I thought this was such a promising premise and it did not disappoint. It's exactly the high stakes, nonstop pirate-y action/adventure story I was hoping it would be, set in an intriguing dystopian future that's described in immersive detail, and featuring a delightfully diverse cast of characters. A lot of retellings struggle to strike the right balance between staying true enough to the original and offering something new and interesting, and I thought this one did a great job of that. Between the action, romance, family drama, and dystopian setting, I feel like this has a little something for everyone and I can't wait to share it with all the ya readers at my library, especially heist and/or pirate fans!

A big thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollin's for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Treasure Island retelling? Sign me up!

Into the Sunken City by Dinesh Thiru is a YA fantasy retelling of the beloved classic Treasure Island. For Jin Haldar, this life is nothing new—ever since her father died in a diving accident, she’s barely made ends meet for her and her younger sister, Thara. Enter Bhili: a drifter who offers Jin and Thara the score of a lifetime—a massive stash of gold hidden in the sunken ruins of Las Vegas. Jin knows it’s too dangerous. She stopped diving after her father’s accident. But when her sister decides to go, Jin’s left with only one choice: to go with her. A ragtag crew is assembled—including Jin’s annoyingly hot ex-boyfriend. From there, a high-stakes heist ensues that’s beyond even Jin’s wildest fears. Crumbling ruins, sea beasts, corsairs, and a mysterious figure named João Silva all lie in wait. To survive, Jin will have to do what she promised herself she’d never do again: dive.

I kind of wished this book was out and in my possession when I first finished reading Adrienne Young's Fable duology. Because it surely would have helped with the book hangover I had. Into the Sunken City is the perfect blend of familiar story elements and general uniqueness. Also, I may never look at water the same way ever again.

I just finished reading this and found it so good! Excellent world building and what a plot! It reminded me of Fable and All The Stars and Teeth..

Heists are one of my favourite tropes and it's done so well. I love the added element of treasure hunting and pirates.

“Without judgment, the rain washes away all sins, and this grisly trawl deck will soon be clean again.”

Into the Sunken City by Dinesh Thiru is a dystopian reimagining of Treasure Island where climate change has altered the atmosphere to create a continuous rain across the planet resulting in terrible flooding and creating archipelagos instead of solid land mass. The tale opens with two orphaned sisters running a seaside inn where they accept any kind of traveler just to scrape by together, often supplementing income with raiding the flooded, sunken cities below. They long to see the sun though it is a hopeless dream. It is through the call to adventure, diving to find one of the largest sunken treasures imaginable still untouched in the treacherous remains of Las Vegas, that they leave their home on a dangerous journey leading to potential riches and certain peril.
The story is brutal throughout with deep sea dives, gigantic sea creatures, and, of course, pirates. It seems so bleak for our main characters from the start, and our primary protagonist, Jinny, is so jaded and heartbroken from her own trust issues and fears, it seems like she will never heal from the very deep wounds of her past, especially when tensions escalate.
This story weaves in Hindu mythology and world history like a comforting undertow pulling our protagonist repeatedly below the surface of the water she fears, and somehow each time she surfaces stronger.
This book is best suited for teens and older. Though this is a society where pirate rum is replaced by tea due to the outlawed, depressive alcohol (disastrous in a society with no sun and oppressive year-long seasonal affective disorder), the author does not shy away from mature themes such as murder, murder plots, and violent death of even significant characters.
I really enjoyed reading this; it was a very unique take on a traditional tale filled with adventure. I found the ending to be extremely and unexpectedly satisfying.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children’s for an advanced copy of this book to review!

I have seen a lot of hype surrounding this book and it is deserved. It was action-packed and fast paced. I loved the idea of an underwater heist. Not to mention the eerie-ness of underwater scenes. Really good!

Into the Sunken City by Dinesh Thiru was a spellbinding story set in a captivating dystopian future.
The vivid characters are diverse and interesting.
The world building was very well done and made the Sci-fi story truly come alive.
I was completely enthralled from page one of this book and the pacing and structure was phenomenal.

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

This was so much fun! Into the Sunken City is a unique YA retelling of Treasure Island set in a drowned world covered in clouds and flooded by rain. The world and the diving were some of my favourite aspects of this book and is truly what made it so fun and unique.

I loved following Jin along under the water and exploring these ruins alongside her. It really felt like I was right next her to throughout these adventures. I wish we had gotten to explore the ruins and the monsters that lurk in the deep more, it would have added so much more to the world.

The only thing that somewhat irked me about the book was how stubborn Jin was. She refused to trust people and hear them out. While there was character growth by the end, it was difficult and infuriating to read at times.

Despite this I still loved this book and just had such a fun time reading it! I'll definitely be recommending this to friends and picking up a physical copy as soon as I can!

If you love pirates, sister dynamics, sunken treasure, stunning underwater scenes and a queer-normative world, then I highly suggest picking this up!

This book was like Disney Treasure Island meets Waterworld. The setting is dystopian and the sister FMCs are struggling to survive. Their fragile existence gets turned upside by a visitor to their inn. This paves the way for adventure, pirates, betrayal and (the best parts of the book for me) deep sea diving. The settings are amazing, it constantly rains and you are immersed so vividly. The dives are nail-biting and treacherous. I loved the FMCs, the dynamics of the sisterly relationship were great to read and you understood their decision making. There’s also a subplot that’s romance that was a nice touch. Overall a great YA adventure book with a message about climate change. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperTeen for an E-ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

This was the most unique concept for a story I’ve read in a while. Into The Sunken City is set in a post-apocalyptic world covered in clouds that cause never-ending rain. Two sisters struggle to keep their inn afloat after their father passed away while deep sea diving, until a stranger shows up promising a haul of underwater treasure that will change their lives forever.

If you love the ocean and are a thrill-seeker, this book is for you. Dangerous dives, morally grey pirates, gigantic sea creatures, and underwater cities made this plot so interesting. I had an issue with the slow pacing around the 20%-40% mark where I was waiting for things to get going, but once they did, I couldn’t put it down.

I loved Jin as a main character. Her clear motivations made her compelling and relatable, especially since I have a younger sister myself. I really appreciated Jin’s character development and how she learned things from other characters that she then used along the adventure.

The writing is simple and easy to follow, but I wanted some more vivid descriptions of the atmosphere, especially during the diving scenes in the last few chapters. The fantasy elements were very few, so I would’ve loved some more exploration into why the world is the way it is now.

Sometimes you just kind of want a dystopian/post apocalyptic book, and Thiru delivered quite well on that front. He's created a fascinating post-flooded world that isn't getting any better - in fact it's only getting worse. And the most terrifying thing about this book is that the world that Thiru has created is one that's, more or less, possible. It's just our world where the sea-level has risen insanely high. Granted, his is from a never-ending rain, and is probably more extreme than what we will almost certainly see because of global warming, but still, the basis for it isn't far-fetched at all, and that makes it all the more interesting. The other thing I really loved is that with most dystopian/post apocalyptic stories your main character is generally working to stop some big conspiracy and that's not the case here. The entire plot revolves around our main character working to make a better world almost solely for herself and her sister, and I kind of love that. I also loved the found family aspect of this story, and how we see Jin evolve over the course of it to realize that she's not living, she's merely surviving. Honestly I think the only thing I didn't 100% love was the addition of the love interest. And that's not to say that it's a bad thing; he rounded out the characters nicely and there was nothing wrong with him at all, I just feel like a romantic subplot was wholly unneeded. But then again this is YA; and even if it wasn't it's not uncommon for most stories to have a romantic element to them, so I can't really complain. The book moved along at a quick clip and while it took a little while to get to the main "heist" that the summary billed it was fast paced enough that I didn't really mind. This is billed as a stand-alone and while the story does wrap up neatly there's undoubtedly room for a sequel, so I'll be curious to see if anything develops there. I certainly wouldn't be opposed to seeing these characters again for another adventure. Either way I'll certainly be more than happy to recommend this to teens and adults alike looking for something a little different, or just for something action-oriented and thrilling. Thiru has talent and I'm curious to see what he comes up with next.

Wow what a great first book by this author

I absolutely love treasure island and this is a fantastic re-imagining of that story

Would highly recommend and will be adding this author to my auto buy list

really fun sunken city f/sf work! i loved the characters, and he definitely achieved what he set out to do. thanks for the arc. 4.5

Firstly, i would like to thank harper360ya and Netgalley for allowing me to read an e-arc of this book for an honest review. The following are all my own personal opinions.

The book is a YA fantasy that takes place in a sinking city of Coconino, Arizona where the rain never stops. It follows Jin Haldar who must make ends meet for her and her younger sister Thara. Jin and her sister are thrust into an adventure where they must survive all kinds of challenges including fighting sea beasts. You can expect heists, second chance romance and a unique twist on treasure island.

When i read the synopsis, i was intrigued by the concept of this story but i found that it dragged a lot and only got intetesting halfway through the book. I do want to say that the action was interesting to read but, unfortunately, that's all i was able to enjoy which is a shame because there was so much potential. The writing, also, felt very messy to me and i couldn't find myself growing a connection to any of the characters or even the storyline. The characters' thoughts were all over the place. You could say it was, almost, like a whiplash of emotions. I felt like we spent the majority of the time in the past and hearing about her dad than we did of the characters in the present.

I do believe there is an audience out there for this book. It just wasn't my kind of thing. I do want to say that the writer did great for a debut book and i know there will be a lot of people out there who love this book.

A Treasure Island reimagining set in the wastelands of an almost dystopian Arizona is one of the most compelling stories I have read in recent years! Loved it.

This book was so interesting and so good!! It's set in a dismal future where climate change has led to water levels that gave increased by hundreds of feet, and a world that is consistently under cloud cover (aka no direct sunlight) and the MC is an underwater diver (she can dive upto like 3000 feet??!! 😭) who retrieves valuables, treasure etc. from sunken property.
💫 A quest to retrieve underwater treasure!!
💫 Sister reconnection (particularly after the elder one has become a sort of parent to the younger one after the death of their parents)
💫 A second chance romance (or is it??)
💫 Hopeful ending, BUT WILL THERE BE A BOOK 2?


TWs - death of parent and subsequent grief, death underwater, murder, violence, kidnapping

-- ty to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy!

Wow! What a heart pounding and unique read. While I haven’t read the original Treasure Island, this book reminded me so much of my favorite Disney movie, Treasure Planet! Except instead of space it’s deep sea diving. The idea of an underwater Earth was fascinating (and maybe a little scary) and I wanted to explore it more. It took me a while to warm up to some of the main characters, but that didn’t stop me from whipping through this is two sitting. If you love dystopian and adventure, then this is the book for you.

Thank you to Harper 360 YA & NetGalley for the eARC of Into the Sunken City in exchange for an honest review.

Set in the future after a mysterious, endless rainfall leaves the world in an apocalyptic condition, where the majority of the world is underwater.
Jin, a young innkeeper and guardian, to her younger sister, had to step up and leave school after their father perished from a diving exhibition. But Jin's whole world is flipped upside down when a kooky stranger turns up at their Inn asking for lodging in exchange for gold that was a part of a massive treasure trove. In which the stranger invites Jin on an adventure to recover the rest of the treasure. Will Jin overcome her trauma and face the brutalities that she is about to face?

Oh wow! What such a great concept! This story is based on the infamous story 'Treasure Island', I loved how the author took it and made it into their own!
I was pulled in straight away and found myself struggling to put it down. This book is jam packed with adventure, banter and a bunch of great characters. I was really invested and the writing style and world building was done so well!

I think this is a great debut novel and I look forward to reading more of the author's future works.

Dinesh Thiru debuts as a master of a heart-stopping scene. Into the Sunken City opens with you jumping into the water in a free dive with the main character, Jin, a smart, tough teenage girl looking out for the survival of her sister and family's Inn after losing her father in a diving accident. We are dropped into America as a post-apocalyptic archipelago, with most of the US as we know it today underwater with constant grey, clouded skies. What is left of American is once-had-been mountaintops, now islands, and high seas in between. The Coast Guard requires conscription unless you can pay a tax to avoid it. Jin scavenges to find treasures to be able to avoid conscription and stay home to help her younger sister, Thara, who helps her run the Inn with the help from her delicious and inventive cooking. Her love, Taim, is relatively happy to go join the Coast Guard and serve what's left of the country and protect the remaining land, and mostly seas from other bands of groups and pirates.

The Inn receives a paying customer, Bhili, could she be Jin’s saving grace? Bhili has a suspicious past and a colorful personality, is she the answer they need to bring everyone together and finally find solace, or is she just here to bring trouble? She will take these characters on a journey and set up everything that comes after.

There is no doubt that Thiru has developed a thrilling setting and ride. I enjoyed the glittering world of the dives and imaging America as an Archipelago as he creates it. I do think it lacked a little in the craft of keeping the plot and characterization tight and focused for the length of the novel. The characters are well drawn in the beginning, and I fell in love with them, but I lost the thread of them and the focus of the plot as we continued through the middle. It does come back around in the end, and I once again was taken by suffocating suspense towards the end. I did read this as an ARC from NetGalley so these issues may be tightened up by the release of the novel. I look forward to what's next for this author.

This book is perfect for those who love post-apocalyptic and adventure stories set in a future America, The Little Mermaid, or One Piece, but would prefer a tough young lady as the main character of any of those instead (even if Jin is a little more stressed by the relationships in her life).

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this early to be able to suggest it to library customers upon its release!

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review.
I loved this roller coaster of a ride. Thiru's writing made you feel like you were with Jin and Thara in this story. It is full of action and adventure, twists and turns, friendship and family. Will be purchasing this one for our high school library.

Who doesn’t love a good heist story!?

Jin lives in a world consumed by rain and is trying to make ends meet for her and her sister in a slowly sinking city. Making money through diving and pillaging could work if she isn’t plagued by the day her father died in a diving accident. When a mysterious guest arrives to her inn with a promise of hidden gold in the sunken city of Las Vegas – how could Jin say no?

Into the Sunken City delivers an interesting world, vivid characters, and a high stakes heist. I loved the dystopian feel of the book – a slowly sinking world under constant rain. The characters are vivid and cutthroat, and I loved not knowing who to trust. I was immediately invested in what path the characters were going to take, and the world felt so rich and developed. A top tier fantasy YA pick!