Undertow by Michael Buckley

This book was part of the Olenick fund order, suggested to me by our vendor's hot books list.  I was intrigued by the cover and hooked by the jacket snippet--hello, we are in Coney Island!  How many books have I read and reviewed set there?  Slight obsession to be sure!

This is book one in what I guess will be a trilogy.  Book 2 is called Raging Sea.

Lyric and her friends once walked along the famous boardwalk at Coney Island carefree.  Migraines her only problem, Lyric calls herself a former wild thing.  Everything changed when a nation of sea dwelling humanoids came up out the sea and made the Coney Island beach their new home.  Lyric and her mother Summer were there when the Alpha arrived.  Fast forward a few years.  The Alpha and those who have not fled Coney Island (undocumented immigrants without ID primarily) are about to face school integration.  The President has declared several Alpha children will attend high school with their human counterparts, including Lyric and her best friend Bex (Bex actually has a subplot storyline with an abusive stepfather and a wonderful boyfriend who happens to be Latino).

We learn Lyric's mother is an Alpha, sent ahead 20 years earlier as some type of scout.  Her particular race is something akin to Mermaids (again, this is Coney Island afterall).  She will be viewed as a traitor for not returning.  Because she lacks ID, she cannot leave Coney Island.  Her husband, Lyric's father, is NYPD and vows to protect them.  However, Lyric is recruited to teach the Alpha's prince how to be an American.  Somewhat as expected, she falls for Fathom (all of the Alpha children are given English names that have something to do with Coney Island--Arcade, Bumper, Ghost, Luna, etc.).  Lyric's father can't protect her from the various players and plots.  There are racist gangs out to kill the Alpha, helped by a Governor with political aspirations who intends to rid New York of the Alpha.

The book is a statement on the way immigrants and minorities are treated in this country.  Seriously, it couldn't be more timely.   

I LOVED this book until about 3/4 of the way through.  The ending felt rushed, too much was happening too fast to keep it all straight.  It almost felt like the author had a page cap or word limit.  I had to go back and reread several paragraphs because I felt I was missing things.  The ending left me unsatisfied.  However, that may be simply an attempt at a hook for the next book.

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All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.