Undertow by Michael Buckley

Disclaimer: I received and advanced reader copy through Goodreads First Reads.

Can some one please tell me why more people don’t know about this book? I absolutely loved it. No, it isn’t completely ridden of YA tropes, but there are plenty in there to irritate you. Yes there are some seriously groan worthy moments, but all of that is overshadowed by the awesome.

It is the story of Lyric Walker a resident of the now Coney Island military zone. Coney Island wasn’t always a military zone. Not until the Alpha walked out of the surf and shocked people by their existence. After 3 years, Alpha children are finally going to start integrating into the public schools. Except most humans aren’t too happy about that. Now Lyric has to deal with that mess as well as keeping her secret.

The first 50 pages of this story didn’t work for me. This is because it danced around this idea that Lyric is different something is up with her. It was really obvious that she was one of the Alpha. Yet, they didn’t make that clear until about 50 pages in. Once the story stopped dancing around this fact, the story started to get really good.

And I just mean really good. After the reveal, we spend most of the time learning about the characters. It was interesting because the book is filled with a numer of personalities that are really interesting. Not only that, but we are getting tantalizing tidbits of Alpha culture. It is some really great sstuff, but you don’t really feel the plot progressing much.

The last 200 or so pages are where the story really started to get good. Things start hitting the wall and I found myself sucked in. I didn’t want to put the book down and I didn’t. That is rare for me. I generally love taking breaks, but I just didn’t want to.

The Alpha were a really interesting culture and we really got a nice good look into that culture. However, what we saw was only the tip of the iceberg. I can’t wait to delve more into their culture and the different races within.

So yes, I really loved this book because it just kept getting progressively better for me. That doesn’t mean it’s perfect. There are plenty of things within the story that irritated me. Certain tropes that could have made this story lesser. The most unfortunate part of it all is those tropes are pounded in the early part of the novel and then fade away by the end.

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