Deep Water

Key, Watt. Deep Water.
April 17th 2018 by Farrar Straus Giroux Deep Water.
E ARC from Edelweiss

Julie is spending the summer with her father, and helping with his dive business. Her parents separated because her mother didn't find the career opportunities she wanted in their small Southern town, but moving to the big city doesn't seem to have made her happy. When Julie's father doesn't feel well, he send Julie with the father and son clients on a dive. Once down, both the father and son disregard Julie's directions, and before long, things start to go really wrong. The anchor wasn't seated correctly, and the trio loses the boat and Julie's father. They manage to survive by floating, but as they are drifting out to sea, sharks attack, and Shane's father slips away from them. Shane and Julie manage to hold on, drinking rain water and trying to cover themselves from the sun, and eventually wind up on an abandoned oil rig. There, they manage to survive by raising the stores and catching fish, but the mold in the rig makes Shane very ill. Julie hopes to flag down help, but no one knows where they are. Will the two be able to survive?
Strengths: The note at the end of this was very fascinating-- Key had an experience as a teenager that could easily have ended the way this adventure did, but he was lucky. Survival stories are always popular, and Key knows just the right details to put into them. There are a couple of other books that detail surviving at sea, but the twist of finding an abandoned oil rig was what set this one apart. This will definitely be popular. The other thing I love about Key's writing is that he will work in some serious family issues as well, but show the children who are affected by them as being resilient and resourceful.
Weaknesses: Reading about damp and mold... *shudder.* Also, I wish that Julie and her father had better safety plans in place, but then the book wouldn't have been able to happen!
What I really think: Definitely purchasing, and this will be popular.