Words in Deep Blue
Kindle
$8.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
$12.00
Paperback
$10.24
Audible Logo Your audiobook is waiting!
Enjoy a free trial on us
$0.00
  • Click above for unlimited listening to select audiobooks, Audible Originals, and podcasts.
  • One credit a month to pick any title from our entire premium selection — yours to keep (you'll use your first credit now).
  • You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
  • $14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel online anytime.
Learn more about membership
Sold and delivered by Audible, an Amazon company
List Price: $18.00
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible’s Conditions Of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice.
Sold and delivered by Audible, an Amazon company
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs

Words in Deep Blue Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Cath Crowley (Author), Hamish R. Johnson (Narrator), Chelsea Bruland (Narrator),
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 1,429 ratings
See all formats and editions

A beautiful love story for fans of Jandy Nelson and Nicola Yoon: Two teens find their way back to each other in a bookstore full of secrets and crushes, grief and hope - and letters hidden between the pages.

Years ago Rachel had a crush on Henry Jones. The day before she moved away, she tucked a love letter into his favorite book in his family's bookshop. She waited. But Henry never came.

Now Rachel has returned to the city - and to the bookshop - to work alongside the boy she'd rather not see, if at all possible, for the rest of her life. But Rachel needs the distraction. Her brother drowned months ago, and she can't feel anything anymore.

As Henry and Rachel work side by side - surrounded by books, watching love stories unfold, exchanging letters between the pages - they find hope in each other. Because life may be uncontrollable, even unbearable sometimes. But it's possible that words, and love, and second chances are enough.

Previous page
  1. Listening Length
    6 hours and 47 minutes
  2. Author
    Cath Crowley
  3. Narrator
    Hamish R. Johnson, see all
  4. Audible release date
    June 6, 2017
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Listening Library
  7. ASIN
    B06XNSRYJB
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
Next page

Read & Listen

Switch between reading the Kindle book & listening to the Audible audiobook with Whispersync for Voice.
Get the Audible audiobook for the reduced price of $7.99 after you buy the Kindle book.

Product details

Listening Length 6 hours and 47 minutes
Author Cath Crowley
Narrator Hamish R. Johnson, Chelsea Bruland
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date June 06, 2017
Publisher Listening Library
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B06XNSRYJB
Best Sellers Rank #69,888 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#121 in Fiction on Friendship for Teens
#138 in Contemporary Romance for Teens
#353 in Teen Fiction on Difficult Situations

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
1,429 global ratings
I enjoyed this book. I just didn't love it.
3 Stars
I enjoyed this book. I just didn't love it.
I honestly cannot remember when I bought this book or where I got it. I know it's been on my shelves for a little while, though. I was very attracted to this cover. I mean, there's books all over it. I really enjoyed this book. I just didn't love it like I thought I would.Likes:I loved the concept of the Letter Library. I love the idea of writing to each other in books. I feel like if that was the format of the entire book to be in letters. I would have preferred that. A story told in letters sounds like a fun book!I love Rachel. She grows a lot in this book. From a broken person to someone who sees her future and what she wants with it. I also really like Henry as a character. Even though he's not in the best situations all the time, he still makes jokes out of it.Dislikes:I really hated that Rachel kept the news about her brother from anyone. I feel like it was really selfish of her. They knew him too. They were his friends too. Heck, one of them even loved him. It's just really unfair that they all learned at different times that seemed to benefit Rachel more than it benefited them.Final Thoughts:I enjoyed this book. I just didn't love it. I really do feel like if it was written in letter format, I would have loved it. This book is almost poetic at times and I really liked that about it.3/5 Stars.
Hide
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

Translate all reviews to English
Steve
5.0 out of 5 stars Top Five Favorite Book Ever!
Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2019
Verified Purchase
I couldn't wait to see how it ended but the story is so good I didn't want it to end. I’ve read some 800 books in my life and Words in Deep Blue is in my Top Five! The book is about love, loss, death, grieving, divorce and discovery, striving for dreams or settling for what’s determined practical, how endings become beginnings, and how humans are so much more than what we see in the surface and how we carry our past hurt into each present and person we interact with. It’s a story of rebirth and transmigrating too. It’s all told on a used bookstore as people handwrite letters to each other and leave them in pages of the books. It’s an annotation jubilee.

It’s the greatest unrequited love story I’ve ever read. I finished it early this morning, and in the fashion of the book, I wrote a letter to the author in the format of how her characters write to each other in her book. And the author of my top five favorite books just wrote me back! Words are fun. Words make our world. Thank you, Cath Crowley, for using your words to make my world better. GO GET THIS BOOK and gobble it up like I did. If you’ve ever sent love that wasn’t returned, ever felt love but fear kept you from expressing it, ever lost someone you loved and lost yourself in the grieving process, pick up these pages of Words in Deep Blue. Words hurt, but words also heal.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Brittany Petersen
4.0 out of 5 stars but it was also a love story to books and it was amazing
Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2017
Verified Purchase
I absolutely adored this book. Not only was it a solid young-adult contemporary, but it was also a love story to books and it was amazing. If you love a sweet romance centered around book shop, this will definitely be for you.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Gianna Vasquez
5.0 out of 5 stars Upgraded to one of my favorite books
Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2017
Verified Purchase
Perfect! This book is so beautiful that I don't think any review will be fair, but I will try.

Words in Deep Blue is just another book about finding the things that make life bearable after everything else ends. What makes it unique is that it doesn't focus on the end but the life after it happens. Rachel needs to figure out a way to (forcefully at first) find meaning to life and moves back to the past; a city full of old friends, old memories of the things that once mattered, and Henry, the best friend she misses to death but doesn't deserve an ounce of her attention. When she is forced to live again, she's surprised to gain her smile back without feeling guilt.

I fell in love with every detail of this story, so deliciously slow while having the perfect pace, feeling as if the book is me and I am it, transmigrating who I am to all the underlined quotes and little hearts left on its margin. I was really surprised to find a different narrator voice that is making me to want more; I am so happy I came across this book and gave it a chance. This is (I think) the first Aussie writer book I read and I am definitely looking forward for more.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Una historia tierna
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2024
Verified Purchase
Me gustó este libro, primer libro leo en inglés y fue súper fácil de leer y corto. Es una historia limpia, sana, diría que hasta poética, no tiene nada de spicy. En un principio no me conquistó el protagonista masculino pero después me gustó más, a Rachel la amé desde el principio ella es perfecta! Al final sufrí horrible por la muerte de Cal al comprender que hubiera Sido el mejor romance secundario del libro y sólo pensé que no debió morir y te hace reflexionar sobre como lo que más amas en la vida te lleva a la muerte porque Cal era un nadador experto y al igual que su hermana Rachel amaban todo lo del mar. Es en parte un libro triste, porque durante todo el libro tratan el tema del duelo por la muerte de un ser querido, desde el principio al final. Es una linda historia! Y muy tranquila por cierto. Está ambientada en una librería.
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A story that will help you grow wiser
Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2023
Verified Purchase
The characters are special for so many reasons. You can feel their pain and awakenings as time moves forward. I will read more of her books.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
ChiquitaAmbrosia
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2018
Verified Purchase
Great style of writing. Quick read! Set in Australia, which already makes me love it haha.
Helpful
 Report
Kierstin
5.0 out of 5 stars I am obsessed with this book
Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2017
Verified Purchase
I wasn't expecting to read this entire book in one sitting but I knew after the first few pages, I was hooked. I love this book. It is perfection. I love the Letter Library and how beautiful the author wrote about how magical books can be. I am a sucker for a used book with something written in it and that's what this book is all about. Leaving something for someone else inside a book. It is also about friendship, loss, and love. I just finished it but already want to read it again. Maybe grab some tissues before you start it.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
D. Dunstock
5.0 out of 5 stars Love and Tears and Beautiful Writing
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2018
Verified Purchase
"Love of the things that make you happy is steady too - books, words, music, art - these are lights that reappear in a broken universe."

I don't have a lot of words to describe how much I loved, loved, loved this novel. It is about books and words and life and loss - it is about seizing the moment and choosing your future, and living your life to the fullest. That is what it was, to me.

This is one of those stories that I know I'll have to read again because it was just so dang beautiful. For now, I recommend this read to all.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
Cris Klaine
4.0 out of 5 stars Um pouco decepcionada
Reviewed in Brazil on August 27, 2021
Verified Purchase
O livro é mais fino do que eu esperava e a capa tem uma textura estranha (?) mas eu já li e amei a história
Customer image
Cris Klaine
4.0 out of 5 stars Um pouco decepcionada
Reviewed in Brazil on August 27, 2021
O livro é mais fino do que eu esperava e a capa tem uma textura estranha (?) mas eu já li e amei a história
Images in this review
Customer image Customer image
Customer imageCustomer image
Report
Autumn Melody
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written
Reviewed in India on July 11, 2023
Verified Purchase
This book made me cry thrice so it gets 5 stars. What genius decided to read this after midnight that it hit so hard, I had to take breaks while reading.
Report
daniela
5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite books
Reviewed in Canada on February 13, 2021
Verified Purchase
I love this book so much
Report
Lettrice che scrive
5.0 out of 5 stars A volte la scienza non basta. A volte c'è bisogno dei poeti
Reviewed in Italy on July 21, 2022
Verified Purchase
La storia di Henry e Rachel è qualcosa di speciale, ecco perchè dopo aver letto e riletto il libro in italiano - dal titolo "Io e te come un romanzo" - ho deciso di leggerlo anche in lingua originale ed è stato come tornare a casa, da un vecchio amico e semplicemente sfogliandolo e leggendo qualche frase ho avuto gli occhi lucidi.

La Biblioteca delle Lettere, poi, la libreria della famiglia di Henry, tutte le citazioni e i riferimenti ai libri... catapultano il lettore in un turbine di emozioni.

Non è solo la storia di Henry e Rachel, ma di Henry come giovane uomo che deve capire come vivere il suo futuro, della sua famiglia, di ogni componente della sua famiglia - vedi Georgie, sua sorella - della famiglia di Rachel e del dolore che ancora non è sparito, di Rachel come giovane donna che ritornerà ad amare la vita e l'oceano, di una libreria in Australia che racchiude segreti, storie, avventure, parole non dette, ma soprattuto scritte, lettere e annotazioni.

Un libro che merita di essere letto e che fa riflettere. E che inevitabilmente un po' ti cambia la vita.
Report
Derek Carney
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 29, 2020
Verified Purchase
This one totally took me by surprise, as all the best stories should. It takes what should be a fairly straightforward boy and girl love story, elevating it with a quality of writing and clever plotting into a really memorable book, one which stays with you long after reading.

The characters of Henry and Rachel and explored through dual first-person narration, often overlapping scenes from each perspective, losing none of the intrigue in doing so. Rachel is the logical, scientific mind, while Henry of the family who runs the bookshop is the romantic dreamer, so romantic that he’s blinded by a residual infatuation with another girl, Amy.

The most interesting passages in Words in Deep Blue come in the form beautiful, flowing prose in describing scenes such as Cal and Rachel’s discussion of sea creatures, the author’s description of the sea, and more abstract concepts like what happens to a person’s soul after they die.

Added to this are several other layers. Henry’s sister’s narrative is particularly poignant as it unfolds, sometimes in the back ground but in and out of Henry and Rachel’s scenes.

The foundation or the backdrop for all of this is Howling Books, the bookshop that Henry’s family work and live in. The lives of all the characters are inherently linked to books and the bookshop, even those on the periphery of the story, such as Frederick, a regular customer, whose own seemingly innocuous tale becomes very affecting.

Above all, Words in Deep Blue is concerned with concepts such as the law of attraction. Characters write their thoughts and yearnings and dreams in the margins of books in one section of the bookshop, in the hopes that their messages will find someone and mean something. This theme rings true as the story outside the bookshop unfolds.

Words in Deep Blue is a really eloquently written story, and deserves all the praise it gets.
3 people found this helpful
 Report