RIP TIDE by Kat Falls

Rip Tide is the second book in Kat Falls’s action-packed science fiction young adult series. I’d been blown away by her first book, Dark Life, and my son had been too. My expectations for this second book were high, and I was afraid that I’d been expecting too much. But that was a needless worry. Falls zipped right through this adventure with the same confidence and skill that she had in the first book.

I love the way she renders the world. In the post-apocalyptic world she’s imagined, the polar ice caps have melted and the oceans cover over most of the world’s land masses. The natural balance of the world has changed and now most of the people that had lived on dry land are trying to make new lives on and under the sea.

This book gives the reader more information about how this new world is divided and how far apart the two groups are. She also gets into some of the more savage arenas of the world as well, and there were some really well done scenes, especially the fight scene and the alligator sequence.

Falls has taken a really innovative approach to the storytelling. The main character, Ty, tells the reader everything in first-person narrative, but his voice is sprinkled with jargon straight out of a Western movie. “Pioneers,” “outlaws,” and other terms are constantly on the stage, and the feeling of the wide open spaces of the sea – like the rolling hills and grasslands of the Old West – speak of a world that is larger than anyone knows.

Ty’s quiet love for his best buddy Gemma comes out in this one maybe a little more heavily than some of the youngest readers may want to deal with (all that kissing stuff), but Falls keeps that relationship fresh and innocent.

This novel travels around the world below and above the ocean more than the last one did, and the reader gets a better view of the world that’s out there. There’s a lot more action and Ty gets to play the hero on several occasions, which will make young male readers happy.

But Gemma holds her own, too, despite her fears. And we even get to see more of her relationship with her brother. As it turns out, he’s got some secrets of his own.

Librarians are forever looking for books to give to young male readers. I recommend this one whole-heartedly. Both of these novels have kept my son – and me – glued to the pages. So if you’ve got a reluctant male reader around the house who prefers science fiction to fantasy, these are books that will introduce him to brand new adventure.

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