First published 2016
Caden Bosch stands on the deck of a ship sailing toward Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth in the Marianas Trench. The captain has named him the vessel's artist, tasked with documenting their journey through drawings. But Caden also walks the hallways of his high school, where his friends notice something different about him. He tells them he joined track, but instead he wanders for miles through his neighborhood, lost in the storm of his own thoughts. On the ship, crew members whisper of mutiny while the captain demands loyalty. At school, his behavior grows stranger by the day. Caden exists in both worlds simultaneously, unable to distinguish which reality holds truth. The ship's destination pulls him deeper into an ocean trench that mirrors his own psychological descent. As the voyage continues and his high school life fractures, Caden must navigate between conflicting allegiances and competing versions of himself, searching for solid ground in a world where nothing feels certain.
Genres: fiction, mental-illness, contemporary, psychological-thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Challenger Deep, Marianas Trench
Period: Contemporary
308 pages · Paperback · Quill Tree Books
Content warnings: mental-illness