Book Review: Shanghaied by Carey Fessler

Hey bookworms! I am back with another review for you. This one was called Shanghaied: Escape from the Blackwolf by Carey Fessler and is the first book to a trilogy. I will be reviewing the entire trilogy so the other reviews will be following this one.

Synopsis: Twelve-year-olds Emma and Scott stumble across a dark secret and are shanghaied by a rogue submarine that once suffered a ghastly fate: a radioactive incident that transformed its crew into mutants.

They are plunged into the depths of the ocean, far beyond the reach of help, where the Blackwolf battles against lurking enemy navies.

Now they must find a way off the submarine without being killed first–or even worse, being forced into service for the rest of their lives.

The race to escape has begun.

I rather enjoyed this book. It was another middle-grade book so it doesn’t quite capture your attention or have fully fleshed out characters like YA does but the story progresses quickly and you get to think like how a kid would. In dangerous situations, the kids would do something so bold or brave and I would think to myself that I wouldn’t even have the courage to do that. Oh to be a kid again and not know that fear that growing up can teach you.

There were quite a few technical terms about working in a submarine which I thought was pretty cool. You were learning about life at sea while enjoying the daring escape these kids were trying to plan and execute.

Plus, it had mutants! Creepy, slimy, hairless mutants. Well, they all had different descriptions as they were all unique crewmembers but still fun none the less. The captain was a grumpy, mean mutant and so was most of the crew but not all of them were bad as you will come to find out.

At one point, Scott and Emma find themselves in a situation I would be truly terrified and they manage to keep their cool and get through it. I can’t tell you what that situation is because I don’t want to spoil it but I would lose my cool real fast.

I also realized after I finished the book that there were two characters they eluded to multiple times but never brought them back up so I am not sure if they will be in the next one or were just forgotten about.

This one ends somewhat intensely and you can pretty much guess that the next one will pick up right where they left off so I am excited to get reading it and find out what comes next.

Book Rating: 4/5

You can buy this book on Amazon and find it on Goodreads. If you like this review, we did another one for this author’s other book called Foiled.

Disclaimer: This book was sent to us in ebook format by the author to read and give an honest review.