Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The City on The Sea

The City on The Sea
The City on The Sea
Author: Heather Carson
Genre: Teen & Young Adult
Book Type: Paperback
better0ffread avatar reviewed on + 51 more book reviews


The City on the Sea was a wonderful start to this young adult Dystopian series. The world is basically under water and the resources are scarce, so the inhabitants on the island have to get creative to survive. They are primitive in alot of ways but not as primitive as the watchers believe them to be. They are a thriving growing community who live each day to the fullest and are grateful for what they have. However they are dark and dangerous elements they live with each and every day. They are constantly watched and everything they do is carefully studied like fish in an aquarium to make sure they don't get out of line. They live in constant fear of doing something to anger the watchers because they might disappear.
Heather Carson did a great job building this world and letting us get to know the main character Brooke. We come to love her and her family. We feel for her and understand the pain she deals with on a daily basis from the struggles she has had to grow up with that are more than any child should have to face. My only complaint about this book was that it left me with a ton of questions and not a single answer. The entire story leads up like we are going to get a big pay off in the end and we will finally get answers to everything happening around us, however nothing is answered and we are left waiting for the next book. I am all for cliffhanger endings but I was left with irritation when I finished because it felt like nothing was answered. It made it hard for me to write this review ,but I decided to just be completely honest and try to explain why my score is not higher. If this story would have just wrapped up some of the loose ends and gave some closure, I would have felt better with the cliffhanger ending. I am sorry .. I hope the second book clears things up and I feel more at peace with the story