Published By: Tor
Pages: 352
Released On: 20/11/2025
Death waits beneath the waves as two estranged lovers face their demons…
Sergeant Nix Marr left her dark past buried beneath the sea. Then Kessandra, the people’s favourite princess (and Nix’s much-loathed ex), recruits Nix for a covert mission. Their goal – to investigate a massacre in the under-water city of Fall. Nix tries to refuse, but finds herself boarding a luxurious submersible as Kessandra’s bodyguard. After all, Kess always gets what she wants.
As they descend to the city, Kessandra reveals the chilling truth. They aren’t investigating a massacre, but the trigger that caused it – a sickness that turns victims into mindless killers. And when a royal passenger is murdered, it’s clear the infection is on board . . . and no one on the submersible is safe.
Trusting Kessandra, despite her lies, will become Nix’s only hope.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Tor for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I have read Rebecca’s book Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea, and whilst it may not have been my cup of tea (pun very much intended), I could still appreciate and recognise that she is a good storyteller. And so, even though it wasn’t my sort of book, I still wanted to see what she would do next. And this was definitely more my thing, which is weird as I’m not usually a sci-fi fan with novels.
She has done such a good job at world building and character creation, they’re all so vivid and lifelike and familiar. You could understand this undercurrent of fear, of claustrophobia, of impending doom, and it makes you slightly uncomfortable but you end up willing them on.
Some of the chapters were a little long for my liking, but that’s because I’m a fan of short snappy chapters, so that’s definitely a personal choice.
I tried to read other books at the same time but I kept getting distracted, desperate to return to this. It is so good. When I wasn’t reading it I was thinking about it, and when I was reading it, I was loving it.
It’s got everything. There’s romance and fighting and monsters and death and blood and heads rolling (literally), it ‘s so fast paced and exciting.
I read another review that described this as “lesbians fight zombies on the Titanic”, and quite frankly, whilst that may be a bit simplistic, it is totally correct.
I was really hoping this would be the start of a series and it is! Which is great as I want more and more of it.
This is why, just because I might not be the reader for one book, I don’t completely rule that author out or ignore their other books, because this was so good, and I would never have discovered it if I’d given up after Treason…
There are a lot of trigger warnings. I’m not always a fan because they do spoil the story a certain amount. But with the amount of trigger warnings in this, and the type that they are, I think it’s needed. If you want to go in blind then please stop reading now, but if you want to know what the trigger warnings are, then they are below.
**SPOILERS**
**SPOILERS**
**SPOILERS**
**SPOILERS**
Trigger warnings include: extreme violence, gore, blood, vomiting, near-death experiences, character death, dismemberment, decapitation, drowning, explicit sex, sudden spread of disease, loss of physical autonomy, PTSD, anxiety, manipulation, gun violence, hallucinations, war, thalassophobia.
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