The Abyss Surrounds Us

This book was absolutely amazing! Since I've started focusing on books with LGBT+ main characters I've had a lot of contemporary romance on my list. Don't get me wrong I am all about lovey dovey gays but I've always been someone who just adores action and fantasy, too. Well, The Abyss Surrounds Us gave me all that and more. I got a high-paced adventure with fighting, gore, treachery, and lesbian pirates. LESBIAN PIRATES! Quick fact about this blogger: I live for lesbian pirate/warrior babes. The romance in The Abyss Surrounds Us is written in such a unique and compelling way, a way that I have yet to see in an novel with LGBT romance. When the pirates invade the ship Cas was assigned to protect she is found by a girl named Swift who takes her to the pirate captain because Swift knows she needs a Reckoner trainer. Since Swift is the one who brought Cas on board, the captain Santa Elena (a badass, head bitch in charge woman of color) makes Swift watch over Cas to make sure the prisoner doesn't do anything that will sabotage her plans. If anything happens to the Reckoner pup, Santa Elena will kill Cas and put a bullet in Swift as well for letting it happen. At first they obviously complete deplore the other but at a slow yet very realistic pace, they grow closer and start to see each other as human being, not just pirate scum or a weak prisoner. Eventually, they develop a seemingly unbreakable bond and would do practically anything to keep the other safe. They become so connected to one another, all the other pirates on the ship can see the sexual tension between them from a mile away, and Swift and Cas just want to get together so badly but...they don't. No matter how strongly they feel about each other they recognize that there is no way they can have a healthy relationship in their situation. Cas is still a prisoner and Swift is still her jailor. I simply adored the way Skrutskie addressed imbalances of power dynamics in relationships as toxic. And what I love most is she didn't just leave it for the readers to infer, she stated it right there on the pages of the book. So many authors will ignore the problematic aspects of relationships and have characters throw self respect to the wind because "love conquers all" and, to be honest, I think that sets a really bad example for young adults. I'm so glad that Skrutskie shows her young audience that you can love someone with all your heart and still not be with them if something about it makes you uncomfortable or they don't treat you they way you deserve. Okay, so I spent a while gushing on how well the romance was written but the story isn't really romance driven. It's about Cas's survival and how everything she stands for is being questioned. In a fictional setting, this book questions the morality of the "we're the good guys stopping the bad guys" stance we often take towards our military industrial complex. Before being shanghaied onto the pirate ship Cas saw pirates as nothing more than murderous brutes and numbers for her Reckoners to kill but being a part of their world made her realize that there are children, slaves, and other lost souls who are just there because they don't really have any other choice. Sure, sending Reckoners to destroy pirate ships kills the bad guys but it kills all those other people as well. On a lighter note...the Reckoners were just awesome! Big, murderous yet lovable, turtle mutants that are the size of a cruise ship? Count me in! Like, seriously, you have no idea how bad I want one. Or two. Or an entire armada of them so I can be a pirate queen who rules the seas with an iron fist but also gives her all Reckoners daily cuddles. Possibly my favorite thing about The Abyss Surrounds Us is that it's main character is a lesbian but none of the narrative is about her coming out or struggling to accept her sexuality. It's just a Sci-Fi/Fantasy story about a queer protagonist that embraces her sexual orientation but doesn't allow it to define her, and I love it. Now this doesn't mean that I don't like books that focus on coming out and accepting your sexuality because I do, a lot of those stories are great and they are super important! I just think its also important to have narratives where characters aren't regarded as different for being gay, especially in fantasy settings. LGBT+ kids need books where they can be the heroes and completely lose themselves in a story without being reminded that in reality people won't always accept them. One thing I have to mention is that I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending. I wanted more for Cassandra and for her and Swift as a couple. There were a few lose ends that needed to be tied up but I give Skrutskie a pass because she's planning to write a sequel. (This is confirmed! I tweeted the author to make sure because I simply have to know what happens with my lesbian pirate babies.) The Abyss Surrounds us is just a really great book that touched on some really important themes and I suggest you get yourself a copy. What are you waiting for? Hurry up and go get it then tweet me @TheLGBTLitChick so we can gush about it together! *Book Trigger Warnings: violence, slavery, gore* Originally posted to: [...]

What I liked: -The futuristic setting where pirates once again roam the seas. This was what originally caught my interest, and the pirate aspect definitely didn't disappoint. -The Reckoners, bio-engineered turtles created to combat the pirates, were written so well. I loved learning about them, from how to train them, how they were created, to seeing them fight. -The book was paced well and nothing bored me and none of the scenes dragged on. -I loved the tension between the pirates and Cassandra because it created a lot of tension within the book itself. You never knew when someone would snap and try to hurt Cas and so any scenes where she was in a room full of them held a lot of suspense. -The Captain in particular was a great antagonist, and just all around an interesting character. She was tough and did things that made me hate her, but at the same time you knew she needed to be that way in order to stay on top. -I loved being in Cas's head and watching her struggle with her morals, trying to survive, and trying to figure out her place in the world. -The slow burn romance between Cas and Swift was amazing! I love how they started out hating each other and then watching their feelings develop from there. I also loved how there was a discussion on how they couldn't be together because they weren't on equal footing, which is so important and something that I don't often seen discussed with that kind of relationship trope (where one person is in power and the other person is in a lower position). What I disliked: -There needed to be a lot more world building. I understand that the story spends most of it time on a boat so we don't really see this world's society, but I wanted to learn more about it and more about how it manifested into what it was. -For someone who professed that she loved her family so much, Cas hardly ever thought about them which felt odd to me. -The pirates illegally obtain a Reckoner, and Cas kept saying she was going to try to find out how they did that, but she never actively tried to do that. This lack of action disappointed me because I felt like that could have added another layer of tension to this book. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I'm excited to read the sequel!

I rarely write reviews, but I loved this book enough that I had to tell the world how great it is. It reels you in from the very start with absolutely AMAZING, fully fleshed-out worldbuilding and a fast-paced plot. You can tell how much effort went into developing this world and these characters, down to the minute details. The environment is well thought-out, and leaves you feeling surrounded by this terrifying, beautiful and fascinating future full of pirates and monsters. The main character, Cas, is a strong young woman and feels believable - she has flaws and doubts, struggles with selfishness and survival instinct, can be vulnerable at times and volatile at others. I also really, really loved her love interest character, Swift, who is just as complex and you come to know so many different layers of her motivations as the story progresses. Honestly, this review probably isn't doing the story justice, but I was engrossed with this book and it's going to be among my top favorite stories - I identified so much with the characters. They were so much like me as a teen! Seeing a f/f relationship that is just naturally a part of a sci-fi epic, and never questioned, was so refreshing. Fans of Paolo Bacigalupi's "Ship Breaker" and "The Drowned Cities," I think, will be particularly in love with this story, but I would recommend it to honestly anyone. LOVED it.

I practically flew through this book. Despite having nearly three hundred pages, it feels like a very short and quick read. Told in the first person, Cassandra Leung, Reckoner trainer (in training) tells the story of how she was captured by pirates on her first solo mission and forced to train a Reckoner for them. Along the way, she realizes a few truths and develops a relationship with one of her captors. The world-building in this book is great. It doesn't take much imagination to accept this as a possible future. Another area where this book definitely stands out is that it's full of diverse characters from a multitude of backgrounds, races and orientations, and that it is FULL of women. As a girl, the only books I had where girls were the protagonists were romance novels. But I wanted girls to have adventures. I wanted girl pirates and girl pilots and girls who fight monsters and girls who get to do all the fun things. This book is a large step in the right direction. As for the romance in this book - it's very subtle and understated in a lot of places, but the developing relationship between Cas and Swift is still very palpable. If you're looking for an adventure-y f/f book, check out The Abyss Surrounds Us. You won't be disappointed.

Roman de SF très sympa et bien écrit. Le rythme est bien mené, l'histoire est originale: animaux imaginaires, monde de la piraterie un peu cruel, choc des cultures "maritimes versus terriennes", une histoire d'amour a priori impossible car entravées par de nombreuses difficultés illustrées à la façon *un océan les sépare*. L'humour est bien présent et rajoute du piquant à certaines scènes, les rendant carrément exquises.

El libro es entretenido para pasar las tardes con una taza de té o café. Los personajes están bien diseñados, aunque sé que hay una secuela donde quizás se pueda ver un desarrollo todavía más amplio de la relación que ejercen entre ellos. El estilo de escritura es sencillo y bastante amigable a la hora de la lectura; se puede notar la influencia de las nuevas corrientes contemporáneas en la escritora, así que tiene mucho de estas nuevas tendencias. El que esté escrito en primera persona nos lleva por la mente de la protagonista de una forma rápida y agradable; ya que debo decir que a diferencia de otros personajes que nos describen su mundo desde sus perspectivas, Cassandra nos recuerda a la adolescencia y sus dramas solamente que llevados hasta el extremo de vidas con piratas y bestias marinas. Recomendable para quienes quieren algo divertido, con temática lgbt, piratas y bestias marinas. Su simplicidad es la que hace a esta lectura buena para pasar el momento.

When I heard this pitched as Pacific Rim meets lesbian pirates, I knew I had to read it. If the second part of that pitch troubles you- don’t worry, the romance is actually really swoony and doesn’t play a role in the novel until the 2nd half (the best half obviously). Cassandra Leung has been worked all her life to train Reckoners, sea monsters that are taught to destroy and attack pirate ships. In a world where sea travel is imperative and countries have fallen to lack of order, Reckoners are vital to the survival of many ships. On Cassandra’s first day solo on the job, everything goes wrong. She finds herself kidnapped by Santa Elena, a vicious pirate queen, and now she has to train a Reckoner pup to hunt for the pirates. To stay alive, she must betray everything she’s ever been taught and create a monster. In terms of the plot, I loved how fast it progressed. The above summary literally happened within 3 chapters of the novel, and it was very fast-paced. I also really enjoyed the world-building. I think that the pitch of Pacific Rim meets lesbian pirates works so well. Reckoners are genetically engineered creatures who fight sea monsters and while that’s not really Pacific Rim (who are metal/robotic machinery) the bond between trainers and their creatures has the same mentality. (Oh and you know, the awesome sea-fight scenes are all there.) The romance was undoubtedly my favourite part. As it started off as a love-hate relationship, I was in-between states of cursing the characters and wanting them to make out. As I mentioned above, the romance is f/f and I thought it was done so well. Swift, the love interest, was technically Cassandra’s guard and I really appreciated how they acknowledged that power dynamic. Nothing happened between them, as they decided it wouldn’t, until they had “equal footing” (as they themselves described it). They both understood that it wouldn’t be right for anything to happen between them while one of them technically controlled the fate of the other. It was just perfect. Overall, The Abyss Surrounds Us was an amazing debut novel that I highly recommend to fantasy/sci-fi fans or for people who love sea monsters and swoony pirates.

Rather good story with lot's of lesbians and violence. Characters are good and the world building not completely improbable. End.