Lord of the Deep

Rating:
Summary: Unequivocally awful
Review: This was a truly terrible story of a boy who idolizes his stepfather only to learn that the stepdad is not honest. So what does the boy do? Crushed, he goes along, having no real choice, according to the author's telling. A generous reading would call this book amoral; I think bad is more accurate. So the point is? Kids who are better than their parents should go down with them? Let's get our kids really depressed and cynical? Let's let kids think it's okay to accept dishonesty, if it means not upsetting people? That it's okay to cheat? I want my money back.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Platform for Discussion
Review: With his novel Lord of the Deep, Graham Salisbury proves his familiarity with and respect for the territory roamed by the young heart. That he respects his readers is evident. He gives them a complex situation and leads them through it carefully, showing a deep understanding of what it is to be nearly grown, what it is to be clear sighted and honest and yet feel powerless to influence the outside world or the actions of others. In Lord of the Deep, a boy must try to make sense of a situation he knows to be morally ambiguous. His step-father, to whom he is very close, is a sportsfisherman. The father and son spend their days together, the son working for the father as a deckhand. When the father makes an unethical deal with two loutish wealthy customers, the boy begins his own separate ethical life with a passionate act that will ring true with its young readers. All of this takes place in the warm Hawaiian world Salisbury has established for his readers, a world in which they can feel safe as they face the challenges of the imperfect larger world in which we live. The summer romance between the boy and the intelligent daughter of one of the men who charter his father's boat is a charming harmony which tempers this serious book.