Name: Above World
ISBN: 9780763654177

Jenn Reese

Living in an ocean colony that has hidden itself from the Above World for centuries, 13-year-old warrior Aluna and her intelligent friend, Hoku, travel to dry and dangerous land when their community's underwater breathing technology fails.

Above World

Kirsten Simkiss

Above World was a fun read, although a little simple for my tastes. I’ll give it 3 stars solidly.

The characters aren’t exactly mind-blowingly original, but they’re not terrible either. Aluna and Hoku are two Kampii, the mermaid-like race living at the bottom of the Earth’s oceans – though there is another race that live in the deeper areas of the oceans, like the Mariana Trench. When they discover that their breathing devices are failing, Aluna can no longer stand her archaic and sexist culture and decides to go abve ground to find a solution and save her people. Hoku, knowing what his best friend would do, decides to go with her. Because they’re young, they haven’t completed their transition to full-fledged, tailed Kampii. From there, they discover similarly altered groups of people – birds, horses, snakes, and crustaceans.

The story is a bit like the Wizard of Oz. As the plot progresses, they pick up new characters from a variety of backgrounds to face the great evil at the end of the road. (view spoiler)[In this case, the clone of the insane ex-husband of the person who started the Kampii society. (hide spoiler)] 

I enjoy young adult fantasy literature, but this seemed to aim at a younger demographic than I was expecting based on the vocabulary being used.

It is a decent book, I feel, but not the most sophisticated when it comes to the characters. The world is very inventive and fun, but the characters could use some deeper thought. Post apocalyptic children's fantasy is a great thing to be, and I feel like this book could do well if it made the characters act their ages.