Book Review: The Vicious Deep by Zoraida Cordova

The Vicious Deep

by Zoraida Cordova
Published: May 1, 2012
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: eARC (384 pages)
Source: For Review

For Tristan Hart, everything changes with one crashing wave. He was gone for three days. Sucked out to sea in a tidal wave and spit back ashore at Coney Island with no memory of what happened. Now his dreams are haunted by a terrifying silver mermaid with razor-sharp teeth. Something happened to him in those three days. He was claimed by the sea...and now it wants him back.

The Vicious Deep starts out with a guy narrating for a change, which was nice. Not only that, but the voice was amazingly well done – it felt authentic and like what an average teenage boy would really think and say (as far as I know….I am a girl). This debut novel had a lot of great funny, sarcastic moments and lines. I could really visualize all the characters and feel their personalities. But, as I was reading, I felt like the plot was very jumpy. It went from one thing to the next to the next to the next and I didn’t feel like I knew why things were happening or why I should care. I didn’t feel a strong overall conflict that the main character, Tristan, was trying to overcome. I started out loving the voice, the characters, the setting at Coney Island, and the interesting take on mermaids but the plot felt contrived and it just ruined it for me. I found myself forcing myself to finish it by the end. A lot happens in the story as far as events go, but the pace felt slow because I didn’t understand why things were happening. Why does he go to the island??? WHY does he even want to participate in all these events?? I really just didn’t get it. And the content of crude sexual references and lots of strong language was a big turn off for me.

Content Rating: High, for some mentions of teen drinking/smoking, several crude sexual references, and strong language (I stopped counting f*** bombs after 10 or so).

I received this book for review from the publisher, Sourcebooks, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was not told what to say, I was not paid to write this review and all the opinions expressed are my own.