Deep Water by Lu Hersey gripped me from the word go, and it had a plot like no other book I've read before. When I read the first half of the book, I had no idea why on earth the title was 'Deep Water',neither did the main character. This was one of the things I loved about it, who you had time to work out the mysterious and problems too, with the main character.
It started with a normal teenage Girl, Danni, who comes home to find out that her mum has gone missing. The police soon find her mother unconcsience on the shore of a beach, looking devastated. Did she try to commit suicide? What other explanation is there? A question I as a reader and the character were very surprised about the answer and intrigued to know more . She is brought in to hospital and when Danni goes to see her she's gone completely mental. Not only this is a worry to both Danni and the reader, but Danni is also leaking water through her hands, which is not just sweat.
Danni never knew anything about her family on her mums side. Her mum and dad split up and she rarely goes to stay with her Dad as her mother never wants to go near when him. Danni thought it was because she never wanted to see her father. She was wrong, she never wanted to go near the area he lived in.
Danni is extremely worried about her mother and she is multiplied with confusion when she finds her mothers diary in her deserted room which says, 'I don't want the bloody gift, I just want to be normal.' As her mothers remaining in hospital for what looks like a long time, Danni goes to stay with her father. To the area her mother never wanted to go near.
After mysterious people, weird dreams and her mind puzzling she realises that she has a grandmother she has never met before or been told about. Although, she can't be sure by asking her mother because she's still in hospital not knowing who anyone is at all and acting distraught. Both the reader and Danni wonder why her mum has been hiding this secret for so long.
However, having a grandmother she never knew about is not the only secret her Mothers been hiding. When meeting her grandmother, many more secrets are unfolded and she is told that she is not what she thought she was. She's not just a normal teenage girl. She's not just a normal human being. Neither is her mum, grandmother and more generations of the family.
This story was very gripping and I haven't read a book containing fantasy for a long time. However, this book also revolves around family, romance and secrets. Although the book has a plot so original, it also tells you very important life lessons and stories like knowing that lying is never a good thing or that it doesn't matter if your different. I loved how Lu Hersey told these messages in a very gripping story with mysteries and clues along way which Danni and the reader had to work out at the same time.
The story was told very cleverly in 1st person and I really felt like I steeped it to the main characters shoes, going through terrifying and wonderfull events.
This book told me a message that no book had told in the same way and not so affectively. Letting you escape in to a world of problems that would be completely different to yours created you to be exported from your own problems or worries and be working out problems very different to any that you will have dealt with before and made me realise that all problems can be solved, in one way or another. It takes courage, truth, positivity and kindness.
Overall, I will definitely be recommending it to people probably both adults and teenagers alike. It was a gripping, important read which I will remember for along time. I will be recommending this to people age 13+, it fits in to YA section but I think many adults would love the book too.
Buy it:
https://usborne.com/browse-books/catalogue/product/1/9099/deep-water/