Atlantis Rising (Atlantis Rising)

by Gloria Craw

Tabitha has perfected the art of invisibility. Nondescript clothes, no friends to speak of, good grades - but not so good that she would stand out. After graduation she is going to pack up her junkyard car, pocket the wad of cash she'd earned over the years, and disappear. It's not because she isn't happy. Far from it-she loves her family, doesn't mind Las Vegas (despite the inherent issues that come with pale skin and a desert climate), and would actually like to go to college. But it would be too dangerous for her to stay. Because Tabitha isn't normal. She's a Dewing, part of a superhuman species descending from the original inhabitants of Atlantis. The Dewing grow up and attend college, but they don't grow old and they have special abilities that allow them to erase memories, see the future, and more. Tabitha's senior year quickly becomes a mess of complicated when she literally runs into a new student, Brice. There's something different about him. Special. And it shouldn't be a huge surprise when she discovers that he is a Dewing as well. And that the entire Dewing community is looking for her.
They believe that she is the key in a centuries old war between two factions of the Dewing society - a war that forces Tabitha to choose between her human world and the Dewing community.

• ISBN10: 1622665244
• ISBN13: 9781622665242
• Publish Date: 6 January 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Entangled Publishing
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[Raven]

Netgalley provided this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

I love stories about Atlantis, especially when they don’t involve merfolk, but I may have gotten my hopes up too high with Atlantis Rising. Aside from having a cover that doesn’t really match the book or it’s theme, it’s not a bad novel by any means. There is absolutely nothing remarkable about this book.

The writing starts out a bit choppy. Almost like the first five chapters and random ones later one where written by the author while she was chained up as a hostage in the dungeon of an evil and sadistic literature professor who demands that you follow all the rules of grammar and storytelling to a T and have no personality in your writing. A lot of the back story was written in a really dull fashion, and the writing didn’t get much better. The dialog is stiff and the scenes are often rushed. The story is strong but not fleshed out enough. A lot of the plot was told and not shown and it made for a disjointed novel. It wasn’t hard to follow, but there was no flow. It’s like walking down a sidewalk and having to jump over a bit that is missing every few yards.

The characters are alright, but fitting with the theme, there wasn’t anything remarkable about them. They were stiff themselves, but any time they started to feel like they were loosening up and becoming relatable, something would happen in the story and they would feel stiff again. Their emotions weren’t written well enough and so I had a hard time connecting with them. I didn’t care about them and what happened.

It was really the whole problem with the book. I didn’t care. The story was interesting enough that I wanted to keep reading, but the characters were boring, the writing was dull, a lot of things happened because they needed to, it just was very unremarkable. If knitting were an Olympic sport, it would probably be more entertaining. There is a good story sitting around in here, but the execution just didn’t do it for me. I had higher hopes for this novel, but I guess they were too high.

This review was originally posted on Fictively

[bookishzelda]

When I was a kid I had a huge obsession with Atlantis. The whole idea of this sunken island was fascinating. I would watch those shows where they would dive and look for things. Atlantis Rising takes that story and gives it a unique twist. I like the idea of how the Island sunk and that the Atlantians (which are referred to Dewing) are just living among us.

I really enjoyed the characters. I liked how even though Allison is the star of the show, you find yourself connected to Ian and Brandy. There were parts that really pulled at my heart strings that weren’t necessarily involving Allison. I also liked the strong adult influence of Spencer, Katherine and Lillian. They were not perfect but they were not evil and supportive for the most part. They seemed to accept Ian’s fate but they also explained how their brains worked a little differently than humans.

At first Allison drove me a little batty because I didn’t understand how she thought what she was doing would make her disappear. I loved that Ian called her on it. I think she just has this extreme reaction to things for some reason but she is also fiercely loyal. I loved how much she cared about her adoptive family and would do anything to protect them.

I loved the plot. The idea that there is this complete society overlapping is fascinating. Not only that but getting down to the differences between the Dewing and Humans and how they interact with other Emotionally, Socially and Physical in a way (I’m thinking likeness). I’m not sure if there are going to be more books but I felt like this could have spread out to even at least two books. I think it was difficult to cram all of this into just one book and therefore gave certain parts that kind of rushed feeling.

I felt like this was a unique and interesting YA read. I think if your looking for a different mythology this would definitely be one to pick up. I wish it had been spread across two books to give it a little more flex room for things to develop but I figure the fact I want more is never a bad thing. I wouldn’t mind seeing more from this world.