Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan

Summary:
Ana Dakkar is a freshman at Harding-Pencroft Academy, a five-year high school that graduates the best marine scientists, naval warriors, navigators, and underwater explorers in the world. Ana’s parents died while on a scientific expedition two years ago, and the only family’s she’s got left is her older brother, Dev, also a student at HP. Ana’s freshman year culminates with the class’s weekend trial at sea, the details of which have been kept secret. She only hopes she has what it’ll take to succeed. All her worries are blown out of the water when, on the bus ride to the ship, Ana and her schoolmates witness a terrible tragedy that will change the trajectory of their lives.
But wait, there’s more. The professor accompanying them informs Ana that their rival school, Land Institute, and Harding-Pencroft have been fighting a cold war for a hundred and fifty years. Now that cold war has been turned up to a full broil, and the freshman are in danger of becoming fish food. In a race against deadly enemies, Ana will make amazing friends and astounding discoveries about her heritage as she puts her leadership skills to the test for the first time.

Review:
Daughter of the Deep follows Ana Dakkar who one of the last living descendants of Captain Nemo (not the animated fish, as is pointed out 100 times in this story), one of the characters from Jules Berne’s novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. She’s a freshman at the Harding-Pencroft Academy and she’s about to go on her first weekend away for the freshman trials. But tragedy strikes and her school sinks into the ocean. As she and her classmates witness this devastation, she’s also made aware of her linage and many other secrets that involve her school and her family. The stakes are raised even higher when she learns that their rival high school is after her and they are willing to go to lengths that Ana has a hard time imagining.
To say that I loved this book is an understatement. Ana was an amazing main character. I loved her so much. She’s thrown into a situation where she’s way over her head and she handles it incredibly well, but also really realistically. She’s level-headed but still takes time to feel and process her emotions. She takes into consideration the ideas and opinions of those around her. She’s just a genuinely good leader and I really hope that we get more than just this one book because I would love to see Ana grow more into her role as a leader. I also really loved all the supporting characters. They’re an incredibly diverse cast of characters and I think they were all very easy to get emotionally invested in.
The story itself was so much fun. It’s fast-paced but it wasn’t jarring in the sense of going from one action-filled part of the story to the next. So many things happen, but it was paced so well and I couldn’t help but devour the story to see how things turned out. I loved the science fiction bits of the story with all of Captain Nemo’s technology but I especially loved the Nautilus. I think the submarine was one of my favorite characters. I would love another book set in this world to see what else the Nautilus can do and what the characters decide to do with it.
Overall, Riordan has provided us with another hit novel. It’s fast-paced and action-packed. The stakes are high and things are absolutely dire, but it was still so much fun to read. The characters were easy to love and I hope that we get to see more of them.

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.