Those We Drown from English scribe Amy Goldsmith comes at the right time. YA stories on cruise ships are surprisingly plentiful at the moment – whether that’s whodunnit books (Lying in the Deep by Diana Silver for example), or terrifying TV (such as the BBC’s Wreck, a slasher mystery with a young cast and a dark heart). Goldsmith’s turn at the proverbial wheel sees her aiming for more eerie fare.
The conceit of Those We Drown is mesmerising aplenty – a handful of affluent teens board an exclusive cruise ship as part of a final year of studying ahead of university. While aboard, one of the teens goes missing, and his best friend, the ostensible heroine and the only unmoneyed one amongst the group, is put to the task of uncovering what happened to him.
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What follows is a largely successful YA Gothic-on-the-waves tale with poor beleaguered Liv, following the tradition of most Gothic heroines (outsider, not from a rich background, seemingly plain and yet somehow attractive to the rich playboy in the group), exploring the ship to uncover clues and encountering resistance and psychological menace everywhere. Goldsmith’s real talent lies in ratcheting tension, and while some of the scenes do feel a little repetitive as Liv encounters obstacles and disbelief at every turn, there’s no denying that it makes Those We Drown is a propulsive page-turner with a neat spin on Greek mythology influences neatly painted throughout the narrative.
This isn’t to say Those We Drown is without its faults. Pacing-wise it suffers from having the majority of revelations and action fall into the final fifty pages, trying to cover too much narrative ground in such a short space of reading time, and as a result having an ending that falls a little flat. It also falls to some uneven characterisation – the villains are a little bit cardboard, and Constantine, the love interest, is one of the more frustrating of the poor sad rich boy archetype to ever grace the page.
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Largely though, Those We Drown works well as a creeping, insidious tale of terror at sea, about the dangers of crushing family expectations, the price of getting whatever you want, and about toxic family dynamics. Those looking for a piece of nautical horror with a mean streak of neoclassical culture running through it will find plenty to enjoy in Goldsmith’s tome and will voluntary submerge themselves to the mysteries that lie beneath the surface.
Those We Drown is out now from Ink Road Press.
