Book Title: The Sea of Tranquility
Author: Katja Millay
Release Date: November 13th, 2012
Publisher: Atria Books
Genre: YA/Contemporary
Standalone
Book Link: Goodreads
Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble
Synopsis from Goodreads:
I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck. I am pressed so hard against the earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I am still able to lift my feet to walk.
Former piano prodigy Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone learning about her past and to make the boy who took everything from her—her identity, her spirit, her will to live—pay.
Josh Bennett’s story is no secret: every person he loves has been taken from his life until, at seventeen years old, there is no one left. Now all he wants is be left alone and people allow it because when your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.
Everyone except Nastya, the mysterious new girl at school who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. But the more he gets to know her, the more of an enigma she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he will ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding—or if he even wants to.
The Sea of Tranquility is a rich, intense, and brilliantly imagined story about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances.
Former piano prodigy Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone learning about her past and to make the boy who took everything from her—her identity, her spirit, her will to live—pay.
Josh Bennett’s story is no secret: every person he loves has been taken from his life until, at seventeen years old, there is no one left. Now all he wants is be left alone and people allow it because when your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.
Everyone except Nastya, the mysterious new girl at school who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. But the more he gets to know her, the more of an enigma she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he will ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding—or if he even wants to.
The Sea of Tranquility is a rich, intense, and brilliantly imagined story about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances.
Disclaimer: This was a personal purchase.
Review:
How the hell do I write a review for this book? Writing a review of this book will definitely prove to be difficult as it was amazing. I don't think I'll ever be the same after reading this. It had everything you could ever want in a book and more.
When you read this synopsis, you don't think this book is going to be funny, but it is funny. It;s also sad,so sad in fact that it pretty much destroyed me in the best possible way. Yes, apparently there is a way to be destroyed in a positive way. There has to be, because I was. Holy crap, I am SO mad at myself for not reading this book sooner. I have a thing for books about damaged characters, yes I'm weird like that.
You wouldn't think that Nastya would be likable,but in her own way, she was and I loved that she wasn't a typical sullen, angry teenager.I also liked that her family was in the book and that specifically her aunt was in the book. Not many YA books involve the extended family so I was excited to see that this one did.
Her family was similar to Drew's family in a lot of ways, but also different in a lot of ways. Drew's family doesn't push her to talk unlike her own family who desperately wants and I think needs to hear her talk.
In contrast, Josh has only one family member left, his grandfather and his grandfather is very sick and he dies in the book. Yet he is very close with Drew and Drew's family. Drew's mother likes to take in "strays" and with Josh, she does.
The beginning of this book is slow as it does a lot of introducing the characters and taking a peek into their daily lives. Yet, it wasn't the kind of slow that was boring. In fact, I devoured every word.
The second half of this book but most especially the last 150 some pages are emotional, gut wrenching and heartbreaking. Like I said before, it destroyed me. I was in bed, sobbing violently into my kleenex until my kleenex was shredded beyond recognition.
I loved that Nastya and Josh's relationship was slow burning. Much better than having them jump into bed two seconds after meeting. They established a friendship first which I loved.
I cannot say enough about the writing. It was absolutely gorgeous and I think I mentioned that a couple times in my Goodreads & Twitter updates. The dual points of view were done amazingly and I would argue that it was one of the best examples of dual POV's that I've ever read.
Gahhh, I just loved this book. It was perfection and I cannot wait to read the next thing that Katja writes.This was amazing and well worth the 5 stars I'm giving it. If I could give it 6 stars, I would.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you so much for your comment! I will do my best to reply to every comment that is left. This blog is an award free blog. I appreciate the thought, but I do not have the time to follow up.