OUT OF AIR, by Rachel Reiss, Wednesday Books, May 13, 2025, Hardcover, $20 (young adult)
A group of scuba diving friends stumble across lost treasure, a legendary cave, and a new type of power… that comes at a price in Out of Air, by Rachel Reiss.
The deeper you go, the darker you fall.
Phoebe “Phibs” Ray is never more at home than when she’s underwater. On a dive six months ago, she and her four closest friends discovered a handful of ancient gold coins, rocketing them into social media fame. Now, their final summer together after high school, they’re taking one last trip to a distant Australian island to do what they love most – scuba dive.
While diving a local reef, Phibs discovers a spectacular underwater sea cave, rumored to be a lost cave with a buried treasure. But when Phibs and her best friend Gabe surface from the cave, they notice that they’re undergoing strange changes. Oozing gashes that don’t heal. Haunting whispers in their heads… Something has latched onto them, lurking beneath their skin, transforming them from the inside out.
When treasure hunters arrive, desperate to find the location of the cave and hold Phibs’ group for ransom, she’ll do anything to keep her friends safe. In the process she learns that, of all the dreadful creatures of the sea, she might be the most terrifying of them all. —Synopsis provided by Wednesday Books
Out of Air is the second book I’ve read in recent days that features a poor protagonist that somehow finds themself in a friend group consisting of wealthy teens. While this convention is key to both stories, it’s starting to feel a little bit overplayed.
In the case of Out of Air, the protagonist is Phibs, a smart, low-income girl who never met her father and was abandoned by her mother. Phibs lives with her grandmother, who is fading quickly. And while her diving buddies have big plans for their own lives, Phibs has deferred her education to care for her grandmother.
Phibs is the best developed of the diving crew, with the others don’t feel one-note, but are lacking the bits that would truly make them shine.
There’s a lot of mystery tied into Out of Air, and it spans a lot of time. The narrative bounces back and forth between “now” and the events leading up to now. Author Rachel Reiss does this through alternating chapters, providing “past” details when pertinent to what’s going on now. It works well with the storyline, and helps suck you in as a reader.
Reiss does an excellent job with transporting you to magical worlds beneath the sea. And it’s the cave and power it holds that really holds attention. It’s both breathtaking and hair-raising, setting the stakes for what will be a life-or-death dive.
Out of Air is a fast-moving YA read perfect for the summer.
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