Lying in the Deep was a fun read in a junk food sort of way. I read through it very quickly and was entertained throughout, but it didn't have much substance. The characters were mostly bland or one-note and it was irritating how little they communicated (though it fit with their general immaturity) and how much the plot hung on lack of communication or miscommunications. This also left some of the twists really blatantly telegraphed to the reader while the characters were adamantly refusing to listen to or think about what each other were saying. With characters I found bland to unlikable, both the romance and the character deaths didn't have as much impact as probably intended. ( )

Jade definitely got more than she bargained for when she boarded the cruise ship for Campus on Board. It is not the peaceful cruise she thought that it would be when she finds out her exs...boyfriend and friend are on the same ship.

Where the group of characters are concerned, I did not get closer to anyone. The sisters had some sibling issues to deal with, Marcus is that person that you "pretend" to be nice to as he is always hanging around. Felix the love interest and the exs. How mean Lainey was towards Jade, I did not feel bad about all the close calls she had almost being taken out.

I did figure out the storyline before the ending but I still wanted to see if I was right. The last third of the story is where the murder mystery happened. From there, it moved fast to the conclusion. Another good read from author, Diana Urban. Lying in the Deep is a book you do want to pack in your bag for summer reading! ( )

Lying in the Deep follows Jade as she sets sail on the Campus on Board cruise ship, for a university semester at sea, which visits 11 countries in four months. She is dismayed to find that her ex-best friend and ex-boyfriend are both on board, after coldly betraying her over the summer.
The academic adventure is soon marred by a gruesome murder. Jade realizes that she has become a suspect and rapidly races to clear her name with the help of a new romantic interest. The deaths of more students occur, and Jade finds herself trying to untangle a complicated web of motives and secrets.
Lying in the Deep is a thrilling, young adult murder mystery with an atmospheric, claustrophobic "locked-room" setting and clever, unpredictable twists. The characters did seem somewhat young and immature for Ivy league university students however, fans of the genre will enjoy this fast-paced thriller, as did I. ( )

So Lying in the Deep had so many elements I love in thrillers, but my overall feeling was much more meh than wow. You know I like fiction set in exotic new places, and I always love when our characters get cut off from everyone else, so a thriller set on a Semester at Sea-style college trip sounded amazing. Plus, with a horrible break up, an intense ex-bestie (always one of my favorite thriller elements), and loads of new classmates, all with their own secrets and romances, trapped on the ship together, the stage is set perfectly for a backstabbing YA thriller.

Jade has been looking forward to spending a semester at sea for years (she says this a lot, basically for each activity). At embarkation, though, she’s hurt and disappointed to see her ex-best friend, Lainey, and her ex-boyfriend, Silas, who’s now Lainey’s boyfriend, are getting on the ship too.

I didn’t fully buy Jade’s love for her ex-boyfriend Silas (He is NOT the love of your life! He is literally just a guy! Hit him with your car! as the kids say on TikTok) but I understood why she wanted Lainey’s friendship back.

There were a couple nods to Death on the Nile here, which I liked a lot. It’s definitely not a retelling, but if you’ve read that one, there’s a bit of foreshadowing towards the ending, too. Not the reveal or the methods, it’s a moment off the ship at the very end that felt like a moment off he ship at the very end of a certain Agatha Christie mystery. ( )

Lying in the Deep is Diana Urban's latest YA book and my latest teen read. The title can be taken two ways - clever.

This group of older teens are taking a learning semester on a cruise ship. Jade has been looking forward to this forever. But's she's devastated to see that her former bestie and her used to be boyfriend are the trip as well. Now's probably a good time to mention some of the themes? Jealousy and revenge are at the top of the list.

How about murder....yup there's one. Who could be the killer? Jade and her new beau are in the thick of things, trying to suss out the whodunit. But they may be suspects as well. They're supported by a wealth of supporting characters that fill in the various tropes.

Urban has melded teen obsession with a murder mystery and a nice twist in the last few chapters.

But, I do feel like some of the 384 pages could have been pared down a bit. Some scenes and events feel repetitive. The other thing I want to mention is that the teens in this are at college. Their behaviors and thinking seems to belong to younger teenagers. On the other hand, they drink and a few of them are casual drug users. Their choice of drug just kinda sat wrong with me. Seriously? M***? ( )