Into the Sunken City

Not bad but a bit disappointing.

We have a post-apocalyptic setting with a new version of the great flood, where it hasn't stopped raining for a few hundred years and the dry land is slowly sinking.
We follow a young girl, who has lost her father in a diving accident and is now taking care of the inn he used to own and her younger sister. They receive a guest at the inn who wants them to go with her on a treasure hunt and the story goes from there.

The premise seemed super interesting to me and I was very much looking forward to reading this.

What I liked:
- The representation of grief in the book spoke to me on a personal level and I think it was done quite well.
- I like the author's writing style - short sentences to the point is one of my favorite styles when it comes to action novels.
- There was quite a bit of knowledge divulged in regards to diving. It seems that the author knows his stuff when it comes to that. I like it when things are well researched.
- The atmosphere - it was gloomy and the author managed to create this sense of eternal humidity that made me feel cold even on warm nights. I liked how the circumstances people lived in were reflected in their culture and language. It made it feel more real.

What I didn't like:
- The characters and their relationships. If there's one type of person I hate to see propped up in a book, that will be the ignorant know-it-all. And in this book, we had just that in the form of Jin's little sister - Tara. A kid of 14 acting with no care and common sense somehow turns out to be right every time. Even though by all we are shown on page, she shouldn't be. I can't stand this type of nonsense. It's a nice fantasy to believe that everyone cares for you and it's good to have a positive attitude, but you also need to be acting with at least a minimal caution. And if your character acts like a dummy, but still always get on top in a non-ironic way, then I conclude that you have no idea how to write a proper arc.
Additionally, I hated the stupid love story between Jin and whats-his-name. It was so dry and unrealistic. Not to mention his actions later on and how we were supposed to interpret them at the end... there's no way in hell that makes any sense in all the world. It was stupid, I can't call it anything else.
- The execution of the plot - the whole thing was written in such a meandering way that it robbed the story of all suspense and excitement.
-The ending - It was so lukewarm and resolved close to nothing. Especially with the glass beads... Or the big dream Jin was chasing.
-The fact that this is marketed as a sci-fi. There's no science in this book whatsoever. There are a few words of speculation, which were thrown in kind of as an afterthought and that was it.

I feel somewhat lukewarm towards this story and I am giving it a low 3 ⭐️

Very inventive. It didn't blow me away, but I enjoyed the story and I was pleased with the resolution. I'd definitely hand it to teens looking for adventure.