Duck Dive

by Mallory Rae

May is like any other teenager in Malibu. Just kidding. May lives in the kitschy restaurant her family has run for decades; her bright red hair looks a little too much like fire to go without notice in a place tormented by flames, and May has never met her mom—not ever. May was born via surrogacy a year after her mom’s death. These are the sometimes tragic and sometimes magical facts of May’s life, and she wouldn’t change a thing about it. Except that she totally would. And maybe she can.

On May’s 15th birthday, as she and her best friend Abee stand on the beach, the world around them shifts. May and Abee are still right where they started, but it is not their world anymore. Not exactly. They are in the past—a past where May’s mom is still alive. With the sun and the moon and all the stars on her side, May has a chance to try and change some things, but just not too much.

258 pages, Hardcover

Published September 16, 2023

Reviews

[Courtney Wyly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy cow 😭 skyrocketed to somewhere in the top five favorite books of 2023. The writing was truly stunning, so cinematic, what a beautiful beautiful mix of romance, comedy, time travel, and humanity and relationships, the beauty of it all 😭 my goodness goodness gracious. What a treasure! This will stay with me forever.

[Katie Pederson · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing book!! I experienced so many emotions reading it and I didn’t want it to end. Definitely recommend!

[Summer H · Rating 5 out of 5]

The gasps I gusped as this book all came together towards the end! 😱🤣
In all honesty, I was worried this was going to be an “obligatory read” for book club, chosen solely because it was written by a local author, but my gosh…..was I wrong. I don’t know that I would have ever picked this up on my own based on the synopsis alone. It didn’t sound like any of my preferred genres, but this may be one of my all-time favorites now. It was just beautifully written and inspiring. It had me flipping back to previous chapters constantly to connect details like my favorite suspense/mystery novels. Also, for anyone who has experienced the passing of someone near and dear to you, this can be a very healing story. I lost my best friend of 22 years almost exactly one year ago and I couldn’t help but feel encouraged by this awe-inspiring story. It came at exactly the right time. 🥹

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Broke me 100 different ways and put me back together 105 😭 I’ll have to reread it one day to experience this again and to make sure I caught every thread but oh my goodness what a good day that will be

[Katie Niegos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I truly just loved this book. It has a little bit of everything, without being too much. There’s time travel, the holocaust, cancer, second chances, etc. But the ties that bind this book together come down to love: love between friends, partners, and a love between a mother and daughter who despite never living in the same space and time bridged that gap against all odds to find each other. This book was incredibly healing and gave me a new perspective on what it means to live in the moment.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Not enough people are reading this book! I want to scream it from the rooftops! I love every single character. I loved how it all tied together in the end. I wish I could grab on to that surfboard and travel to Malibu to become a part of this family.

[Brittany Busch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time travel. Grief. Love. So many great themes!

This was beautifully allegorical, I couldn’t wait to see how everything connected in the end, PLUS the author is from my city! It’s such an amazing and underrated book. If you haven’t yet, PLEASE READ DUCK DIVE.

[Adriann Frerichs · Rating 4 out of 5]

im having a hard time deciding how i feel about this book… i both loved it, and still have so many questions i felt were left unanswered

i really enjoyed the characters. i think may and amy were my favorites but i also really enjoyed abee and his family. considering how large the cast of this book was and how many different POVs this book sort of switched between, they all felt fully fleshed out. everyone had a place in the story, as well as a fully developed story for themselves!

the story was very interesting and exciting! it reminded me of a mix of november 7th, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, and before we were strangers. i enjoyed how things came together. like the ending was very satisfying figuring out things from earlier. connecting it all together finally!! however sometimes i thought the time jumps were too much and i got a little overwhelmed trying to figure out where we were in time, but the story and the writing were so beautiful it didnt really matter. the story had mixes of romance, mystery, scifi, and maybe even a little fantasy? i really enjoyed that. i genuinely felt like that diversity could make this a book a wide variety of people could enjoy :)

overall i very much enjoyed this book, and im excited for my book club to discuss it (with the author!!!) and i would definitely recommend it. Im excited to see more people discover this book!! solid 4.5 out of 5 star read

[Madison Ramsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a heartwarming book and a quick read!!! Also the author is really cool!!!

[Stevie Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️ I cried actual tears when May and Abee got married!!!

[Shannon Maupin · Rating 5 out of 5]

CREATIVE and BRILLIANT!! Duck Dive is such a great story. It will leave you thinking for a long time. One of the FEW books from which I still remember the main characters’ names a year later. I absolutely loved the playlist. I kept thinking, how did she write this and keep track of all the details??!!

[Sarah Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book. The formatting took me a bit to get used to, but once I did it was just fabulous. So many twists and connections I didn’t see coming. I loved the main characters and how May and Abee grew through out the story. Fabulous!

[Lindsey Cram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dubbed unanimously by my book club as book of the year, Duck Dive is a story that will leave you feeling full of appreciation for life, curiosity about personal history and what can only be expressed by a hand to the heart. Mallory Rae beautifully weaves actual history into a fantastical story about familial exploration through time travel.

Duck Dive asks questions about what makes a person family, how does the past affect the future and the infinite bounds of possibility. This book is art in its truest form, that will gently move you, and not leave the reader the same. It paints a beautiful picture of how simple and small life can be and yet complex beyond our comprehension at the same time.

This page turner had twists and turns, meaning and wonder, tragedy and redemption that really reflects the experience of life in all its facets. Because, “Everything is beautiful and everything is falling apart. Of course it is.”

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a moving, interesting and fun read - so many emotions and exciting moments happened throughout. I loved the unique spin on going to the past and the way it was used the themes of time, friendship, found family, parenthood, loss and more. Reminded me of some things I loved in Sea of Tranquility and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow with its meditative exploration of relationships and fascinating topics, but Duck Dive had a much cozier and more optimistic outlook overall. Definitely recommend!

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun read! So different from my usual reads (even though I've read almost all of the time travel books by Diana Gabaldon). One of the more unusual aspects was the music playlist that accompanies the chapters. I enjoyed listening to the music, and really feeling the emotions from the chapter I just finished before moving on to the next. The story is not predictable, something I really appreciate. There is a little of everything in this novel, time travel/fantasy, romance, love between family including grandparents, parents and children. No, it is not exactly realistic, but only in that I'm old and don't use my imagination often enough. This was a great escape.

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I read this year. I ugly cried, I laughed and have already recommended it to multiple friends. It’s been one of those books that will stick with me because of the relationships and the writing and the way the author showed the world.

I loved the scope of the book and the connections and call backs woven throughout the story. I read in my book club and all of us caught different themes or items repeated. There is just so much to trace in this book.

Highly recommend for an emotional, hopeful, thoughtful yet a page turner with unexpected twists.

[Farrar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! What a joy to read such an inventive novel by a local author. I love how she breaks the story into the phases of the moon, creating a parallel between the cycles of nature and the cycles of life, love and loss. There are so many layers to this book: the connections between generations, the fluidity of time, the gray areas between friendship and romance, the power of the sun and moon. I will be thinking about this one for a long time to come. And how cool that she offered a soundtrack - that’s a first for me!

[Lauren Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s been a long time since a book had a hold on me the way this one did. The wondering what would happen. The parrellels in storylines. The way these characters intertwine and kept me wondering how on earth they each would find their way, when in the end they did. Thank you Mallory for such a gift

[Caroline Fontenot · Rating 2 out of 5]

"It was ok" is the correct rating here. I got hooked fairly early on because I really liked the two main characters, and was interested to get into the time travel aspect. But then it just got...so, so complicated and confusing with the "jumps" between so many years, side characters, and multi-page random side stories that didn't fully tie in. I also never forgave the author (or editor) for spelling Kurt Cobain's name "Curt" and for calling it a "G Wagen." The only ratings and reviews on goodreads are 4 and 5 stars so tbh, I felt a bit duped. Don't bother.

[Joslyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved every part of this book. I definitely wish I had read it sooner.

[Samantha Sleadd · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this book!
Such a fascinating story, format was different, but I got the hang of it.
So many twists that I didn’t see coming. The characters were well written in my opinion.

[Sarah Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite book of the year! Brilliant and well thought out. I love the characters, the jumps, the surprise. It must have taken forever to research and plan out this book and it’s done so well!!

[Kc · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was blown away by Duck Dive. As I was reading, I kept looking at my husband and saying this book is so full of life. It is full of joy and grief and that little bit of magic we instinctively feel in our bones. To live is to be interconnected, whether we are aware of it or not. Life is beautiful and it is fragile and it is a little bit wild. Duck Dive does a fantastic job capturing this.

“It is and it isn’t. It is beautiful and it is falling apart all at once. How could it be any other way?”

Song that played in my head- Midnight Rain by Taylor Swift