I think this book will work fairly well for younger teens looking for an intense YA thriller, but it didn't work for me. I don't gel with Goldsmith's writing, clearly, but these premises and plots keep drawing me in.

Thank you to Random House Children’s for this opportunity to rate and review this arc which is out July 11,2023

This is a book about terror on the open seas. Liv lands an all expense paid opportunity to study aboard a luxury cruise ship called the Eos for a semester. She also there with her ex bff Will who hasn’t talked to her when their friendship took a dive. There are strange aquatic dreams, sirens. There’s a stuffy guy named Constantine. Liv is over her head. She was given this opportunity when the girl before her disappeared.

This is an atmospheric ya horror book. It’s vastly paced, characters act their age so if you are older be prepared to resist the urge to yell at the pages. Overall it was fun but I am finding that YA makes my blood pressure raise with the complete ignorance for logic.

I’m torn. I really liked the concept of the cruise ship, but I just couldn’t stand the l characters. They were all just stuck up rich kids, Even the main character was annoying. I wish she didn’t just complain and worry the whole time, when nothing really happened. I wanted more from this.

I was originally drawn to the book because I am going through an era of horror-influence deep sea vibes, and the cover clearly lured me in. I was intrigued by the description as I was hoping for some monstrous sea creatures and for the cruise ship setting to add a sense of claustrophobia. Unfortunately, this book didn't live up to my self-inflicted hype.

A lot of the characters blend together to me and could be interchangeable: they're stereotypes of pretentious privileged teenagers who have no defining characteristics. The only character who really stood out to me was the narrator, Liv, and it was for all the wrong reasons. I found her insufferable, full of desperation, but not in a way that made me feel desperate, too. She flounders and repeats the same concerns for 400+ pages, and somehow I still don't feel as if I got to know her as a person outside of repetitive concern for Will.

I think I must've been skim reading through the second half of the book because I genuinely can't remember if we ever found out what was really going on?? Like, the cult vibes were prominent from the start, and a dark secret in mentioned in the book description, but the details are so blurry to me that I can't give a solid answer about what the actual threat to the plot is.

My biggest frustration with the book are the droplets of information that seem like they could add some important development to the characters but are never elaborated on. The main one for me was Liv asking Will which rule of friendship they broke in a text message somewhere in the book's midpoint, but we never find out what their rules of friendship are, or which one was broken, or really what the cause and result of their fight was. It made their entire relationship feel insignificant to me as Liv and Will didn't seem to share any actual positive friendship moments on page.

Overall, a beautiful cover and an interesting premise, but a main character so insufferable that I should've put the book down many chapters earlier.

I read an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Not me absolutely devouring this book in the last hour of 2023…

This book was such a perfect spooky dread-filled horror book, and low key I wished I read it while on a cruise. It would have been fun haha.

Don’t get me wrong this book was a little too long in my opinion, but overall I had fun with it. I found it easier to read in smaller fast paced amounts, rather than a binge read to help distribute how sorta unnecessarily long of a book it was. Felt like a few chapters could have been cut or shortened.

It is super spooky and vibey though, I had a fun time!

Thank you to NetGalley and Black & White Publishing for providing an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

*0 rounded up to 1 for Goodreads scoring system*
*NOTE: I will not argue or debate with anybody about my score and review ;) *
Thank you to NetGalley and Black and White Publishing for my arc in exchange for my opinion.

"Those We Drown" follows teen, Liv, for a semester at sea. Liv gets to attend this semester at sea aboard the luxury cruise ship, the Eos, along with her best friend, Will. After a friendship altering event, things have been awkward and silent between Liv and Will, and she sees this semester at sea as her opportunity to fix things between them. Unfortunately, after the first night, Will goes missing and Liv will stop at nothing to figure out what happened to him and what the Eos is hiding.

I really REALLY wanted to love this but there was just so much wrong with it. Between the repetitive story beats, the messy narrative, one note characters, and just downright idiotic main character, nothing worked in this for me. The creepy scenes came across as silly and funny to me because they read like a writer's first attempt at some kind of Lovecraftian-inspired body horror and failing spectacularly. I want to say that I appreciated something from Goldsmith's work but just nothing worked for me. Everything was just so boring and so damn annoying to read.

I kept reading because I thought "Maybe there's a twist or a moment where the story comes together and everything actually makes sense!" But nope. None of that and to add insult to injury, the way the book ends is so damn disappointing and such a lazy way to end things. I mean, it was genuinely an awful reading experience and there's nothing I can even think of that redeems this book. As a YA book, you can absolutely tell this is a YA book.

I absolutely would not recommend this and I would definitely take the high ratings with a grain of a salt.

Liv's best friend disappears on their first night aboard their dream semester-at-sea program—but is he really sick, like everyone says, or is something darker lurking beneath the water?

This was good but not great. It was very atmospheric and I enjoyed the characters. I just didn't really like the ending. But I also didn't hate it.

This felt way too repetitive to me and I truly didn’t care for the fmc. I also felt confused and that the story seemed to be jumbled. Nothing wowed me and I just feel so underwhelmed.

A claustrophobic horror debut from Amy Goldsmith which was an interesting young adult read.
This was a slow burn of a story based around the ocean, sea creatures and a mysterious plot, it was definitely atmospheric and enjoyable to read plot-wise. However the characters and their development was very annoying to read, this might be because I don't usually enjoy YA characters but nonetheless Amy did a great job creating tension and anxiety in this setting whilst developing annoying main characters.

The premise of the book immediately pulled me in! I've been on a few cruises and I think the description of the ship was more or less accurate (though the thing about the buffet having an entire can of Pringles for someone to just grab was a little odd).

The mystery/thriller aspect was definitely the strongest part for me. If I’m honest, finding out what was really going on with the disappearing passengers was the only thing that kept me reading to the end.

A big part of me being unable to get attached to the book was the main character. I think the author wanted to make her seem down-to-earth in comparison to her richer classmates, but she seemed (at least to me) more judgmental than them most of the time. Seriously, for most of the book, it felt like she didn’t even like the main love interest, and the only thing drawing her in was his looks.

It also felt like she was constantly making the wrong decisions, and either not trusting the right people or trusting the wrong ones.

The ending honestly just left me feeling empty. While it was gratifying to finally know the whole story, I wasn’t attached enough to the characters to care.

One last thing: WHY were they called the Sirens????

I am always here for a spooky oceanic tale, and the fact that this is a debut makes it even better! Every moment of this book was swimming in perfection! The eerie claustrophobic isolated setting to the level of manic anxiety I got from the events that occur…

On what is supposed to be a spectacular semester abroad program turns deadly when Liv’s best friend Will goes missing on the ship. They claim he is very ill and must be quarantined, but when she starts getting strange messages from him, she knows that something is really off here. Between the handsome and aloof Constantine and the Sirens, a trio of stunning and mysterious influencers, Liv fears she is in over her head. How is she supposed to get to Will when everyone thinks she is crazy?

This had one of the best nobody-believes-you tropes and it was a constant source of anxiety for me, but in the best way! Pair that with being secluded on a ship in the middle of the ocean, not knowing who to trust, made this book the absolute perfect combination. Add a ton of creepy vibes, ghastly apparitions, and bargains with dark powers, and you have Those We Drown, a stunning and horrific YA horror novel.

I had mixed feelings about this YA horror debut, which promised creepy happenings at sea and sirens who lure people to their deaths. Those We Drown is narrated by Liv, a scholarship student who joins a group of richer peers on board a luxury cruise ship for an 'educational' trip. Liv doesn't question why she was included on such a bizarre voyage or what its ultimate purpose is, and instead spends her time feeling inadequate, shy and poor, wishing that her friend Will would reciprocate her feelings rather than being drawn to the glamorous group of teen girl influencers who are also on board the ship. The first chunk of Those We Drown dragged for me because I found Liv a hopelessly irritating narrator - perhaps it's because I'm no longer a shy teenager, but even when I was in my quietest phase at school, I think I would have cringed on Liv's behalf. Despite frequent descriptions, the cruise ship never quite lifted from the page for me, either. It felt like a collection of objects rather than a living setting, and the Greek vibes seemed tacked on to catch the zeitgeist. Having said that, Those We Drown picks up about halfway through, as Liv starts to gain confidence in herself and in her own suspicions, finally accepting that Will has disappeared and going after him with dogged persistence. It's even more annoying, then, that just as this book starts to get a little scary, as the influencers reveal their true selves, it abruptly ends. This ends up sitting awkwardly somewhere in between Kiera Cass's The Siren and Mira Grant's Into The Drowning Deep - and if you want proper oceanic horror, read the latter instead. 3.5 stars.

I finished this book because I was hoping there would be a shock, a twist, something. The second star is because some of the creepy things that happened were genuinely scary, but aside from this this book did NOT work for me. We spend the ENTIRE thing going over the exact same things - Liv is looking for her friend. Nobody will let her see him. Weird stuff happens. Nobody believes her. Over and over and over. It's pages and pages of gaslighting, and the actual mystery reveal is basically revealed 20% into the book with nothing additional later on.

Enthralling tale of sirens and underwater horrors. Fun for teens who are into Greek mythology and horror. A divisive ending for sure.

I started this one, thinking it was a new book, but it felt very familiar. After hopping to Goodreads, I confirmed I'd read it already in March of 2023. This seems to be a different addition, but I can't say for certain if it's different or not as my memory from my first read of murky.

It is a fast paced read and took me about three days to complete. I think this one may find a home with angsty young teens. It certainly lends itself more to a YA demographic. The plot became a little muddled in the second half of the book and some things suspended my belief. I could imagine a teen with knowledge of mythology, but I don't know that most teens would know enough about it. But, it's been a minute since I was a teen myself. So, I could be wrong.

If you want a quick and different read, this may be for you.

Enjoyed this! Liv's narration felt real and relatable. She was nervous and kinda quiet about the whole situation which is probably how I would be if this happened to me. I never knew what was coming round the corner and I loved how what was really going on was slowly revealed. some really great bits, I was so freaked out when she went into the hull, like no girl, don't go down there! I liked how it was a mix of real with some suggestions of horror but not too much. Do they survive? What an ending. One of my top reads, definitely pick it up if you want something new.

I thought this was fine. Not great but not bad either. Been in a reading slump so I’m going to give this another try later as well!

This was a fun cluedo mystery on the sea. I truly felt the hysteria like fever dream our poor FMC suffered through this book. It was brilliant and at points I couldnt tell if it was all real or our FMC was losing the plot!

The plot surrounds our FMC Liv who won a scholarship to spend 6 weeks at sea learning and travelling. Her friend will joins her and 5 other students but they unlike her are wealthy and bought their way onto the ship. Passengers go missing, something happens to Will and Liv seems to be the only one noticing these occurrences. Day by day you can’t be sure if Liv is unravelling or everything happening is real.

I really enjoyed this BUT I would’ve liked a conclusion where I truly knew what happens after the boat.

I loved this book. I enjoyed Liv's perspective and the twist-laden plot had me in circles, wondering what was going to happen next. An excellent, well-written thriller with aspects of the supernatural. 10/10

I do not usually read horror and I enjoyed this one. It was very suspenseful and I really enjoyed the cruise ship setting.