Review: Haunting the Deep - Adriana Mather

Haunting the Deep
Adriana Mather
Series: How to Hang a Witch, #2
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Paranormal
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

Thanks to Knopf Books for Young Readers for the eARC I received via Netgalley!

Honestly, Adriana Mather has the coolest family history ever, and I'm kind of jealous.

Haunting the Deep follows Sam Mather as she is recovering from her How to Hang a Witch trauma and trying to lead a normal life. Unfortunately, normal isn't in the cards for her. When her school's spring fling dance is decided to be a Titanic theme and her history class dives into studying the Titanic, Sam gets thrown back into the world of magic and ghosts.

One of the coolest things about this series is the history woven into the stories. The Titanic is something that I never really studied in school, so it was really cool to learn more about what the Titanic was like as well as about some of the people who were on the ship. While the scenes depicted on the ship were fiction, most of the people were real, and it's heartbreaking when you really examine the tragedy.

I was also very excited to see the whole crew back for this second book! While there is a bit of Jaxon and Elijah, the focus of this book was definitely on friendship. Sam becomes closer with the Descendants at the start of Haunting the Deep, and their friendship crew throughout the book. I really enjoyed seeing Sam become a part of this girl squad since there wasn't much for female relationships in How to Hang a Witch (I mean, they all hated her so makes sense) and also because it meant more witchy business and MORE WITCHES IS ALWAYS THE ANSWER!!!!!

As for Jaxon and Elijah, fans of the romantic aspect from the first book may be disappointed - they were both kind of jerks for a lot of the book, which is understandable in the context of the story since Other Things were happening. I am still super conflicted about what team I'm on, so I'm interested to see where it goes in the next book.

Similarly to how the first book dealt with bullying, Adriana Mather wove elements of choice into this story. One thing that was really prominent in all the characters was the idea of what you think is right for someone being different than what is right for them. Explored through many different characters and situations, it was a really interesting thought to explore and very well done.

Overall, Haunting the Deep was an extremely satisfying follow up to How to Hang a Witch. The sequel delivered on the same suspense, excitement, and magic promised by the first book, and I simply could not put it down until I was done. I highly recommend both How to Hang a Witch and Haunting the Deep to readers who love witches, ghosts, history, and good books because this is a quality series.

Do you think Jack and Rose both could have fit?

Let us know in the comments!