Daughter of the Deep

Okay, as expected from the Rick Riordan—this is an amazing book. Even thought there are some things that I could guess, it’s still really fun to read nevertheless. The fact that Ana is a girl and also a POC makes me feel happy for some reason. 10/10 will recommend this to my friends!

I would like a sequel now thank you

Well this book made me much more scared of the ocean than I already was... but oh my gods I loved this book so much! I immediately loved the characters we follow and I really enjoyed that this was a book that wasn't in the Percy Jackson universe (even though I also missed my demigods so so much). As usual, this was a typical Riordan book, where I loved a lot of things, laughed at a lot of things and got kicked in the face more than once. 10/10 would recommend.

Coś co najbardziej uwielbiam w książkach Ricka Riordana są postacie, które są zawsze bardzo dobrze napisane i interesujące. Bardzo łatwo je polubić i w pewnym sensie się z nimi połączyć. Fabuła i pomysł bardzo ciekawe, jednak czasem czułam się jakbym czytała opowiadanie na wattpadzie. Przez zupełnie luźny język i wątek 'tej wybranej' nie najlepiej wykonany. Akcja była dosyć porywająca jednak często zbyt skomplikowana i zawierała za wiele elementów, dając wrażenie pustego wypełnienia dziury w fabule, żeby tylko coś się działo. Jest to książka spokojna, luźna, na zastój, jednak nic więcej i moim zdaniem nie jest to najlepsza praca Ricka.

4.5 stars

The daughter of the deep was a delightful tale that pulled me in from the fist chapter. The advantage science and the mystery of a life lived underwater are perfectly captured in these pages. It’s a fun coming of age tale that doesn’t skip on the drama

4.5 stars

I don't read new middle grade all that often because I'm about fifteen years past the target age at this point, but I'm a longtime Rick Riordan fan, like, I've read every Rick Riordan middle grade series multiple times and know The Lightning Thief basically by heart. Considering this, I was actually hesitant going into Daughter of the Deep; it's such a departure from Rick Riordan's usual fare, and I'm, like, old -- what if it was the nostalgia factor? Well, I needn't have worried. Daughter of the Deep is good. Like, really good. We centre on Ana Dakkar, a 14-year-old Indian-American student at Harding-Pencroft Academy. Her two best friends and roommates are Nelinha, a Brazilian scholarship student, and Ester, the autistic descendant of one of the founders of the school. I really liked Ana -- she was determined and a great leader, and she really stood out as a character to me. I also realy liked Ester! I really appreciated the autistic rep because I, too, am an autistic girl with severe anxiety and a cute dog. Rick Riordan has a knack for writing big characters on the fun side of realism, and it really shows here with characters we've never seen before. This book is a retelling of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but Riordan does a good job at getting the point across in a quick and easy way for people who don't know the plot. As for the plot of Daughter of the Deep itself -- it's a very classic Riordan adventure story, just the right amount of humor and drama, and it feels a lot closer to the original Percy Jackson series than anything has after, honestly. Why, I couldn't tell you, but I really enjoyed it -- and Riordan is definitely setting up for a sequel, which is great, because I'm eager to see more of this world and these characters. Daughter of the Deep is a great read for both new and old Riordan fans -- and a great starting point for someone who wants to dive into a Riordan book without getting hooked into the 20+ mythology books -- though I'm sure after you read this, you're gonna want more.

One of the best Riordans ever. As a carioca Brazilian fan, I didn’t like the representation all that much, but appreciated the sentiment either way.

this was fun! the end felt a bit rushed to me but that might only be because i found that the first half took longer than i expected to get into

Das war nichts… farblose Charaktere, nur wenige gute Ideen, zerfaserte Story. Aber immerhin hat die 14jährige Protagonistin auch mal ihre Tage.

** spoiler alert ** Daughter of the Deep is a fan fiction of Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas". The narrative takes it time to build up, which renders it either hypocritical or a parodiocal for making fun of Verne's slow-paced storytelling. The main characters are descendants of Captain Nemo's generation, which we know right off the bat from the characters' last name. The cast hails from different backgrounds, but diversity alone doesn't earn as much as credit as Riordan's research into the nuances of his chosen representations. The author goes as far as to spell out the exact Indian dialect that Ana speaks, which is an effective flex but it appears to be slightly unauthentic when placed so directly in dialogue. The story picks up its pace around the tenth chapter when their voyage truly begins. The monster that they face is maddeningly endearing, but was a bit of a let down as there aren't any more to follow. The story implants numerous throwbacks to the book it is modeled after but it finds the need to explain when the references work as standalones. The red herring of having a spy live among the protagonistic cast only lasted for so long. Once it lost its appeal, the reader is past starving by the reveal but the suspense was worth it. The climactic twist is when the book yanks in full attention. By then, the reader is connected enough to the characters to feel the back stab. The reader is also drawn to the submarine, which started off with a realistically distrustful approach, and a doubtfully respectable bond that mirrors religious faith. She is to be feared for her powers, and respected like a friend. The final chapters followed the structure of an epilog as Ana introduces her brother to the Nautilus in a fascinating throwback of his awe which reflects hers, leaving readers with a cliffhanger to ache for more.

"You may be all that remains of Harding-Pencroft. We must not fail. Trials are cancelled. Instead, you will learn what you must know on active duty. As of this moment, we are at war." "You are meant to become the custodians of Harding-Pencroft's secrets, the agents of its great agenda. It is a heavy responsibility. Not every student succeeds." Daughter of the Deep is one of my most anticipated book releases of 2021 because it's written by Rick Riordan and it's a standalone book. So when I was finally able to get my hands on it, I decide to read it immediately. I actually went into this book not knowing much about what the story is going to be about; all I know is that it's some kind of spin-off of 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas by Jules Verne. Unfortunately, I have never read a book by Jules Verne before, so I started this book hoping that I'll be able to understand and enjoy it well. As I began to read, I'm really thankful because the author took the time to explain the background story and introduced Captain Nemo for those who are not familiar with his character. So for those of you who've never read Jules Verne's books before and you're interested to read Daughter of the Deep, you don't need to worry because you will be able to follow the story without any difficulties 😉. The whole story is written from the first-person POV of our main character, Ana Dakkar—a freshman at Harding-Pencroft academy. Harding-Pencroft (HP for short) is a five-year high school, divided into four houses: Dolphin, Shark, Cephalopod, and Orca. All of the students are sorted based on the results of their aptitude tests, because each House focuses on different set of skills. For example, House Dolphin specializes in communications, exploration, cryptography, and counterintelligence. While Hous Shark is stronger in combat, weapons systems, and logistics. In Ana's freshman year, each houses consist of 5 people; so there are 15 people in total. Initially, I was quite worried about remembering all the names and what house do they belong to; but apparently it's not necessary to memorize them, since the author will keep mentioning their specialty occasionally. However, because there are quite a lot of characters involved in this book, I feel like there's not that much time to get to know all of them. The author does focuses on several, like Ana's bestfriends: Nelinha and Ester, and Gemini—Ana's bodyguard; but I have to admit that I feel detached and not emotionally invested in the story. Maybe it's because the story is relatively short and there's not enough time to explore their characters deeply. But I do love the variety of characters that Rick Riordan created: Ana's ancestry is Bundeli Indian, Halimah wears Hijab, Ester is autistic, and many more. This is indeed something that Rick Riordan is always good at and I applaud him for that 👏. "Today I was reminded that anyone in my life can be taken away in the span of a heartbeat." "What do you do with that information? You're now the most important person in the world. You have to decide the fate of your friends and classmates." Now, let's talk about the plot—because I have quite a lot to say about it. This might be an unpopular opinion, but I personally think that this book is a bit slow-paced for my taste. At the beginning, I was instantly intrigued because there's a mystery about a 'traitor' who might be among them. This mystery created suspense and tension because I kept guessing who's the traitor; but then, when there's no progression regarding this mystery, I slowly lost interest in figuring out who truly sabotaged them. The middle part felt the slowest for me, because the author took a lot of time describing things which slows the plot progression. While I was reading through these chapters, I kept screaming inside my mind: "I need more action! 🤣". I wish there are illustrations inside the book to help us picture how things look like so that we don't have to rely solely on the author's descriptions about the surroundings. Thankfully, the story does get better towards the end when Harding-Pencroft team finally come face to face with the students from their rival school, Land Institute. I was genuinely surprised by the plot twist that revealed who the enemy's captain is. I guess because I kind of forgot the fact that a traitor exists, the revelation became a lot more shocking to me. Reading this book made me learn some new things about the ocean; I just found out that the longest light waves, blue and purple, are the last colors to disappear underwater. That's another thing that I love from Rick Riordan's books, because you can always learn a thing or two from it. I also liked the fact that in the end, the author made us see things from the enemy's perspective—which enable me to understand their ambition even though I do not agree with their method to achieve it. Aside from that, Ana's character also teaches us about courage. As a fifteen-year old who's never had to lead before, Ana had to make a lot of tough decisions in this book. I think it is truly inspiring—especially for readers who might be around her age as well 😊. "I'm just saying that people are complicated. Nemo was a different man by the time Harding and Pencroft met him: older, bitter, disillusioned. That's why he wanted his technology hidden away and guarded. HP was motivated by Nemo's caution—paranoia, even. So you've got two completely different schools, Land Instistute and Harding-Pencroft, inspired by different sides of the same person." "Absolute power can corrupt anyone." Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Ana Dakkar discovering her ancestor's invention and her quest to protect it. Even though it's not as action-packed or as fast-paced as I hoped it would be, Daughter of the Deep offers a unique story that made me aware of Jules Verne's works that I've never read before. This might not be my favorite Rick Riordan book, but it still managed to make me laugh with its' funny moments and dialogues. Definitely looking forward to more books by Rick Riordan in the future—whether it's a standalone or part of a series! At this point, I think I'm willing to read anything that he writes 🤓.

Daughter of the Deep is an interesting tale linking the literature figure of Captain Nemo and the Nautilus to the 21st century. The characters, scenery, and plot are all engaging and fun.

I think this is the very first time I’ve ever given a Rick Riordan book anything less than a 5 star rating. Don’t get me wrong this was good but it wasn’t Percy good okay. I still feel like this book was like if you took Carter and Sadie Kane and mixed them with Percy but like with a brain? Lol I don’t know if that makes sense but this was really fun!

the way i’m giving a rick riordan book 3 stars hurts my soul, but i just didn’t enjoy this book as much as i hoped. it had everything i wanted to love, the whole book being marine themed but it just fell so flat?? deeply hope the second one will be better!!

This was such a fun, adventure-packed read. I always find Riordan's books charming and so easy to breeze through. I'm not that familiar with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but that didn't hinder my enjoyment. There are definitely a lot of characters and moving parts happening here, but it never felt like too much. If you're looking for a quick entertaining read, I'd recommend this one.

* I got this book for review from the publisher for my honest thoughts* I loved this book so much. I have always really enjoyed reading Riordan books and always loved seeing the world he created. I loved diving into this retelling. I also really loved the main characters. The structure of the schools, reminded me of HP but the way the "houses" were crafted make so much more sense is focuses more on working together and less on competition. It was a super fast pace read. I also loved all the side characters that we met. This book was realistic science fiction focus but with sci fi twist. I really flew through this book and really hope we get more books in this world!

4.5 Stars Another win from Rick Riordan, and another middle-grade series I will absolutely be getting invested in despite being in my twenties.

Disclaimer: I received an arc of this book from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own. Book: Daughter of the Deep Author: Rick Riordan Book Series: Standalone Rating: 5/5 Diversity: Bundeli Indian MC, Autistic character, Portuguese character, Black Mormon character Recommended For...: children’s books, middle grade, fantasy, retelling, science fiction, mythology Publication Date: October 26, 2021 Genre: MG Retelling Recommended Age: 8+ (slight violence and gore, some scary moments) Explanation of CWs: There are moments in this book that might frighten some younger children. Publisher: Disney Hyperion Pages: 352 Synopsis: Ana Dakkar is a freshman at Harding-Pencroft Academy, a five-year high school that graduates the best marine scientists, naval warriors, navigators, and underwater explorers in the world. Ana's parents died while on a scientific expedition two years ago, and the only family's she's got left is her older brother, Dev, also a student at HP. Ana's freshman year culminates with the class's weekend trial at sea, the details of which have been kept secret. She only hopes she has what it'll take to succeed. All her worries are blown out of the water when, on the bus ride to the ship, Ana and her schoolmates witness a terrible tragedy that will change the trajectory of their lives. But wait, there's more. The professor accompanying them informs Ana that their rival school, Land Institute, and Harding-Pencroft have been fighting a cold war for a hundred and fifty years. Now that cold war has been turned up to a full broil, and the freshman are in danger of becoming fish food. In a race against deadly enemies, Ana will make amazing friends and astounding discoveries about her heritage as she puts her leadership skills to the test for the first time. Review: I never thought I needed a retelling of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea but here we are and I loved it! I thought that the book was well done. There was a good mix of diversity in this book, including autism. The book also explores a variety of languages and cultures and commentates about evil, greed, and corruption of coroporations alongside the exploitation of technology. The book also does well to develop all of the characters and the world building is absolutely amazing. I also enjoyed the slights at JKR and the HP world and this book will definitely be featured as an Anti HP recommendation. However, I do have to say that the book is predictable. The book was well written, but I could see the twists a mile away. While it didn’t deter my enjoyment, I did find it a little boring once all my theories were confirmed. Verdict: Highly enjoyed this one!

Daughter of the Deep is Pirates of the Caribbean meets Indiana Jones and then transforms into a teen drama along the lines of Sky High. This was my first-ever Rick Riordan book and it did not disappoint! I finally see what all the fuss is about. I was hooked from the first chapter and really loved diving in (ha) to Ana's story. She is a believable, strong, wise and a little nervous character and I could easily picture her world and all the crazy inventions in full colour. I have never read/seen (or heard of, honestly) Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea before reading this book but you don't need to have any prior knowledge of the classic to enjoy this one. A really great, feel-good, highly dramatic adventure with diverse characters (incl. multiple ethnicities, religions, and neurodiversity) and laugh-out-loud moments too.