This book as such a wild concept, and ENTIRELY new to me, for a kind of post-apocalyptic-universe type plot. First, I've read a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction, and for a new concept to be presented to me, well, good flippin' job! Second, this book is for younger audiences and it's definitely clearly for the younger set (in terms of writing style and plot development/resolution).

The plot of the book opens with, quite literally, an entire group of people (mixed ages) trapped on a football-field-sized jellyfish. This jellyfish delivers fish, usually daily, for food - no description about how they go about their freshwater consumption, but we can assume they just worked something out. They do somehow have a fire made from dried out driftwood and kept underneath a shelter made of plastic bags and other driftwood. But a large part of the overall enjoyment of this book is just accepting that you don't get all the backstory and inside information about how they got there, how they survive, how long it's been, etc. You just have to accept a good amount of the story, which I really didn't have trouble with because it's all so fascinating. The jellyfish doesn't let anyone go, going so far as to retrieve and place escapees back on the surface when they get to a certain distance. So there's quite a bit of plotting to get off and back to the distant shore they can see from their floating place on the water. They can see giant crustaceans they call "kriks" walking the shore sometimes, and it's alluded to that these things are violent and potentially the reason not many people are ever seen. They can go really fast and they have huge snappy crab claws. So that's really the whole thing, not a lot is happening, it's more about day to day happenings, planning to escape, planning what to do, interacting with various oddballs, etc.

The other big part of this book is environmental issues/global warming. We learn that sea levels have risen to the extent that shorelines totally changed, large sections of houses and roads are submerged. There are also so many plastic bottles and bags in the ocean that the people on the jellyfish have no problem building a structure for shelter, making clothes of plastic bags to protect from the elements, making sports balls from bottles and bags, etc. The message about plastic waste in our world's oceans is obvious.

And lastly, I'm so glad I read the acknowledgements by the author at the end, because I learned that this story began as a teaching tool made by a teacher to teach about environmental impact of plastic and global warming. The students then got into it and wanted more story, so the teacher embarked on a project to essentially write a book, with various input from students and friends. I love that, and it really makes the book even more enjoyable!

I've read a lot of YA, so I'm used to seeing some off-the-wall concepts and Ideas. I don't think I was prepared for this book.
Taking place on the back of a giant jellyfish in the midst of some sort of apocalyptic future, Jelly manages to both be an incredibly goofy, fun book, while at the same time leaving behind frankly dark implications and exploring some mature themes. From what I remember, things felt a little off in the book, more in a sense of tone and pacing, but throughout the journey I was fascinated where my reading would take me.
Honestly, I recommend this novel. I still can't stop thinking about this book. It was a bizarre experience, and a pretty enjoyable one at that. If you're interested in having something rather offbeat and are willing to overlook the bumps in pacing, this is definitely something to check out.

A very unusual concept that is pulled off in a thoroughly believable way. The teenagers are realistic without following many stereotypical tropes (no angst, no love story) which is a welcome breath of fresh air.

Around the middle it lost my attention a bit as nothing much was happening but after a few weeks of only reading a page here and there I got to the good bit around the last quarter of the book and I'm very glad I did. It got me as hooked as I was at the start again! Finishes quite suddenly, scene certainly seems set for a sequel...

This is one heck of a weird book. It took until about 30 percent before I was oriented to the story. Although I liked the way the author keeps you guessing about literally everything for the first quarter, it also made it difficult to get into the book. Around the 50 percent mark thing started to be cleared up and there was more of a linear narrative structure. These people are trapped on a giant Jellyfish, they have no idea how they got there. It seems like the rest of humanity may or may not have been obliterated. The cause of this seems likely to have been the rising seas and destruction of habitats which resulted in some creatures called kriks exiting the sea and eating all the people. The people on the Jellyfish- which may or may not actually be a real jellyfish, have been their a heck of a long time. Various escape plans are hatched and fail.

My biggest issue was that I didn't really care about any of the characters. The characterization was pretty thin. The main group of characters are some teens. They have some pretty broad, basic personality traits. James is the boy who makes nasty jokes, one of the other girls is angry all the time. I can't remember their names because I wasn't really invested in them The narrator and the other girl are pretty nondescript.

In short, at first I wanted to keep reading to to find out what the deal with the Jellyfish was. Then, I wanted to see how their first escape attempt would go, but then the pacing and the lack of interest in the characters put me off and I didn't really want to read it anymore.