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Pearl lives with her father and one-eyed dog in a gritty fishing village. As the town sinks further into poverty, her father has a hard time finding work to pay the bills, and Pearl steps in. With her love of diving, she spends more and more time ditching school and illegally hunting for abalone to sell. It helps out to have more money at home, and frees her from the grief of missing her mother. One day she finds a shipwreck underwater behind a fence. There’s a gigantic sea creature lying near the wreck. When she frees a spear from its side, the creature’s eyes open. Over the course of several dives, Pearl removes more spears from the creature, and it seems grateful. She names it Otto, and thus begins a friendship. She spends more and more time with Otto, ignoring the attention of Naomi, a cute school friend, and her father. Pearl doesn’t notice when other more nefarious actors follow her and want to trap Otto, with the idea of profiting from him somehow.

This story of a kid trying to manage grief and poverty is hard to put down. There’s adventure, danger, and a bit of humor. And, a misunderstood giant squid. I love the undersea diving scenes � readers will feel Pearl’s freedom from stress when she’s down there. Pearl’s father wants to give her a normal life, wishing that she’d get interested in boys. Pearl slyly sidesteps the statement, and the reader sees that she is working on telling him she’s gay. Black and brown people dominate the characters in the seaside fishing village, and all the characters are satisfyingly eccentric. Readers will love to hate the evil factory owner, who reminds me of Edna Mode from the movie The Despicables. I like the notebook size format � it allows the sweeping sea vistas to really pop. In short, this magical fantasy adventure has lots to love, and I hope it finds its way into the hands of fantasy loving teens.

Note: the printing quality was not great � there are shadowy vertical lines over several pages. Hopefully this can be corrected.