The Vanishing Deep

Tempe lives in a world controlled by water.  Since the Great Waves overtook the planet, most people live in floating communities with strictly controlled weight and passenger limits.  There are very few islands of land tall enough to escape the ocean, and Tempe's home is dependant on one of them, Palindromena.

Tempe and her older sister Elysea became very close after their parents died in an accident.  That's why Elysea's death was even harder for Tempe to handle, but then she learns her sister died with a secret about their parents' death. She becomes convinced Elysea had something to do with the accident, and she wants to get the truth.

Palindromena isn't just important because they can grow food on there.  It's also a technological center with the ability to revive the dead for 24 hours.  Tempe has spent all of her time scavenging the drowned buildings of the former world to make enough money to afford the procedure.

But once Elysea is awakened, she doesn't want to just stay in an exam room.  She wants to get off Palindromena and prove she had nothing to do with their parents' death.  Elysea and Tempe make their escape, but they are pursued by two Palindromena employees who are desperate to get Elysea back to the facility before the end of her 24 hours and the real secrets of the revival process are revealed.

Astrid Scholte's post-apocalyptic water world tale is the second one in this vein I've read in the last few months, and both of them were disappointing.  This one started out pretty well, but there were a couple of issues toward the end.  First, there is a forced romance I could definitely see coming, but the two characters don't really have chemistry, and also, they've only known each other for 24 hours!  This next thing is a little bit of a spoiler, but it's the point the author really lost me.  At the end of the 24 hours, the revived person suddenly starts experiencing the symptoms that caused death.  For example, if the person drowned, their lungs would magically start filling up with water.  Even if they are nowhere near the water.  For real.  This is honestly one of my biggest pet peeves.  You can't break the rules you've established for your world out of nowhere.  There is no magic anywhere in this world.  It is set up as futuristic, but realistic.  Even the reanimation process has a "scientific" explanation.  I am probably a more critical reader than most people, though, and if you aren't reading it critically, you would likely enjoy it.