Undertow (Undertow #1) by Michael Buckley
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Published on May 5th, 2015
Cover Rating: 4.5/5
Story Rating: 4.5/5
Synopsis:
Lyric Walker's life forever changes the night she witnesses the arrival of the Alpha, or First Men. The world's initial wonder and awe over the new race quickly turn into paranoia and fear, transforming her hometown of Coney Island into a military zone with violence bubbling just beneath the surface.
Despite her best efforts, Lyrics is thrust into the middle of this clash of civilizations when the Alpha teenagers are forced into her high school and she is recruited to help their crown prince, a battle-scarred boy named Fathom, adjust to life as an American teenager. Fathom is full of anger, and violence follows him everywhere, yet she findss herself drawn to him. Their love, however, is dangerous one, with forces on both sides working to keep them apart, and it threatens to expose a shocking secret Lyric and her family have been keeping since she was a baby.
And while the world sees the Alpha as an invading army, Lyric discovers that they are in fact humanity's only hope of survival, because there's something much more terrifying than the Alpha. And it's on its way.
Review:
I believe this is pretty much the only Science-Fiction book I've ever read (I know, shocking). I have to admit, I was a bit into the cover as I was deciding if getting it or not, but once I read the description, I was pretty interested in finding out how the plot would develop between pages. Suddenly, I am at the middle of the book and I prefer mermaids over humans. Yes, the Alpha are some type of fish-humans and as it says, people fear and hate them at the same time. The only thing I disliked is the romance between Lyric and Fathom (I actually love them), they left me hanging, that is why I really want to have Raging Sea (Undertow #2) and I've never been that eager to read a Science-Fiction book in my life. It just really captured my attention and I really wanted to know what's going to happen next.
Something I really loved was the drama and the fact that there was still space to write some humoristic comments. I just love fish jokes all of the sudden. The description of the Alpha, in my imagination, was awesome. I imagine Fathom in such a way I started falling in love with him (like most of the guys inside the books I read) and with his battle scars. Lyric Walker was the type of girl we usually imagine as a shy but tough girl, you get me? She had this fear over the world, but it didn't bother her when she was being stubborn. It all went on like that because she had a great past, but was living in an awful present.
The book is very captivating because of the way the author makes us see stuff very clearly, well, imagine them very clearly. He makes us try to understand every single thing the Alpha does and how Coney Island is being affected by such. I would, in my opinion, be very satisfied if I were part of the Alpha, I mean, being able to transform into a mermaid and then to human, that sounds awesome! Taking you to the romance between Lyric and Fathom, well, there is not much to it, at least not in book one, rather than... No, no spoilers! Their relationship is very much complicated, once a two other characters appear in the book.
The cover was a bit too dark for my taste, but it described one of the story's most important scenes, which I absolutely adored. The font was a bit too big for the size of the book, but you don't really notice it until you read a same-sized book with a small font size. I like big fonts on big books, but sometimes passing from one book with a big font to one with big font, it is a very harsh action. I believe that overall, the book was great as it went around the plot and it made you curious each time you finished a paragraph. It is humoristic, romantic, dramatic, and amazingly creative. I recommend it, but make sure you get second book as well (the third book will be published on Spring 2017).
Two of my friends have asked me to borrow them my book and I freely gave it to them, because it is just so wonderfully written that I had to let them enjoy it as much as I did. Now, I gave it to another friend, and she apparently just wanted to read the description and accidentally started reading the whole book. Either way, even though I truly recommend it, I prefer for you to wait for the third book and buy them altogether, or buy the first two and wait, with absolute pain, for the third one.
Quotes:
"Don't let the fear pull you under." -Found on the Cover
"You clueless jellyfish. My people would have you thrown into the Great Abyss to prevent you from mating and creating more dull-witted minnows. No wonder these sea cucumbers are so simple." -Ghost (One of the Alpha teenagers)
"Nothing will stop me, because I am bigger than the world; I make the sea tremble. I am a wild thing." -Lyric Walker
"'You captured me.'
'It's called taking a picture. You can do it too.' " -Lyric showing Fathom how to take a picture