream and the sole reason she has trained so hard are to be a Curvier. This class of elite diver spends most of their time outside of the city, undertaking dangerous missions for the sake of Aqueous, and Marisol is determined to be the first female. However, in this perfect utopian society where everyone is equal and important, Marisol uncovers some uncomfortable secrets that could jeopardize everything she has ever known.

I could not put this book down! This book is so atmospheric that I could easily imagine life in this underground city. Jay Shyback did an amazing job creating this world, and managed to describe everything down to the sounds of the city, without it feeling clunky. Every character in this story is well-developed. Usually, stories have side characters that are there to fill out the story but are written with very little thought put into their pasts or motivations, not so with Aqueous. Every character was three-dimensional and came alive on the page.

What I enjoyed the most about this book is that it is clean; there is no swearing and no sexual content at all. I cannot wait to read the next books in this series!

Content Information (May Contain Spoilers)
Parent death,
Child death,
Mild bullying
Feelings of abandonment

A fast paced, well thought out dystopian novel with likeable and relatable characters. I love the undersea “merstations” setting and the military, almost clinical atmosphere of Aqueous was captured perfectly. Definitely targeted to the YA audience but enjoyable for sci-fi lovers of all ages.

The author captures feelings of teens on the cusp of adulthood so realistically that I felt like I was back in high school. We learn about Marisol’s life in a series of flashbacks which I wish had been identified a bit clearer, even just by using dates. The ending was shocking, as promised, not the “ugly truth” which was predictable, but rather the event itself.

There’s lots of scope for the characters, adults and teen alike, to develop in the promised future books. The visitors from the two other merstations were so different, (a bit like the Divergent series) I hope we learn more about them. And the big question, what’s happening on the surface? If there are survivors, how did they manage it? Is Marisol’s mother among them?

All in all an enjoyable read and an exceptional effort by a debut author. Thanks NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for my honest review. Recommend.
Ya /dystopian/Sci-fi/post-apocalyptic