The Abyss Surrounds Us

The Abyss Surrounds Us is a truly original take on the pirate story! It’s a contemporary, though alternate, world filled with diverse characters, including many women in authority positions. I was just fascinated by it and finished in practically a single sitting.

Some kind of cataclysm flooded the Earth, creating smaller continents. Countries divided into smaller, more manageable areas. But some land masses drifted out to sea, unclaimed by any country. Those became havens for pirates, who thrive in the new ocean-driven world. To defend against the pirates, several countries worked together to develop the Reckoners, sea monsters created Jurassic-Park-style from the DNA of different creatures. Each ship now has a Reckoner escort and carries a Reckoner trainer.

Cassandra Leung grew up in the Reckoner industry, her mother a scientist who breeds them and her father a trainer. She’s worked her entire life to be a trainer herself. But her first solo mission goes horribly wrong. Her Reckoner is killed and Cas is captured by pirates.

Captain Santa Elena wants to rule the seas. She’s obtained her own unhatched Reckoner and she’ll let Cas live if she raises it and trains it to defend the pirate ship. I love that the pirate captain is a strong, successful woman, even if she’s also a ruthless one. And I liked the supporting cast led by Santa Elena’s four teenaged protégés.

Cas justifies her decision to stay and train their bootleg Reckoner by thinking she’ll be able to find their industry source and stop it. But eventually, predictably, she begins to sympathize with the pirates and question her own beliefs. While her emotional journey mostly followed the path I expected, I was still surprised where Cas wound up at the end of the book.

The Reckoner battles are magnificent, both as action scenes and in the way that they let Cas shine. (I would love to see this book become a movie!) I really only have a few minor complaints. I thought the “inside source” of the stolen Reckoners was too obvious, which made me want to smack Cas a little. And I wish that the details about how the Earth changed were not so vague.

Still, I’m excited that The Abyss Surrounds Us looks like the first in a series. I can’t wait to see where Cassandra goes from here!

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This review was done for my 10th grade English class.

Well, as a sapphic person and lover of the sea, of course I was going to read the thing with lesbian pirates that I had seen circulating around online wlw spaces. And there was definitely more to it than I had expected. The story is gripping, full of action, sometimes horrifying and other times endearing. The characters are complex and well-developed, and I can't help but root for Cas and Swift even with the gray morality of their decisions. The ethical dilemmas Cas faces has my head spinning with uncertainty on how to feel, as she turns her back on everything she used to be, and willingly destroys lives to keep Swift and Swift's family alive. The way the book approaches moral conflicts as Cas realizes there's more to the pirates and lives she's been trained to destroy was unexpected to me and it's been making me think about it a lot. The world Skrutskie has built in her book feels real and human and you can't help but have sympathy for its characters, and two rivaling forces, the pirates and those defending against them. Who is right or justified in the end? I don't know.
Something that was also extraordinary to me was how Cas and Swift's relationship deconstructs unhealthy power dynamics found in other forbidden love stories (as I've seen someone put it). They recognize they cannot be in a healthy romantic relationship when they don't stand on the same ground in their situation, so they stay out of it even though they want it. That is until Cas becomes a trainee herself and of her own volition, in the end of the book, suggesting that in the sequel their relationship will flourish now that they have established their equal footing, though they still have problems to sort through. I look forward to seeing where their journey leads.
Overall, The Abyss Surrounds Us is a solid book— love the concept, world-building, prose, and its diverse group of characters that include people of color, wlw, and some tough as nails girls. I don't feel too extraordinary about it and I didn't feel that satisfied with the ending, but it was overall a pretty good read.

This is a veeerrrry action-y book. Crunch! Wham! Watch sea monsters bite ships in half! Watch scrawny teenage pirates get into fisticuffs with each other! Watch the protagonist almost drown over and over and over! I enjoyed the high-speed romp through the Pacific very much, but if you want a quiet YA featuring queer girls, this is very much not it.

However.

This book engages with consent and specifically the "captive love interest" trope VERY thoroughly and thoughtfully for a YA action-adventure. I was really surprised. Of course this has consequences... (I spoil the ending below)

SPOILER in this paragraph:
The two girls understand that they cannot be in a genuine relationship until they are on a more equal footing than "captor" and "prisoner", and they spend the entire book achieving this equal footing. So there is very little by way of queer relationships in the book, which will probably bother some people, but I was relieved - it would have been basically a prisoner fantasy, which I find horrible.
SPOILER ends here.

And the sequel has already been announced... I wish I could read it right now!

Thank you dear author, thank you very much.

Disclosure: I got a free copy in my Nebula awards weekend book bag.

Possibly the *coolest* book I've ever read. Ruthless cool. James Bond, motorcycle-ride, leather-jacket cool. Cas Leung has grown up in the family business, training Reckoners—massive sea monsters designed as caretakers for a future Pacific Ocean economy riddled with pirates. When the pirates abduct her, forcing her to raise a Reckoner for the wrong side, it's go against the ideals she's learned her whole life or be summarily slaughtered on the high seas.

Skrutskie takes a bold concept and executes it to perfection. Every sentence is packed with tension; every scene is a punch. The writing is beautiful in a raw, powerful way, vivid and merciless. Not a single word wasted. Skrutskie forges a pirate ship's precarious social ecosystem, a captain's brutal rule, and an organic and strangely tender relationship with total mastery. The wealth of awesome female characters of appropriately diverse origin is just the cherry on top.

Very highly recommended.

THE ABYSS SURROUNDS US by Emily Skrutskie

Skrutskie has written a marvelous adventure replete with pirates and monsters, love and betrayal, futuristic technology and basic instinct. The protagonist, Cas (short for Cassandra), is a teenaged girl with the ability to train genetically-modified, enormous sea creatures. When she is captured by a rogue pirate ship, she finds that her assumptions about her entire world are challenged. This story is taut and well-crafted. The voice and premise are original and the pacing excellent.

This is a summer blockbuster in book form. I really can't think of any other way to describe it. And it was fun. I had read somewhere that this was a bit like Pacific Rim, but I've never watched it (Although it kinda had the same feel as Battleship to me, without the aliens haha). It's flashy and filled with sea monsters and pirates set in a sort of near-future based earth. There's a great slow burn romance and a main character I could get behind. It's entertainment. I look forward to the next one.

I absolutely loved this book. It was full of action, suspense, and romance. The characters were complex, and the book had its fair share of diverse characters as well. I definitely would recommend this book to science fiction fans. It has a creative, innovative world that only gets better and better. Excited to see where Skrutskie takes us next. . . .

It's already got pretty much the best hook--giants monsters and pirates. It really hooked me in with lesbians. I love that this doesn't go for the basic "forbidden prisoner/jailor romance" shtick, but deconstructs it and shows that it's unhealthy. Also i love the mention that the main character has dated other girls, and doesn't fall into the "ur the only girl im attracted to otherwise im straight" thing that a lot of media does. An amazing story about the grey morality that we as humans ignore to try and make ourselves feel better. Also giant monsters. Hell yeah.

Set in a futuristic world where genetically-engineered sea monsters are the only defense against pirates, this book has effortless diversity, complex moral choices, and characters you can’t help but love even if they’re doing questionable things. It’s fun, fast-paced, and action-packed, but also has a great romance between the main character and one of the pirates who has taken her captive. If you love books with complicated gray areas and villains who might actually be the heroes (or are they?), add this to your list. Plus, giant sea monsters! Who doesn’t love those?

What an epic, wonderful book. Incredibly unique, totally engaging. I am in love with everyone in it. Read if you want:
- SEA MONSTERS (that are ... lovable terrors?)
- SEA MONSTER *TRAINERS* THAT KICK MAJOR A**
- PIRATE LADIES
- HATE > LOVE ROMANCE
- FUTURISTIC, DETAILED WORLD-BUILDING
- TOTALLY DIVERSE CAST

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is for sure an interesting take on sea monsters, I liked it very much. I did think the quick 180 the main character did when it came to her decision making was a little unusual, but it was still a good story.

I was extremely fortunate to read an early draft of this book. To put it simply: this book is awesome, and I can't wait for it to come out so that everyone can read it. If you're looking for a story that's intense, but still has heart, then this is for you. The brutal maritime world and the fascinating morally gray characters make this a story you won't want to put down. You won't know who to cheer for, and that's part of the fun. Also, there are pirates. And giant sea monsters. And floating cities. Honestly, what more could you ask for?

Well written, exciting and enjoyable. I didn't like the ending quite as much as the rest of the book, but I suspect once I read the rest of the series I will like it better. The book is better than the title, I promise.

Set in a futuristic world where genetically-engineered sea monsters are the only defense against pirates, this book has effortless diversity, complex moral choices, and characters you can’t help but love even if they’re doing questionable things. It’s fun, fast-paced, and action-packed, but also has a great romance between the main character and one of the pirates who has taken her captive. If you love books with complicated gray areas and villains who might actually be the heroes (or are they?), add this to your list. Plus, giant sea monsters! Who doesn’t love those?

4.25 stars.

Pirates. Sea monsters. Floating cities. Lesbians. If none of that has sold you on this book yet, idk what will or what’s wrong with you. I’m still not over how fricking awesome this was.

The Abyss Surrounds Us follows the story of Cas Leung, a sea monster trainer who finds herself kidnapped by the very people she’s spent her life learning how to destroy: pirates. I absolutely LOVED the worldbuilding in this book: Skrutskie’s futuristic vision of the Pacific introduces a dangerous, lawless world, populated by floating cities, pirate queens, and the deadly creatures known as Reckoners that are used to enforce a semblance of justice. Not only was it an exciting setting, but the political and scientific implications of this new order were well-developed and had just the right amount of detail.

Cas was also a refreshing YA heroine. She’s smart, confident, and capable as a Reckoner trainer, but she also knows her own limits. She doesn’t have any combat training or experience, and that is okay, because she knows that her strengths lie in other areas. Cas also has some really fantastic development over the course of the book, as she learns to question the worldview she’s grown up with and see the humanity of the people she’s devoted her life to killing.

Alright, let’s talk about the fact that this book features a slow burn f/f romance between a sea monster trainer and a pirate complete with two of my fav romantic tropes (“enemies to lovers” and “we have to sleep in the same bed and we’re gonna pretend we’re not happy about this situation”) !!!!!!!!!!! I don’t wanna say any more because spoilers but even though the relationship was semi-cheesy I was still SO INTO IT.

Now that I’ve addressed that, I just want to finish up by saying that one of this book’s greatest—and most surprising—strengths was how it explored the moral gray area of this dangerous world. Cas has been raised to believe that pirates are a threat to be eliminated, nothing more than a target for one of her beasts. However, as the book progresses, she learns more about her new companions and finds herself sympathizing with them in ways she’d never expected. Both sides of the system are thick with corruption, and both pirates and mainlanders are people struggling to survive. Take Santa Elena, the self-proclaimed pirate queen, for example: she may be cruel and merciless, but she is also human. She has a backstory and family and development and can we talk about how she captured her pirate ship single-handedly with her newborn son on her back?????

This book was action-packed and exciting with an amazing romance, go read it now please!!!!! ❤️

WHAT I LIKED :

• Dark, gritty atmosphere. I really did not expect for this book to be this gritty. It’s not really gruesome or anything, but it had cursing and fighting and monsters breaking humans into half, which is a plus for me (but still unexpected).
• The whole reckoner, sea monster-training aspect was so well done. The descriptions of the equipment and the methods are put in such detail that it feels real. The writing, especially when it comes to the monster training and fighting, is brilliant. It made the whole thing immersive and fun.
• Cas, the main protagonist, was kick-ass. I loved her! It feels like there is more to her yet and I’m sure the next book will give us more action from her part.
• The hate-to-love romance was so well done. It didn’t feel like an icky captor-prisoner romance trope because they both acknowledged the difference in power and the author executed their relationship tastefully. There was chemistry between the two girls and their banters gave me life. I ship them so hard ❤

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE :

• The world-building was a bit weak. I wish there was more insight into the world other than just reckoners and sea-monsters. There was a point in the story where they take a stop at a town and that would’ve been a great opportunity to learn more about the people, the culture or a bit of backstory, but it fell short.
• The back and forth between Cas and Swift kinda put me off and at some point I found myself confused and frustrated.
• Some of the actions and decisions Cas made were unrealistic and some situations were resolved too conveniently (especially the way things wrapped up in the end).
• There were some side characters (Swift’s crew) that were so interesting and I so badly wanted to see more of them. Unfortunately, they were two-dimensional and we don’t get much from them.

HIGHLIGHTS :-

Diversity factor: Asian MC, F/F Romance
Pirates + sea monsters (as trained pets)
Kickass girls
Emphasis on consent and equal grounds in relationship
Adorable romance
Awesome premise

I seriously love this series. I’m 18, reading this gorgeously written book about a lady pirate and a giant turtle trainer that get together to form a completely unrealistic yet somehow SO realistic relationship, and I’m loving it. I only wish there were more books to read. Recommend for anyone of any age, but especially those craving a fantastic futuristic fantasy series about two girls falling in love and no one telling them how wrong it is for the supposedly obvious reason.