Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan

Image: Disney

Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~11 hours. Read by Soneela Nankani. Disney Hyperion, October, 2021. 9781368078511. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from the public library.)

Happy Monday! I hope you enjoyed your weekend. Son #3 came to visit for the weekend, so I got to cook and bake and feed him up, and also had leftovers to send him back to the city with. Unfortunately, the shower faucet decided to break while he showered and the water wouldn't turn off! I grabbed a screwdriver and tried to turn the little screw that holds the handle on, but that didn't work. I left a message on my plumber's machine and looked up how to turn the water off to the house. Found the spot and turned the water off. The good n news is, the shower isn't running. The bad news is, nothing is. I can't tell you how many times I went to turn water on! Yikes. The luxury of running water! Hopefully, the plumber will call me back this morning. 

In other news, the Youth Media Awards are being announced later today. My reading took a hit this year, so I have no real handle on many of the books receiving buzz. I also continue to have mixed feelings about the awards in general. And yet, I will tune in with my class at nine.

Middle Grade Monday features Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan. What if Jules Vernes' sci/fi classics, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island weren't works of fiction, but based on real events? That's the premise for Uncle Rick's latest adventure. It feels like a series starter, but there's talk online that it's a stand-alone. Regardless, it was optioned for a movie before it was even published!

Ana Dakar attends an elite five-year high school called the Harding-Pembroke Academy, where students are trained extensively in all things maritime and graduate to become marine biologists and naval officers. She and her classmates are on their way out to sea to take a test that will determine their course of studies, when their seaside school is attacked by submarines and destroyed. Presumably, everyone on campus, including Ana's adored older brother are dead. The students' chaperone informs them that the culprit is most likely their rival school, the Land Academy. They change course and head to a secret island which was the place where Ana's parents were killed on a secret mission some years earlier.

As with any Rick Riordan book, the cast of characters is huge and diverse; the world-building is unique and the action is fast. He just might inspire a new generation of children to dust off Jules Verne as well!

I went into this book only knowing that it was a new RR book. I didn't know about the Jules Verne connection, so that was a reveal as I listened. I also didn't realize that it was narrated by one of my least favorite narrators. I just find her voice annoying and whiney and her performances a bit too over-the-top, so I probably should've read this one with my eyes. I'm guessing it must be me, because her audiobooks are consistently praised. Decide for yourself. 

This audiobook also contained sound effects and mood music which also drove me bonkers. I don't need music to cue me into feeling suspense, thank you very much. I found them distracting and irritating.