Book Review: Fathom

Fathom

By:  Merrie Destefano

Published By:  Author

Publish Date:  October 1, 2012

Format:  eARC, 317pgs

Genre:  YA fantasy, Sea Fantasy

Series:  1st book

Recommendation:  Yes, a sea legend comes to the land folk while it's still in the making.

Synopsis:
Everything is changing...

Turning sixteen can be hell, especially if everyone in town thinks your mother killed herself and your sister.  All Kira Callahan wants to do is swim, hang out with her best friend, Sean, and ignore the kids who torment her at school.  That is, until one day when she gets invited to a party.  For three minutes her life is wonderful - she even kisses Sean in the driveway.  Then somebody spikes her drink at the party and some girls from out of town lure her into the ocean and hold her underwater.

Kira soon discovers that the group of wild teenagers who have come to visit Crescent Moon Bay are not as innocent as they seem.  In fact, nothing is as it seems - not the mysterious deaths of her sister and mother, not her heritage, not even her best friend.  And everything seems to hinge on the ancient Celtic legends that her mother used to tell her as a child.

First Sentence:
I never believed in ghosts.

Purchase At:

Amazon   /   Barnes & Nobles

My Thoughts and Summary:
Caleb's people are of the sea, make homes of shipwrecked ships and have legends of humans.  One of the legends is still forming, a girl still working and growing through her own legend his people talk about.  Caleb is curious about this legend and when his friend and his sisters betrothed returns home he says he saw her, and a crew of them decide to go and see her for themselves, even though they have to swim through their predators territory, the Hinquememem.

Kira is a young girl turning sixteen and maturing, maturing in ways she never even knew and well beyond that of a normal teenage girl.  Kira feels she looks more like her murdering mother than ever before, and misses her dead sister.  She loves her swimming that helps calm her days and mind.  But Kira's world is good as she shares her first kiss with Sean but is about to get turned upside down after a party where she has her drink spiked and a few girls play a cruel joke on her by trying to drown her... she thinks what happens is all a hallucination, from the drink...or was it?

We start with Kira remembering the first time she saw a ghost, her mothers ghost and what happened to her mother and sister, yet makes me curious to the whole story with them and the Celtic legends they believe and listen to.  In school there are those who whisper the same rumors at start of each year, about Kira and her mother and wondering if she's like her mother, crazy.  But we are coming to the close of the year and the thoughts are still there.

The descriptions of the oceans touch is poetic!  The details of the scent, look, and feel are amazing and I can almost feel it on my skin.  I almost feel as I'm there.  Then when I realize I'm not, it makes me wish I was standing there at the ocean, on the beach.  Makes me crave the ocean as much as Kira does.

The chapters rotate between Kira, learning of her, her mom, birthday, and friends, and Caleb, learning his world and adventures to see Kira.  The chapters are shorter length in pages and consist of complete scenes. I really like this.  It's easy to have a spot to stop on the run (and for young adults between classes) yet I am in want to keep reading and know, learn, more of Kira's and Caleb's lives and how they will connect.

My only thought is Kira considers Caleb a friend in the end after him helping her once and then in the end again, also keeping her secret.  Kira feels a connection with Caleb with every eye locked gaze, but I didn't feel there was as much happening between them to consider him such a close friend.  I do think Kira is a kind soul and should act the same way she does with him, but to say he's such a close friend...I don't know, I didn't really feel it.  But the Legend created here, Wow!

Wow!  The legend created here.  An amazing Celtic legend that grows to come to pass as we read, in a story that will seize your attention.  Full of selkies and monsters of the sea.

I'm very curious to see where the series goes from here.  There has to be more to come, because I want it. lol.


**I requested this ARC from the author for an honest review.
**This is a review of the book in my thoughts and personal feelings.