Out of Air by Rachel Reiss
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars**
Out of Air is a YA Thriller novel that follows a group of scuba diving teens, who get in too deep after discovering a legendary cave, and the power that dwells there.
This sounds creepy, right?
And that’s exactly why I picked it up. I love the idea of following a group of teen divers, and honestly, caves kind of scare me, particularly those you access via water.
I think there so much that can be hidden there, or go wrong, so the possibilities are endless!
This story is full of teen drama, and mainly follows Phibs Ray, and her five friends, who 6-months ago discovered a handful of ancient coins while on a dive. This find boosted them into some social media stardom.
In the current timeline, they have just graduated high school and are taking one last scuba trip together to an island off the coast of Australia. It’s there that they discover the cave, which seems to cause strange changes in some of the young explorers after surfacing.
From there we have some interactions with other treasure hunters, as well as spooky physical and mental ailments going on with the teens.
Overall, this was a good story. Reiss brought some interesting concepts to the page, and I loved that we were following teen divers. With this being said though, I did find the construction a little messy and I’m not sure how memorable it’s going to be long-term.
Even a few hours after finishing it, I had already forgotten all the character’s names except for Phibs, which to me just sort of shows that it lacked that special something to make it lurk around in my brain.
Also, the Horror aspects of the plot were slow to get going, and there wasn’t a ton of distinction between Past/Present in the audio version, which made it slightly confusing.
It would say it at the top of the chapter, but it all felt very one note, so was easy to get lost in time.
These are small quips though, overall, it’s entertaining, and I think it would be a great Summer Read for Teens interested in diving and ocean exploration.
Thank you to the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I would definitely pick up future work from this author. I’m intrigued!