The Edge of the Abyss

The only disappointing thing about this book is that it's the last one. Not just because I would've liked to read much more, but because the ending proposed the beginning of a whole new story so perfectly that I'm sad we won't be able to read about it. Emily Skrutskie is already working on another badass-looking book, though, so I guess I'll survive.

You could say I had very high expectations for this book, and the biggest ones were in regards to the romance. TASU was all about Cas and Swift waiting until they were on "equal footing", which I absolutely loved — power imbalances are so not my thing, especially considering how young they were, so to see them acknowledge that and actively wait for better circumstances was refreshing. And they did reach that point in the first book, but then everything went to hell again, and my worry was that they'd be too distant for most of this book because of that. Early on, though, I already knew I shouldn't have worried.

Things between them were complicated as hell and I appreciate that the author respected that complexity and invested on it instead of maybe trying to solve everything too quickly. Without spoiling anything, I'll just say that Cas and Swift's dynamic when they're on equal footing the entire time was pretty damn wonderful to read. Don't get me started on how much I loved all the hard, emotional moments as much as the endless teasing that's been a constant aspect of their dynamic since they met.

The main issues that they face in this book are a lot bigger in scale, and consequently, so is Cas's existencial crisis. Poor girl blames herself for so much that I just wanted to scream at her to stop carrying the weight of the entire ocean on her shoulders. In TASU we saw her life completely change as she was forced to take a better look at a world she couldn't see properly from the shore, and in the end she decided to stay, so TEOTA is all about the consequences of that. Cas is dealing with plenty of guilt and concerns about where to go from there. Just a regular 18-year-old stressing about her future except she's a pirate trainee and also a trainer of bio-engineered sea monsters.

With these two books, she and Swift managed to become two of my favorite characters. I was blown away by a certain revelation about Swift's character, and in the end it just made her a lot more interesting and original. I also paid more attention to the other trainees, whereas in the first book I'll admit I mixed them up quite a few times. Varma shined in most of the funniest scenes as well as in one of my favorite quote-worthy, serious moments. And Santa Elena. God, what a character. In between learning more about her past and seeing her getting chummy with Cas, I found myself appreciating her even more than I did in the first book.

In short, Emily Skrutskie said this one's got more monsters, more pirates and way more "equal footing", and she wasn't kidding. It was everything I could've asked for.

As its sequel, The Edge of the Abyss really delivered.

It has SO MUCH ACTION SCENES and just fights between huge monsters that you will love to read. This book has a more Pirates of the Caribbean 3 vibe than the first one and it's a perfect thing to say because that movie was my favorite from all of the PoTC movies tbh. You'll see more pirates and ships and crews and meet so many new characters. It's such a good follow-up from The Abyss Surrounds Us.

PS. You'll want more. Like I want more. Please.

Everything I've ever wanted

With The Abyss Surrounds Us being a new instant favorite, I had high hopes for The Edge of the Abyss. I was constantly worried that I would be disappointed, as if often with amazing first books.

Skrutskie does not disappoint.

She gave us more of everything. More action. More sea monsters. More pirates. More women loving women. More character development.

Something I was grateful for was the quick briefing at the beginning that reminded readers of what happened in TASU. It was included in a way that was natural, so it didn't feel like the author was giving you a summary to renew your memory, but more like the character was having an inner-monologue with herself about how she got into the situation. Cas's character development from the first book to this one is astounding, and you can see and understand every step of it. Same thing with Swift and the other characters--so many of them get so much more development.

Santa Elena was barely in the first one except for her key appearances, but you really get to know her in this last book. She's a horrible person, but you get hooked on her with how intricate and amazing her character is, and it's near addicting.

Intense to the very end

I also adored the plot for this one. While it doesn't really line up with TASU's plot, it still connects in a way that doesn't make it feel random. In fact, the events in TASU affect what happens in TEOTA greatly, and so many events come rocking back to the surface as if these books were not two, but one.

The entire book was important--either to the plot or to the characters. When the characters weren't being developed, the plot was being pushed along. One of those things were always happening, with never a boring part in this book to be seen. In fact, I literally only have one complaint about this book, because I was so overjoyed with the rest of this book.

TASU's ending had so much action and it was honestly my favorite literary scene from the moment I read it. TEOTA was just as amazing . . . if it hadn't been cut off randomly. I seriously wanted to see the interactions that would have lead up to the actual conclusion, but it was sadly cut out and there was an odd time skip that didn't sit well with me. Despite this, I really didn't drop my rating any lower, because the entire rest of the book made up for this small fact.

Final Rating: ★★★★★

Overall?

The Edge of the Abyss was probably one of my favorite sequels ever to sequel. There was so much character development and dynamic and the plot was amazing and that twist at the end literally had me screaming at 9 at night. Skurtskie is an expert mood-crafter, and I am jealous of her talent. She will forever be an auto-buy author. I don't care what else she writes. I'll buy it.

Would I Recommend?

Yes. If you read and loved The Abyss Surrounds Us, then you'll love The Edge of the Abyss just as much. This is a very solid and diverse duology to support, and it has an amazing ending that doesn't disappoint (too much).

I really enjoyed "The Abyss Surrounds Us," and Emily Skrutskie has provided a perfect follow-up to it with "The Edge of the Abyss"!! Give this to any teens (or adults) who enjoy high-stakes action-adventures (and *definitely* give this to anyone who enjoyed the film "Pacific Rim")!

The Edge of Abyss, sequel to last year's lesbian pirate / kaiju adventure The Abyss Surrounds Us, cheerfully embraces that it needs to go big or go home. This is sea battletastic - more fights and more scale, from small boats and rocket launchers against one sea monster to a no-holds-barred finale with all the monsters and all the pirates. Literally.

It's stupidly cinematic, and Cas Leung is a great heroine - spiky, conflicted, lesbian, determined and delighted to find some Canto food after months at sea - but I'm at least as fond of pirate captain Santa Elena. She reminds me strongly of fictional pirate favourite Zamira Drakasha (and that's a face-off I'd break my fan-fiction-free diet for), although we get fewer fabulous coat-swishing moments and a lot more sight of the ruthless manner in which she manipulates her trainees. I've never been able to take my eyes off her, and here we really get to see her impressive leadership skills in full flow. We also get to meet LOTS of other pirates and begin to understand the tenuous ties that bind. Even without the sea monsters it would be fascinating stuff - but we get loads more of them (and get up close and personal with the various breeds) too.

There's also two themes woven through it that I really liked: nobody stands alone (ecosystems are bigger than states, and we need to put aside our differences to save them) and everybody has a choice (with side helpings - albeit largely left on the table unchewed - of intergenerational conflict and privilege, which I would like to have seen explored more in retrospect, although at the time I was distracted by the sea monsters).

Great stuff.

The first book in this series was one of my surprise hits of last year so I couldn’t wait to read the next instalment of Cas’s adventures.

Emily Skrutskie really upped her game in The Edge of the Abyss and I loved everything in this book. The tensions between Cas and Swift, and Cas and Santa Elena, and Swift and Santa Elena, were at boiling point. It makes the risks riskier, the promises and the secrets even more crucial and I just couldn’t pull myself away. It was sexy, tense and totally captivating - I want more from this world. Please?

What a perfect conclusion to the THE ABYSS SURROUNDS US duology. My only complaint is that it is over. I love both of these books with all my heart, and would recommend them to anyone, people of all ages and reading tastes.

I was worried that THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS wouldn't stand against its incredible predecessor, but my worries were unfounded: It was just as good, if not better. I loved Cas's character development, the relationship, the plot, and the ending... There is nothing I can point out as negative, as I adored it.

I love the fact that this was a book with an f/f relationship in an SFF book- we see that so rarely in YA, and I want these books to get the attention they most definitely deserve.

Be assured, I will be buying this book when it releases, as well as supporting the author for any future books she writes, and promoting these books constantly until everyone I know has read them.

Honestly after the rollicking thrill that was The Abyss Surrounds Us I was very much looking forward to The Edge of the Abyss and it DELIVERED. Even better than the previous book, everything about this one was on point. It was sharply written, expertly paced, and the relationship dynamics between Cas and Swift were fraught and and engaging.
It's a difficult task to make a character's conflict of morality a believable thing as well as have it be interesting to read about for an entire book but Skrutskie definitely managed to make Cas' struggle feel vivid and real as she battles with the choices that led her to pledging herself to the pirate ship and everything her previous life was totally against.
The wrap up of the duology was pitch perfect, utterly satisfying in every way.

I'm shook, bruh. So good and nasty and brutal and heartwarming and sweet and totally badass. THE perfect conclusion to a stunning, unforgettable story.

As much as I enjoyed this book, I didn't know until I was 40% into it that it was a sequel. Totally my fault but I'm surprised how much I liked this book considering I haven't read the first book.

I loved the concept of this book so much. The concept of this book is without a doubt one of the best I've ever read. I love pirates so this book was right up my alley and I loved the fantastical creatures in this book as well. This reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean, which is one of my favorite film franchises, and if you enjoy PotC, I'd highly recommend this The Edge of the Abyss (but don't be like me, you should read the first book before reading book two).
I was actually pretty invested in Cas and Swift's relationship and I think their relationship is one of the best written that I've ever read about.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I'm excited to go read the first book. I loved the concept so, so much. If you're looking for a really exciting and fun LBGTQ fantasy series, I'd definitely recommend The Abyss Surrounds Us series.

I can't remember the last time I thought the sequel was better than the first book. But The Edge of the Abyss outshone it's predecessor—which wasn't easy, since I also gave The Abyss Surrounds Us five stars—and had me staring at a wall for at least fifteen minutes when I closed the last page.

Edge of the Abyss opens a few weeks after Cas promised herself to the Minnow as one of Santa Elena's protege's, and we're immediately thrown into the thick of the plot when a rogue Reckoner attacks the ship. All the illegally sold Reckoner pups were set loose in the NeoPacific and are tearing the ecosystem apart.

So it's up to Cas and the rest of the Minnow to fix the problem, or die trying.

Skrutskie's mastery of language left me speechless at the narrative, and I would be lying if I said that I didn't want to tattoo some of the gems she dropped into the book somewhere on me as a badge of honor. (Which I totally want to do.) I immediately tore through half of the book while sitting at work one morning and I didn't want to put it down at all. I was sucked in and I needed to know what was going to happen next.

(Full Review will be posted on rrwrites.com April 17th 2017 @ 8am EST)

I absolutely loved The Abyss Surrounds Us so it seemed too good to be true when I was given an ARC of TEotA by NetGalley. It seemed like torture to have to wait until April to get the rest of the story and thankfully I wasn't expected to be patient!

Even though The Edge of the Abyss started out a little slow, the plot picked up speed quickly and by the halfway point I really didn't want to put the book down. Skrutskie doesn't really waste any time rehashing the events and characters of the first book, which is good for pacing and didn't bog down the story. Instead she just jumps right into the story, which picks up only a few weeks after the first on left off. Cas is still struggling to forgive Swift for things she did in the first novel and is still struggling with her relationship with Swift, the Captain and the rest of the pirates on the Minnow. For the first bit of the book, the main focus was on the back-and-forth between Cas and Swift and their feelings for one another. Honestly, it started to grow a little tiring and frustrating because I've never been one for the will-they-or-won't-they plot device. Skrutskie threw the plot in a different direction just as I was really finding myself growing frustrating and then it was off to the races! The main premise of the book involves the fate of the NeoPacific now that many of the pirate-Reckoners have been released into the ocean and Cas, Santa Elena and the others are in charge of heading the movement to get the other pirate crews to join them in taking out the wild beasts before they destroy the ecosystem for good. Throughout the latter half of the book, the nature of Cas and Swift's relationship became less important and less ambiguous which was honestly fine with me. I liked that it was more on the back-burner for the rest of what was happening and that's coming from someone who has been rooting for them since page one (of the first book!). All I can say is that everything about the book comes to a satisfying conclusion and I don't have any complaints about how each thread of the story was wrapped up!

Honestly I feel like this (and the first book) are the kind of stories I've been so desperately searching for: the types of stories where the lesbian couple is treated exactly like a straight couple would be, where their relationship isn't actually part of the plot (like the whole "oh I like girls what do I do?!" thing that's so popular among YA books). Instead it's just a book about pirates, sea monsters, struggling with your moral conscious and figuring out where you belong...but the main couple happens to be a lesbian one. Perfect combination!

I thought this book was fabulous and I really need more people to read it so I can fangirl properly! It was a great, satisfying conclusion to a great duology! (Though honestly I would read like 5 more books in this series...)

Fantastic end to the series! It was action packed from start to finish, and I loved how things wrapped up!

It's own Story
What I really loved about this book is that, while it was a sequel and there were parts that hinted at there being a first book, this book could have stood on its own. It had a unique plot. It wasn't just a continuation of the first book. Rather, each book had an opening and a close and could have been individual novels, which can be hard to find sometimes. So, I loved that about this book!

More Cas
To be honest, I don't feel like I got a whole lot of insight into Cas and her thoughts in this book. I understood her struggle. She felt like she belonged and also didn't in both of her worlds, but she was going to have to pick one in the end. I love the turmoil of her dealing with this, but I would like to see more. Just more of her struggles with that over her relationship struggles. I think it would have made this a stronger story.

Too much Romance
Maybe I'm biased as I don't read romance to begin with, but I was quite disappointed with the sheer number of romantic scenes in this book. There were action scenes. There was a plot. It wasn't purely romance, but the romance in the book took up close to 40-50% of the book and felt like filler content. It was like there weren't enough scenes for the main plot and so romance was thrown in to fill the empty space. :/

The Edge of the Abyss was a great, action packed follow up to The Abyss Surrounds Us! It starts three weeks later and Cas is officially part of Santa Elena's crew. She's still struggling with previous events, particularly those involving Swift, but she's getting by. But then their ship is attacked by a rogue Reckoner. Where did it come from? Why did it attack without signals? Apparently there's been several sightings, and that can only mean bad things for the oceans, pirates, and civilians.

I want to start with the romance, because I loved how it was developed in the first book and I loved how it continued to be a source of tension in The Edge of the Abyss. Clearly, Cas is not going to be forgiving Swift any time soon, but she's still attracted to her. How do you deal with hating someone, yet wanting to rip their clothes off? I'll just say that there are sexy times, but Cas doesn't do a 180 with her feelings. It felt very realistic that she wanted her space, but didn't want Swift totally out of the picture. Then the Captain throws another wrench into the mix, and it all makes so much sense!

As for the plot, The Edge of the Abyss kept me flipping pages! It was so interesting to see all of these pirate groups come together for a single purpose. It shows that pirates aren't all pillaging and plundering and murder. They have a code of ethics, and they care about the state of the ocean which they make home. Of course, there are some shady moments, since they are pirates after all! I was just a bit disappointed that the bad guy is dealt with so easily. He's there, and then he's not. At least the sea monsters needed a lot more action to get rid of!

In the end, I really enjoyed The Edge of the Abyss. It's fast paced, fun, and exciting. The romance is handled realistically, and the ending was very believable, if open. It's easy to imagine where everyone is heading though even with out it being said explicitly. Although I certainly wouldn't be opposed to a third book!

The Abyss Surrounds Us ended with Cas turning her back on her shore life and joining up with the pirate crew of Santa Elena. At the start of this one, she starts having buyer's remorse over her decision to change the trajectory of her life. Once dedicated to protecting the seas from pirates, she is herself one now - a position that leaves her feeling guilty and sad. Guilty because of the lives she took to protect the one she loves, and sad because she has wholly given up on her future as a Reckoner trainer. And her relationship with Swift is on the rocks since a major reveal at the end of TASU, of the latter being complicit in the death of Durga, the Reckoner Cas had known from childhood. Moreover, she can't go back to her old life now because of the things she has done and the fear of facing her family with that.

But amidst this life that Cas has sought, so that she can gather proof (I'll come back to that in a bit), a crisis arises in the form of rogue Reckoners out in the sea, released by pirates who didn't know how to train them. Since Reckoners are genetically engineered, their populations are strictly regulated so as not to harm the ecosystem, but these free Reckoners, with no trainers to control them, are a danger to the fragile balance of life in the Neo Pacific. Now, Cas has to figure out a way to get rid of these Reckoners, some of which are starting to attack ships unprovoked.

The plotline of this novel was a bit of a disappointment compared to TASU. Mainly because I didn't agree with Cas' decision to join the pirates in the end of the last one, as it really doesn't make sense from the point of gathering evidence. She would have had much better luck back in her town, and besides it is not something she even pursues atop the Minnow. In the first half of the book, I couldn't even get why Cas decided to hang around, especially because she hates being a pirate. She doesn't have a clear motive for being there, and this arc exists only to keep the romantic couple within reach of each other. And then later on, towards the end, when they are all gathering for the big showdown, Cas could have easily asked for help from the shore cities, considering they do have Reckoners that she needed to take down the Hellbeasts. Don't get me wrong, the action and final battle scenes were thrilling, but it felt like an unnecessary arc when there was a much easier solution. Ecosystem takes priority over personal guilt, yo.

Besides the obvious plot holes, the book is otherwise pretty good. I loved the different natures of relationships explored in the book -the hate-respect she has for the Captain, her feelings of resentment and love towards Swift, even her grudging friendship with Varma and Chuck - they all are given importance. And the writing is quite good - expending enough detail over the Reckoners and the action scenes, and still keeping a good pace. Overall, though I loved the way the book was written and the style, I felt the plot ought to have been better planned. Even so, as a finale, it gave a good resolution to the story and had a nice ending.