The Stranded (Stranded, #1) in Literally Leander

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The Stranded (Stranded, #1)

Sarah Daniels

Start date: May 1, 2023

Finish date: May 31, 2023

Discussion: Book Discussions - 2023

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Dec 15, 2022 Kristen rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, apocalyptic-dystopian, family-and-friendship, cliffhangers, young-adult, book-club, arc, debuts

For forty years, the Arcadia, once a luxury cruise ship, has been moored on the edges of what's left of America. Its residents are prohibited from leaving the ship, which has turned into a wild city in its own right. Esther, a loyal citizen, has been training to become a medic, one of the only ways to leave the ship behind. Nik, a son of rebellion, desperately wants to liberate the ship. The Arcadia is hurtling towards an ending. But will it be freedom? Or will it be death?

The Stranded is a dyst For forty years, the Arcadia, once a luxury cruise ship, has been moored on the edges of what's left of America. Its residents are prohibited from leaving the ship, which has turned into a wild city in its own right. Esther, a loyal citizen, has been training to become a medic, one of the only ways to leave the ship behind. Nik, a son of rebellion, desperately wants to liberate the ship. The Arcadia is hurtling towards an ending. But will it be freedom? Or will it be death?

The Stranded is a dystopian debut novel that marks the beginning of a duology. It's marketed as a marriage between the 2014 movie Snowpiercer, which is apt, and The Hunger Games, which is a bit of a stretch. I find this book a hard one to describe without giving away too many of its secrets. 3 stars.

The novel is split into three points of view: Esther and Nik (as of this review, some editions are calling him Ben), both in first person, and the officer that oversees the ship, Hadley, in third. In this near-future world, war has decimated Europe, and the people that were aboard cruise ships crossed oceans to anchor in what would later become a fractured version of America, unable to return to their home ports yet prohibited from making landfall. For four decades, the passengers and crew have made the ship into a city of haves and have-nots, all of them under the intense scrutiny of Federated States officers and soldiers, most of whom want them gone.

The setting of this novel is intensely interesting. A floating, rusting city with rigid social classes, it reminded me a lot of Mortal Engines. For me, the setting of the Arcadia is by far the high point of the novel. It gives off a strong dystopian atmosphere, one that's worn down by time and studded with fear of the conditions the people live under.

But, unfortunately, the characters of this novel failed to grab me. Esther, Nik, and Hadley are easily the characters with the most depth, but even then I didn't quite connect with them. The rest of the supporting cast have some intricacies, but they never feel fully realized.

This book is both a debut novel for the author and the beginning of a series. And so while it does have some aspects that are decidedly lacking, I can't deny that I have an interest in what happens for these characters. The book did not take the path I thought it would, and so I continue to wonder what its future holds. Some major pluses and some considerable minuses leave me hovering somewhere in the middle with this one.

I received my ARC copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the publisher, Sourcebooks Fire, for the chance to read and review. All opinions are my own. Publication date: Jan.01.2023. ...more

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