Out of Air is perfect for fans of Netflix's Outerbanks. It's a quick, fast-paced adventure story about a group of friends who love to scuba dive. They stumble across an ancient cave, one the locals believe has hidden treasure... and an evil curse.

I enjoyed this and finished it in about two sittings. I love adventure stories and this was definitely a journey. It has supernatural elements, which I also really enjoyed. You could tell the author has deep love for scuba diving and ocean life; the animal facts were such a good addition. The only place I felt this story lacked was in the depth department. I wanted it to be longer, with more detail, character interactions, and atmospheric descriptions. Those would have made it a 5/5 for me. Still, I recommend adding it to your TBR, especially for summer. It's a fun read!

I don’t know if my problem is with this book or with the description of this book. The description made it sound like a horror/ spooky book. It’s described as “wilder girls meets outer banks” and that is so far off from what this is actually like imo. Outer banks makes me think treasure and friendships. Treasure hunting is such a small small part of this book and the friendships are so one dimensional and not fleshed out very well. I didn’t feel a connection to any of the characters and found them annoying 90% of the time. I feel like I am the target audience this book was going for but it felt really dull and did not hit for me at all.
All of that being said- these are purely my opinions and this book was just not for me. I appreciate what the author was going for but it really fell flat.

“The deeper you go, the darker you fall.” (Reiss)

This book is fast paced, a little bit of creepiness, a twinge of romance, and more! You will absolutely fall into the story and feel like you know the characters in person!

The ocean and scuba knowledge were on point and I truly enjoy how much time the author must’ve put into doing the research!

5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was such a quick and fun read! I love any type of ocean horror so this was right up my alley!

If you’re looking for a book that will give you a sense of dread and make you feel claustrophobic, look no further. This is it.

I loved the found family aspect and the dynamic with the Salt Squad. I loved how atmospheric the underwater scenes were. This was a fantastic read. Highly recommend.

When diver Phibs and her friends go on a dive trip down under, they're expected fun dives, a great summer, and plenty of fun.

They aren't expecting to come face to face with a local legend, a haunted cave possibly filled with treasure...and the kind of danger no sidearm can protect them from. And that's before amoral treasure hunters show up to complicate things further.

Phibs is fighting for her future, her friends, and the life she's always wanted...even if she doesn't always think its within her reach. However, when a dive goes wrong and she nearly drowns, she finds herself undergoing changes, and their friend group begins to splinter as they race to find out what is really going on...along with finding a way to fix it.

This is a great blend of friendship, transformation, and adventure gone wrong. The fast-paced plot keeps the tension high, balancing the beauty of the ocean with the danger lurking beneath its surface. At its core, the book explores the strength of friendship, as Phibs and her friends confront both treasure hunters and the mysterious force altering them. With a supernatural twist and emotional depth, this quick, suspenseful read is perfect for fans of thrillers and coming-of-age stories.

This YA book takes the reader on a twisted and curved road. Sometimes, this is a good thing. Other times, it’s not.

The romance between two of the characters became more than a bit heavy-handed, and I thought the book would have been better without it. Additionally, as soon as I began to call the ending, my enjoyment dipped a lot.

On the other hand, their diving adventures were filled with excitement and also thrilling. Ultimately, I’ve decided to split the difference and rate this book 3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

Scuba Diving meets Paranormal Activity meets Treasure Hunting…this one gave me heart palpitations. As a diver myself, caves and enclosed spaces underwater are both thrilling and threatening at the same time, and this author did an amazing job of making you feel like you were right there too. Loved the sea life references and the group’s love of diving!

*More of a 3.2 but this being such an original idea and from a debut author I feel confident bumping it up a bit as I look forward to seeing more of their writing in the future!*

The last summer after graduating is always bittersweet and that has never been so true for Phoebe as she has just recently found her group and they have been through more than enough to keep them bonded forever or so she thought. With a final trip and an unexpected cave dive “Out of Air” tests the limits of their friendship and reminds us just how unforgiving the sea can be.

This is going to be a bit hard to review because a lot of my feelings need specific examples to point to that would be too spoilery to share so I’m going to do the best I can!

There is a lot that works with this story and a few things that make it seem like it may have worked better if it was its own story rather than sewn together into this one. Told in two parts we get a treasure hunting mishap that feels on par with Outerbanks where we are introduced to the characters and see how they came together and the night that nearly tore them apart. In some cases I feel like this hurt the present day story a bit because apart from a very gentle comment on one character the rest of it doesn’t matter too much. While there is a fun and devilish pay off for the single member it hurts the rest by making them seem like something that impactful meant nothing as it’s only brought up a few times and mainly by the ones who bear physical scars, there’s little remorse or weight given to it everyone just seems to move on which was odd given the gravity of the moment.

Bringing us to the present I wish we spent more time really getting into the lore and community attitude that comes from old stories like this and while a slow unraveling is perfect to build up tension it felt like having more of a voice of warning or whispers of the consequences of lurking where you shouldn’t would have amped up the stress of the situation all together. There’s a lot of mysterious here and it felt like we left some of the better exploration of it at the bottom of the ocean untouched which was disappointing.

That being said I think the idea is very fun and like I said above original to the point that I didn’t mind some of what I felt were hiccups because it was so refreshing to have something new in my hands. It was easy to sink below the surface and settle in to the lull of the waves unaware that danger is lurking and I really enjoyed that and having the tiny comment there at the end really sold it for me as one I’ll remember and want to reread when the air is warm.

This is not perfect but I did enjoy so much of it and I hope to see more of what this author will create in the future!

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this book!!

What a good book!! This one had me hooked from page one! I could t put it down. I loved the writing style of this book. I lived the characters and they had great chemistry.

3.5/5 stars
Recommended if you like: contemporary fantasy, paranormal, SCUBA, treasure hunting

This review has been posted to Goodreads as of 12/10 and will be posted to Instagram on 12/12 and to my review blog on 1/21.

I was intrigued by the premise of this book and the promise of ocean horror. I enjoyed The Depths , which was a horror with ghosts and free diving, so I thought I'd give this one a try. Unfortunately, this book was pretty light on the horror and a little too fast with its pacing. The elements are there for it to be atmospheric with the tension rising as Phibs slowly changes as a result of that cave dive. Instead, the body horror element felt rushed and more like a side plot.

I think one of the things that kept this book from being a really great horror is that the author split it into the past and present, with the past focusing on the dive 6mos ago where the Golden Age coins were found. While it provides some context for the Salt Squad's fame and the tension that exists within the group, I don't think it was necessary for those elements of the story. Phibs says that they found the coins and it rocketed them to fame, we don't need to see it too. Likewise, we can tell there's tension in the group, but I honestly think it kind of takes away from it to also tell us how that tension came about. It would've been more interesting, imo, for the issues of the group to spill out into the present, creating a more layered mystery. Removing the chapters set in the past would also have provided more room to weave a more atmospheric and psychological story.

Most of the book is set in the present, and we get to see how the group interacts with one another and their love of diving. Phoebe and the twins, Gabe and Will, pretty much immediately make a stupid decision and go cave diving despite not being experienced. Luckily for them no one dies, but instead the cave they enter begins changing them -- or at least Phibs and Gabe, who breathed in the air pocket of one of the caves. There's a couple more stupid diving stunts in the book and, honestly, someone needs to take these teens' certifications and remind them that diving can be deadly.

The discovery of the cave leads one of the Salt Squad, Lani, to lose her mind. She's desperate to get them out of there and erase all evidence of the caves, but refuses to say anything about it. This sequence, where Lani is being secretive and angry, was one of the more aggravating parts of the book. Lani just expects everyone to step in line and follow her orders despite her not giving them any reason to do so. She even threatens to destroy Phibs' camera, the last thing her grandfather gave her before he died, and goes so far as to hold it over the ocean. Later she dismissively tells Phibs she would buy her a new one if it had gotten destroyed, both completely missing the point and also showing her utter privilege and lack of empathy. The fact that the caves actually were dangerous doesn't matter, the way she behaved was atrocious. The very least she could have done is explain things.

There is body horror in the book, with both Gabe and Phibs starting to change after breathing the cave air. For some reason it seems to impact Gabe faster than it does Phoebe, who holds it together much better. Things progress pretty quickly for the both of them though, and I would've preferred to have it be a more creeping kind of body horror, where the changes start out subtle and get freakier over time. Also, I don't totally understand some of the changes. Usually there's a clear outcome for body horror, but I don't really understand what the end point is of the changes Gabe and Phibs are going through.

I also didn't love the ending. It was a little odd to me and I don't think it was particularly thought out long-term. Like...what are they going to do five years down the line? 10? What about some of the future goals Phibs mentioned wanting to pursue? Maybe I'm just getting too old for books like this, but I can't help but think the ending shows a decision in favor of childish belonging over practicality and maturing. Also, people are going to ask questions. The excuses the group came up with aren't going to work for very long.

DNF for me…. this one was not quite what I was expecting. I was expecting more of a thriller, but I think this is actually a YA drama. If you are an ocean lover and a diving lover, you will really like this book. The first couple chapters have intense descriptions of the ocean and under water life. For me, I needed a little more plot, but I could see this being a really good book for the right person..

The deeper you go, the darker you fall...

Out of Air is the perfect creepy story that you never knew you needed. Phoebe and her friends from the Keys have become social media famous for their daring diving and fabulous posts and photos. Phoebe is getting ready for it all to end when the wealthy twins move on the college, and her two girl friends, who are even wealthier, and dating one another, leave the state She knows she will be stuck in her small Key home caring for her grandmother and college is just not affordable.

This is why she is more than wiling to travel to a tiny island near Australia for one last dive adventure. But when the team discovers something that should have stayed hidden, they slowly turn on each other. Reiss builds the creepiness while laying the undertones of romance and the rivalries and wrought emotions that are so common in high school. A great horror-love story!
#stmartinspress #wednesdaybooks #outofair #rachelreiss