Deep Water

By: Emma Bamford

Narrated by: Sophie Roberts, Daniel York Loh

The dark side of paradise is exposed when a terrified couple reveals their daunting experience on a remote island to their rescuers—only to realize they’re still in the grips of the island’s secrets—in this intense and startling debut in the tradition of Into the Jungle and The Ruins.

When a Navy vessel comes across a yacht in distress in the middle of the vast Indian Ocean, Captain Danial Tengku orders his ship to rush to its aid. On board the yacht is a British couple: a horribly injured man, Jake, and his traumatized wife, Virginie, who breathlessly confesses, “It’s all my fault. I killed them.”

Trembling with fear, she reveals their shocking story to Danial. Months earlier, the couple had spent all their savings on a yacht, full of excitement for exploring the high seas and exotic lands together. They start at the busy harbors of Malaysia and, through word of mouth, Jake and Virginie learn about a tiny, isolated island full of unspoiled beaches. When they arrive, they discover they are not the only visitors and quickly become entangled with a motley crew of expat sailors. Soon, Jake and Virginie’s adventurous dream turns into a terrifying nightmare.

Now, it’s up to Danial to determine just how much truth there is in Virginie’s alarming tale. But when his crew make a shocking discovery, he realizes that if he doesn’t act soon, they could all fall under the dark spell of the island.

Critic reviews

"Narrator Cailin Kelly establishes a youthful voice for 12-year-old Tully, who is determined to complete a marathon swim on Lake Tahoe. Kelly captures Tully’s tumultuous emotions as she reflects on her past relationship with her mom, also a swimmer, who left her. Now she must learn to face the truth that her mom may not return and appreciate the support that she has from her father and her best friend, Arch. Listeners and fans of novels in verse will find a deep connection with Tully as she comes to terms with the loss of her mom and finds herself on a long and dangerous journey through open water."

Had more potential

A decent and quick audible read. This premise sounded wonderful and started out well. I felt like more drama and suspense could have been added in and the final climactic scene was odd with some unanswered questions.

kind of boring

nothing happened. . at an island, boat broke down, a fight, and so sort of bad guy gets caught. . . don't even know why he was a bad guy. boring, had to make myself finish it.

The problem with the recording

The g in dinghy is SILENT
The mispronunciation takes you out of the story repeatedly

Started off great …

This story started off great - adventure, mystery, survival… the end was so random. After spending hours listening to be handed a random, meaningless ending is a disappointment.

Misleading description and iffy narration

The description of this book is pretty misleading. It’s actually a fairly straightforward story about some people that have some trouble on an expedition to a remote island. The description of the book talks about a “nightmare”, and about the “spells” of an island. It makes it sound much more dark and mysterious than it truly turns out to be. It’s a decent look into what happens to people under difficult circumstances and strain in a new marriage, but there’s nothing ominous or supernatural about it as the description seems to hint at.

The female narrator is pretty bad. Her dialogue and attempts at accents are just bad and continually took me out of the story.