Drowned

By: Nichola Reilly

Narrated by: Amanda Dolan

Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

No one can escape the rising of the tides.

Coe is one of the few remaining teenagers on the island of Tides. Deformed and weak, she is constantly reminded that in a world where dry land dwindles at every high tide, she is not welcome. The only bright spot in her harsh and difficult life is the strong, capable Tiam - but love has long ago been forgotten by her society. The only priority is survival.

That is, until the day their king falls ill, leaving no male heir to take his place. Unrest grows, and for reasons Coe cannot comprehend, she is invited into the privileged circle of royal aides. She soon learns that the dying royal is keeping a secret that will change their world forever.

Is there an escape from the horrific nightmare that their island home has become? Coe must race to find the answers and save the people she cares about before their world and everything they know is lost to the waters.

©2014 Nichola Reilly (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Worst world building ever...

…and the most logic flaws I’ve ever encountered in longer than I can remember.

Let’s see if I’ve got this right. Less than 500 people are left in the world (on an island) as far as these people know. They don’t trust each other. They don’t know the words “love” or “kiss” or even the concept among many other words that seem to have passed out of the culture and language in the who-knows-how-many-years since the world flooded.

There’s a king and a princess who live in a “castle.” Twice a day the tide comes in and everyone has to go stand on a “platform.” That’s the only part of the island that doesn’t flood other than the shaky tower where the king and the princess stay. People tend to get washed off the platform and die. Since the whole island is covered by water, if people don’t want to lose things, they have to keep them in their backpacks. But in the castle (huge) some woman goes through twice a day and picks up things that would otherwise wash away and takes them down to the “stores”—a basement and sub-basements with hundreds of rooms. It’s a maze down there. There’s a map but only Coe (our main character can read). Somehow this part stays dry (mostly). Then the woman who took the items down there returns the items after each tide. Somehow this servant has other duties, though I'm not sure where she finds the time.

This is all ridiculous enough, but the author does not describe the world well at all. So much time is spent on this platform, but I had no idea what it looked like, what it was, how near to the “castle” it was. The people seemed to get up there by climbing some sort of ladder but it wasn’t really described. 500 people climbing one ladder twice a day? There’s the crap house that Coe has to clean. But why? If everything is washed away twice a day, what’s the point? There’s the scribblers. Some kind of killer sea creature but somehow one character ends up with the “snout” of one sticking out of his shoulder (can’t picture that). Oh, he also is badly injured in other places, has a broken shoulder yet seems to get around with no trouble. At one point Coe finds “cans” of honey. But they can’t be because nobody has a can opener, which means they must have screw tops because people can open them.

It just goes on and on like this.

And we’ve got the idiot love interest and the love triangle (but remember, nobody knows what love is—or the feeling—anymore except Coe.) with Coe, the guy, and the princess. Oh, the princess. Sorry. Nobody can be that delusional or stupid.

I think the author must be as confused as her book since I see it listed under two entirely different names.