Rating: 4 out of 5 fathoms

Well that was certainly something. I haven’t listened to an audiobook in a long while, but I am glad I did for this one. Having the two narrators was a fantastic choice, since it really gave us the sense of the two women and their struggles. I do wish that the book touched more on Leah in the “after”. I liked getting the “during” but we only get Miri’s version of the “after” and it’s skewed. I would have like to know how Leah was feeling…even if it was gibberish…I think it would have added to the horror element. Which, honestly, only really happened toward the last 20% of the book, which was kind of a let down. The book stayed mostly on the topic of the two women and their dissolving relationship in the wake of Leah coming back from her research trip down in the sea and how she had changed. Miri was not really someone I cared too much for, I feel like she was kind of shallow, but I could tell that she did love Leah a lot. There was definitely a lot of repetition when it came to the water elements of the book, lots of water imagery, which could be a bit much (I saw that comment in a lot of reviews), but overall, by the time I was done, I was kind of staring into space and feeling. It was a good way to end, I think.

(art from Elizabeth von Oehsen/The Washington Post)