Review: The Vanishing Deep by Astrid Scholte

Title: The Vanishing Deep

Author: Astrid Scholte

Genre: YA, high fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, mystery

Publication date: March 2020

Published by: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Source: Purchased paperback

Add it on Goodreads

Buy it: Amazon | B&N | Thrift Books

Synopsis: Bestselling author Astrid Scholte, returns with a thrilling adventure in which the dead can be revived... for a price.

Seventeen-year-old Tempe was born into a world of water. When the Great Waves destroyed her planet five hundred years ago, its people had to learn to survive living on the water, but the ruins of the cities below still called. Tempe dives daily, scavenging the ruins of a bygone era, searching for anything of value to trade for Notes. It isn't food or clothing that she wants to buy, but her dead sister's life. For a price, the research facility on the island of Palindromena will revive the dearly departed for twenty-four hours before returning them to death. It isn't a heartfelt reunion that Tempe is after; she wants answers. Elysea died keeping a terrible secret, one that has ignited an unquenchable fury in Tempe: Her beloved sister was responsible for the death of their parents. Tempe wants to know why.

But once revived, Elysea has other plans. She doesn't want to spend her last day in a cold room accounting for a crime she insists she didn't commit. Elysea wants her freedom and one final glimpse at the life that was stolen from her. She persuades Tempe to break her out of the facility, and they embark on a dangerous journey to discover the truth about their parents' death and mend their broken bond. But they're pursued every step of the way by two Palindromena employees desperate to find them before Elysea's time is up--and before the secret behind the revival process and the true cost of restored life is revealed.

My rating: ★★★☆☆

To survive these twenty-four hours, I needed to become the storm, not succumb to it.

I have been loving reading Astrid Scholte’s books. I recently discovered them, and it is thanks to them that I have entered my high fantasy era. I used to not very much, but lately, that’s all I’ve been wanting. One thing I love about her books is that two of the three I read are standalones! That is SO rare for high fantasy! But also, they’re just so easy to read. A lot of high fantasy books have complicated names and words, but I appreciate that Astrid Scholte’s books have easy-to-pronounce words. What can I say, I am a simple girl. Lol.

Another thing I love about her books is the unique premises and worlds. This book is set in this sort of post-apocalyptic world that is mostly water at this point. And in this world, there is this research facility that will revive the dearly departed for 24 hours before they are laid back to rest. This is meant to serve as closure. The main character, Tempe, wants to bring back her sister, Elysea, but not for closure, no. Tempe thinks that her older sister was responsible for the death of her parents and she wants to confront her.

This book was insane! And I kinda loved it for that! Lol. Astrid Scholte’s books always tend to have a mystery element to them, and I love that! I love a mystery! I was so intrigued by what had happened to Tempe’s parents, and even Elysea’s death had an air of mystery to it as well. That plus the fact that (spoiler warning maybe? I mean, this is in the synopsis of the book’s sooo...) Tempe ends up breaking Elyeas out of the facility... that was wild! And I felt so bad for the warden that brought back Elysea, Lor. The poor guy was caught up in this mess when his own life was a disaster. His history was really heartbreaking, so adding these runaways on top of everything really made me feel for him, especially because he was so sweet!

I really liked the overall story and mystery, and I liked that it took place mostly in one day since, you know, Elysea was only revived for 24 hours. It made for an action-packed book. Especially because poor Lor was after them trying to get them back to the facility before they found out that Elysea escaped. There were chases on foot, chases on boats, and even freaking pirates?? That was fun. Lol.

I also just really liked the world, which isn’t surprising because I have found that Astrid Scholte writes really interesting and unique worlds. This world in particular sounded beautiful but unforgiving. And even the research facility with the way they brought back the dead was interesting. Lor’s history, the revival process, secrets the facility was hiding... it was all just so intriguing!

As I already mentioned, I really liked Lor! Tempe I didn’t love as much, mostly because I liked Lor and she was very hard on him. Lol. I understood why, but still 😆 She was just so bitter and mean at first. And to be fair she has been through quite a lot. And Elysea I liked well enough. I did appreciate the character growth these guys went through, especially Lor.

However, that ending was NOT it 😭 These types of endings can work for sure, but it just didn’t work here for me. It was very unsatisfactory.

A couple of things you should know before I dive into my rant: the warden and the person being brought back are connected through a device called an echolink. The person being brought back is literally borrowing life from the warden, if you will. Something happens to the person being brought back, something will happen to the warden, and vice versa. At the end of the 24 hours, one will be dead, usually the person brought back.

Second Lor is the son of the person who runs this facility, which 👀👀 Long story short, Lor and his friend had an accident a while back that resulted in Lor’s death. But his mom brought him back using his friend, essentially killing that friend so Lor could live. It was messed up! And poor Lor was devastated when he found out!

Well, Tempe doesn’t want to let go of her sister, and Elysea herself doesn't want to die. Poor Lor feels guilty for living a life he shouldn’t... and remember when I said that the warden and the person brought back are connected?? WELL, he then decides to give up his life for Elysea. I honestly loved him for this. He was so sweet! But also, he deserved to live a full life! Which is why I was excited when I thought his mother was going to give up her life for him. She was a horrible person, honestly, so this would’ve been great. But NO! Things don’t go according to plan and by the end of the book Lor is still super dead and I was super upset! Character death can work sometimes, but I just didn’t feel like it worked here. There was a way to bring him back and it just didn’t happen! It was SO frustrating! And I just kept thinking of books where there were character deaths that while they made me sad, I understood why they had to happen, they were inevitable, and they made sense! (Heartless and Crooked Kingdom are two I keep thinking of. However, I can’t say I’ve forgiven the authors for these deaths yet 😭)

But aside from that frustrating ending, I enjoyed this book. I love the writing, the world, and the mystery. And while this was my least favorite book by this author, I’m still really looking forward to reading more from her.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊