Review: Daughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan

Daughter of Deep Silence
by Carrie Ryan

published on May 26th 2015 by Dutton Books for Young Readers
young adult | mystery | contemporary | romance

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I’m the daughter of murdered parents.
I’m the friend of a dead girl.
I’m the lover of my enemy.
And I will have my revenge.

In the wake of the devastating destruction of the luxury yacht Persephone, just three souls remain to tell its story—and two of them are lying. Only Frances Mace knows the terrifying truth, and she’ll stop at nothing to avenge the murders of everyone she held dear. Even if it means taking down the boy she loves and possibly losing herself in the process.

Where do I begin with Daughter of Deep Silence? It was one of those books that I couldn’t seem to really form a solid opinion for. Did I love it? Nope. Did I hate it with a burning passion? Not really. But it kind of isn’t “in the middle,” either?

The main problem I had with this book was the writing style. It was really hard for me to get into, and the narrator was telling then showing more often than not. It felt like Frances had to keep repeating the statements over and over again to get the readers to believe her–and I just didn’t buy any of it. Plus when she does all these movements or expressions, she has to explain what she’s trying to do because apparently we’re all idiots.

And this book has flashbacks. Normally, I’d be okay with flashbacks, but with this one, they were repeated. Multiple times. I GET IT. I need to get a perfume called Eau de I Am Not an Idiot. I know I’ve mentioned multiple times that I have a short attention span and horrible memory, but you don’t have to repeat ALL the flashbacks ALL THE TIME.

Another thing that REALLY bugged me was the romance. We have two love subplots here, but one is more prominent than the other. Basically it goes like this:

At 14 years old–
Girl: This guy’s only talking to me because he likes my best friend.
Guy: I want her best friend.
*they have one conversation*
Girl & Guy: I’m in love. (Take note–THEY’RE FOURTEEN.)

At 18 years old–
Girl: MUST SEEK REVENGE.
Guy: I am falling for this girl I don’t know.
Girl: Holy shit I still want him. *cue internal struggle*

So yeah. Didn’t like that at all.

Let’s talk about The Twist now. It honestly was the biggest letdown of a twist I’ve ever encountered. Sure, it may seem like a legit reason for things that have happened, but was it unique? No. Did it make me go WHAT THE FUCK? Yes. But not because I was shocked… More of because I was expecting so much more. It was just so… ordinary. Mundane.

Okay, rant over for now. If there’s one thing I liked about the book, it was seeing the things that happened to our heroine as she struggled to stay alive on a raft. The descriptions during these parts of the flashbacks were a tad bit graphic, which I liked–you could really see how tired the girls were, and that made me want to go into the book and feed them some cake.

For some strange reason… I can’t bring myself to give this book one star, despite my earlier qualms about it. Like I said earlier… My brain is full of fuck. It’s probably the heat.

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About Aimee

Aimee loves being a little bookworm (okay–she doesn’t like being little). She also loves chocolates and sweets but is freaked out by the thought of possibly getting diabetes.

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