Book Review | Daughter of Deep Silence | Carrie Ryan

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Daughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan
Published by Dutton Juvenile on May 26, 2015
Genres: Contemporary YA, Young Adult
Pages: 375
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
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three-stars

I’m the daughter of murdered parents.
I’m the friend of a dead girl.
I’m the lover of my enemy.
And I will have my revenge.

In the wake of the devastating destruction of the luxury yacht Persephone, just three souls remain to tell its story—and two of them are lying. Only Frances Mace knows the terrifying truth, and she’ll stop at nothing to avenge the murders of everyone she held dear. Even if it means taking down the boy she loves and possibly losing herself in the process.

Sharp and incisive, Daughter of Deep Silence by bestselling author Carrie Ryan is a deliciously smart revenge thriller that examines perceptions of identity, love, and the lengths to which one girl is willing to go when she thinks she has nothing to lose.

The general consensus that I’ve seen of DAUGHTER OF DEEP SILENCE by Carrie Ryan has been AMAZING. I was really excited to read it because it had so many excellent-sounding things going on: revenge, secrets, political scheming, romance, lies, conspiracies…how could this be bad? In truth, DAUGHTER OF DEEP SILENCE wasn’t bad. I just didn’t like it as much as other people did. There were a few things about Frances that just did not sit well with me AT ALL. Let’s discuss.

This book begins with a flashback to when Frances Mace and her family are on a vacation on the Persephone, where she meets a young girl named Libby and a young boy named Grayer. Things are going great. Frances is making friends, Libby is a nice girl, Grayer winds up having a big crush on her…all thumbs up for Frances. Until. One night, something awful happens on board the ship: men begin shooting all of the passengers in cold blood. Frances’ parents are murdered in front of her eyes, but she and Libby escape overboard together and spend several days on the open sea, hoping that someone will come find them. They are eventually rescued, but not before Libby succumbs to exposure.

When she arrives back on land, Frances realizes that Grayer, who is the son of a senator, and his father, also survived the mass murder and subsequent sinking of the ship. However, they’re telling the world that what caused the sinking of the ship was a natural disaster, not a group of men killing everyone in sight. This lie becomes just the first of many Frances will deal with in her life, as Libby’s father takes Frances home with him and raises her as his daughter Libby. For all intents and purposes, Frances Mace is the one who dies.

Fast-forward a few years and teenage Frances (I’m just going to always call her Frances even though for most of the book everyone calls her Libby because that’s her assumed identity), is now completely alone, Lbby’s father having just passed away, but she is sustained by her elaborate plans for revenge on Senator Wells and his son, Grayer. Of course, feelings and the past make this harder than Frances wants it to be.

WHEW. Some synopsis there. I wanted to get a lot of it out though because I think I just have a problem with revenge plots, you guys. DAUGHTER OF DEEP SILENCE is one HUGE one, and while there were times that I was all, “OOOH, this is exciting!”, most of the time I had a hard time getting behind Frances. She was out for blood, in some cases LITERALLY. She’s poisoning people, lying to them, trying to drown them on purpose. I just thought her actions were really selfish and dangerous and, in some ways, unfairly directed. Like, she poisons the senator’s wife. Why? WTF did she do? I totally understood her quest for the truth about what happened on the Persephone and her anger and frustration at the horrible events that changed her life. The cover-up perpetrated by the senator is also infuriating, so I understand WHY. But I did NOT like the how. It made me really not like Frances.

One of my biggest issues with Frances is that she blames Grayer for lying and covering up the shooting. She holds him equally responsible for the lies told by his father in the aftermath of the sinking. She gives him NO allowances for the fact that he was a 14-year-old with an overbearing dad who had also just LIVED THROUGH A TERRIFYING MASSACRE. Frances doesn’t really care about how the events surrounding the Persephone might’ve affected HIM. She only thinks of herself, and of making herself feel satisfied that the people responsible are as ruined as she is. This was a really big problem for me because I didn’t see it as a strong young woman on a quest for truth who will leave no option untried. As DAUGHTER OF DEEP SILENCE progresses, other people get hurt–people who weren’t on the ship at all–because of what Frances is doing. Enormously uncool.

I will definitely give Carrie Ryan props for keeping the pace up and for creating intense drama–melodrama sometimes. But DAUGHTER OF DEEP SILENCE was entertaining for sure, even as I struggled with Frances and her revenge plots that manipulated other people, put their lives in danger, and blatantly ignored the fact that her own behavior mirrored the behavior she most hated in the senator–namely, lies and manipulation for your own selfish ends.

I’m not sure if Carrie Ryan intended for us to not like Grayer, but I did. I saw his incredible internal torment over what happened that night on the ship, and how he was generally between a rock and a hard place. How is a young kid supposed to defy his powerful father, even when he knows he should? I found myself really feeling bad for him as the recipient of Frances’ manipulations and his father’s pressure. I basically felt really sorry for everyone except Frances and the senator, who is as dirty as they come.

Also, the end? The reveal of the actual reason behind the shooting and sinking of the ship? Kind of lame. I’d been really hoping for something majorly dramatic and mind-blowing, but eh. It wasn’t as epic as I thought it would be, so that was a bummer too.

In the end, guys, DAUGHTER OF DEEP SILENCE was just ok for me. I empathized with Frances, but her actions gradually wore away at it and I wound up being really frustrated by her single-mindedness and willingness to harm innocent people. (People who I saw as innocent, anyway.) I didn’t hate her, I was just disappointed by her, I think. The romance between her a Grayer was not bad, but it was also weird because of the lying. Anywho, this was my first Carrie Ryan book, and I enjoyed it, but it didn’t convert me into a superfan. ALAS.