Review: A Good YA read
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 22, 2012
When you became a certified diver at age 12 and your dad is the head of a prestigious university, you don't think much about marching into a professor's office and offering yourself up as a "slave" on her oceanic expedition.  The future holds dire things for us - and it is now the time of the Fouling.  A nasty, black substance which is taking over the ocean and has been for the past 50 years catches in ship part, blows engines and makes it impossible to ship necessary supplies around the world.Into this comes Alannis Summers, the diver and the youngest of the crew.  She is there to work, not to play and makes it clear to all aboard she has an independent mind.  Which, of course, ends up getting her into trouble or we wouldn't have a book!Dr Warren and her underlings are desperate to find the cause of the Fouling, it is bringing down the entire world.  She feels it has something to do with a group called The Commission who gathered together when the Fouling began to try to control it.  They are secretive, scary and VERY territorial.  They make all the rules and expect everyone to comply.  There is an unsaid "or else" in everything they do.  Then, Alannis meets Ra'Ook and things begin to get really interesting.This YA book was well written and I can remember my girls acting just like Alannis at times.  She depicts the headstrong heroine as soft inside and having a clear conscience about her actions.  The rest of the adults on the boat are well done, too.  I think it was a little too "stiff" here and there but when things become tense, they become tense!  Not a great book for under maybe 14 but it is good reading and you can learn a lot and think a lot.