Shallow Pond | Alissa Grosso | Review
When her oldest sister, Annie, comes down with a mysterious illness—initially dismissed as “love sickness”—Babie and Zach start investigating what exactly killed the girls’ mother and why their late father became so consumed by grief. What they find changes everything - Source
Shallow Pond tells the intriguing story of Barbara ‘Babie’ Bunting, just another teen growing up in a dead-end town… or is she? Ever since she was small Barbara has dreamed of escaping Shallow Pond, and whilst her two older sisters never quite managed to get away Barbara is determined not to make the same mistake.
I spent at least the first third of this book wondering what the point of the whole story was going to be, but not necessarily in a bad way. Let me try and explain… Right from the start the book seemed to detail the mundane daily activities of Barbara and her two sisters leaving me with no idea where the story was headed. However instead of becoming bored and wanting to give up this just made me more intrigued as to what the ‘big secret’ mentioned in the synopsis was going to be. A huge part of what makes this book enjoyable is the plot twists, and whilst some did feel a bit predictable, particularly after the first big reveal, I still think that the idea behind the story is pretty clever.
In addition to being a slightly unusual and different read within the young adult genre (at least for me personally) it was also lovely to find another good standalone read. Although they obviously do exist within the genre the focus does tend to fall more on the series/trilogies and I feel like the one-offs can get lost in the shuffle. Whilst some of those series are great reads too I always think its nice to find an interesting standalone that feels complete without a sequel.
Its difficult for me to say too much more without giving away anything about the twist that would ruin the reading experience for you so I’ll wrap things up here. Overall Shallow Pond is a nice quick standalone read with an interesting premise that will keep you guessing… at least for a little while.
*Review copy c/o Netgalley
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