Undertow by Michael Buckley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Summary from GoodReads

Sixteen-year-old Lyric Walker’s life is forever changed when she witnesses the arrival of 30,000 Alpha, a five-nation race of ocean-dwelling warriors, on her beach in Coney Island. The world’s initial wonder and awe over the Alpha quickly turns ugly and paranoid and violent, and Lyric’s small town transforms into a military zone with humans on one side and Alpha on the other. When Lyric is recruited to help the crown prince, a boy named Fathom, assimilate, she begins to fall for him. But their love is a dangerous one, and there are forces on both sides working to keep them apart. Only, what if the Alpha are not actually the enemy? What if they are in fact humanity’s only hope of survival? Because the real enemy is coming. And it’s more terrifying than anything the world has ever seen.

Action, suspense, and romance whirlpool dangerously in this cinematic saga, a blend of District 9 and The Outsiders.


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REVIEW

A good cover with mystery and a summary that screamed MERMAIDS! That's what drew me on "Undertow" the new novel by Michael Buckley. And the novel did surprise me in a great way!




Living under military law on Coney Island Lyric and her family struggle to survive as fanatics, racists, the army and a ton of crazy people try to drive away the Alpha, a race of sea-men who arrived on the seaside three years ago. When a group of Alpha children arrive on her school on a pilot program for bringing the two races closer, Lyric will have to deal with her friendships her secrets and her growing attraction for Fantom the prince of the Alpha.



Duh! It is obvious that this book kept me interested. It was full of action, interesting perception of the Alpha and a growing romance which escalated closer to the book's ending. I liked Lyric. Despite her emotional turmoil, her stress and fear, she was supportive for her friends and she discovered more about her own fate. Fantom was also a funny and tortured character, who despite not being present very much in the book played a major role on the plot's development.

I really want to read the second book and I would love to see more of Lyric and Fantom hoping that the book will not suffer from "Second Book Syndrome" (or better SBS)





About the author:


New York Times bestselling author Michael Buckley was born in Akron, Ohio. He tried his hand as a stand-up comic and lead singer for a punk rock back before attending Ohio University. 
After graduating with honors he moved to New York City to be an intern on the Late Show with David Letterman which led to stints developing programming for Discovery Networks, MTV, MTV Animation and Klasky Csupo (producers of Nickelodeon’s Rugrats). 
Today he lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife, Alison, and their son Finn.