A review by megsbookishtwins
The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie

5.0

I received this free from the publishers via NetGalley

Cassandra Leung is a Reckoner in-training and she’s in charge of her first ship and sea monster – alone. It is a family business, she has helped raise the genetically-engineered beasts for as long as she can remember. And these sea monsters are there to defend against pirates in the Neo-Pacific. Her solo mission doesn’t last too long before trouble arrives in the form of pirate queen Santa Elena and everything goes downhill very fast, and Cassandra has now been charged with another Reckoner to look after to, but it’s for the pirates which threaten to destroy the balance of the whole system. Cas has been ordered to raise and train the Reckoner or it’s her life on the line.

I didn’t request this when I first saw it on NetGalley, but then I saw some really fantastic reviews and ratings so I wanted to know what it was all about. So I went into this with little knowledge about what it was except that it was sci-fi with pirates and sea monsters. But this book was so much more than that, and it exceeded my expectations and it was just endlessly awesome. It sort of had a Pacific Rim vibe, but also really different.

I’m going to ramble a bit about the world building and plot. I thought the world building was top notch. I would have preferred a tad more history to the world, but I thought it was excellent nonetheless. I loved the science fiction setting with sci-fi pirates and sea monsters and cities floating on water. There was a little bit of an info-dump at the beginning and it felt a little rushed, but I wasn’t too put off by it and it really redeemed itself later.

The characters! Cas and Swift and so many other great supporting characters. This books is also full of so many badass ladies with super-duper complex and developed relationships. The romance between Cas and Swift was done so well and it was fantastic. Their lives were intertwined with each other from the start, and it was just developed really well.

The Abyss Surrounds Us is a very morally grey book, the line between right and wrong is blurred. It isn’t really as simple as who the bad guys are and who the good guys are. But that’s great because I love those types of books and characters.

Overall, The Abyss Surrounds Us is very unique. A science fiction story that is very engrossing with pirates and sea monsters and badass ladies, who had great and complex relationships and a great romance- a must read.