The Darkdeep #1 by by Ally Condie and Brendan Reichs

My name is Opal, and I felt bad about Logan wrecking Nico's quadcopter. I understand why Nico is mad at me too, but I want to help the group understand what's happening out on the island. There's a pool of dark water under an old boathouse, and the green blob in a jar makes me uneasy. The whole place made everyone a little nervous, especially when the Darkdeep grabbed Emma and pulled her into the swirling water. She popped up outside of the boathouse along with a hologram-like figment of her imagination, a giant purple grizzly bear. She wasn't concerned about jumping back into the pool though, since the new figments quickly disappeared. However, the Godzilla figment lasted a lot longer, seemed a more solid, and left a huge footprint in the sand. What have we done?

I read the sequel to this book first, but I wanted to know how it all began. The figments began from the imaginations of whoever happened to touch the pool water. As in many other juvenile novels, the characters decided to experiment with the Darkdeep even though they didn't understand what they were doing. Opal and Nico were leerier than the others, but they went along with the group's impulses. The characters never discovered any details about the Darkdeep, but the sequel will answer all of the questions. The fun aspect of the book was the imaginary creatures conjured by the kids' thoughts. Some of them were plain silly, but others were silly and dangerous. In addition, there were stories of the Beast lurking in Still Cove, so the possibility of it popping up was always in the back of my mind. Logan was an antagonist in the plot, but his role became dynamic as the events unfolded. Having read the sequel first, I kept wondering about what his character was doing. Overall, this series has been fun to read with its unpredictable characters and plot. I recommend you read The Beast next to fully immerse yourself in the adventure.