Near the beginning of this book I was starting to regret reading yet another YA book about a fraught teenage girl acting out, but… very quickly I became gripped by the story and actually by the end of the book I loved it.
Lily is a teenage girl who comes with her mother to a deep sea mining rig. They are both escaping from past trauma, which we get teased out in flashbacks from Lily’s memory. The rig has political tensions between the mining manager, who just wants to maximise profits, and the science team who want to minimise damage to the environment, and also study the unique and fascinating ecosystem that exists in the deepest parts of the ocean.
Lily, like her father who she lovingly remembers in her flashbacks, are both obviously neurodivergent, and one bugbear I had was that Lily was constantly punished for acting out while being given no support or tactics for dealing with her inappropriate impulses. As someone who works in the education system, I found it hard to believe that she wasn’t looked after better.
Lily finds it very hard to fit in with the overachieving children of the rig staff but she does make a friend and together they discover an intelligent species of hive mind micro-organisms that threaten to destroy the rig and kill everyone if they can’t learn to communicate and co-exist.
The book references the novel and movie ‘Contact’ but I actually was reminded more of the fabulous movie ‘Arrival’ by the totally alien nature of the new creature and the difficulties of finding common ground and working together.
I thought it was a very good book and will look for more work by this author.
Sarah Wray Writer 