The world as we know it is completely changed. Imagine an apocalypse that focuses on water and is slow. It’s more like when global warming finally starts to actively destroy our infrastructure and people can’t deny its existence anymore. Cas, our main character, has grown up on land and has been training her whole life to be a reckoner trainer. Reckoners are kaiju that are specifically used to safely transport ships across the waters. Why are they so important? Because in this new world, pirates are a plenty and are powerful. They conquer ships and steal and kill and it is the reckoner’s job to bring down pirate ships and keep their crew safe. And Cas would love nothing more than to be on a boat directing a reckoner.
Cas finally gets approved to do a mission. It should be fairly easy and she’ll be working with an experienced reckoner that Cas has worked with and trained with for quite some time. But when she’s out at sea with her crew and her reckoner, their ship is attacked and the reckoner is killed. All lives were taken on the ship except for Cas who was kidnapped and brought aboard the pirate ship. There she meets Santa Elena, the captain of the ship and the one person whose Cas’ life depends on.
There’s a lot more that goes on in this book than I feel comfortable sharing just because of how short it is. I will say that, once again, this book is sapphic! Yay for gay ladies! The love story is enemies-to-lovers and is full of angst. I really love Swift, the love interest, and I love how their relationship played out. I wish it was little bit more drawn out stage-to-stage of their relationship just to keep it from being so quick, but it was still really good and believable. I loved the complexity of the world and the situation that Cas was in. It says it in the Goodreads summary that Cas has to raise and train a reckoner pup and that journey was really interesting to read about. I found the action sequences to be well written and a lot of fun. I, like many other readers, would love to see this as a movie. I think it works perfectly alongside Pacific Rim and Godzilla.
I’m happy that after so many (SO MANY) years I finally picked this book up. I read it so quickly too??? Like literally two sittings I slammed this book out. It is an addictive story that captures your attention with a distinct world and great characters. If you like science-fiction and dystopian novels, I think you’ll love this one.
Just Read It 