Proud Professional Reader
Tuesday, 9 July 2013
Author: Katja Millay
Date Published: November 13, 2012
Grade: A+
Goodreads Summary: 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.
Full of rage and without a purpose, former pianist Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone discovering her past and to make the boy who took everything from her pay.
All 17 year-old Josh Bennett wants is to build furniture and be left alone, and everyone allows it because it’s easier to pretend he doesn’t exist. When your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.
Everyone except Nastya, a hot mess of a girl who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. The more he gets to know her, the more of a mystery she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he may ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding or if he even wants to.
The Sea of Tranquility is a slow-building, character-driven romance about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances.
Review: You know when you hear about a book that everybody's obsessing about, and you're worried if it'll live up to its expectations? That was this book for me. You know how you're scared that it's not exactly your cup of tea when you read the first few chapters, and you just can't connect with the story? That's still this book for me. You know when you keep on reading a book, and it starts to get better and better to the point where you cannot tear yourself away from it even to go to sleep? Well that's what happened to me when I read this book.
There were so many things that the author did well with this novel that I find it hard to list them all. I also don't want to give anything away that will ruin the mystique of the novel. I guess the first thing that I really liked about the book was the character/relationship development. To be quite frank, I really disliked Nastya's character at first. Josh's not so much, but I couldn't connect with Nastya at all. I knew that she had her inner demons, but I decided that I needed to find them out before I would truly like her character. However, as her relationship with Josh began to grow (and at a really natural, true pace), her character seemed to get more likable. By the end of the story, I found myself sympathizing with her and liking her attitude. Another character that I loved was Drew. At the surface, he seemed like the typical douchey player type, but I loved how the author bypassed that stereotype and made his character more developed. You find out many things about Drew during the book, but the main thing is that he's a decent guy. Kudos to the author for that.
Usually, I can't stand novels where there's a broken character who is always cryptic about their past, but somehow this novel did it in a way that I didn't mind. Katja Millay did an excellent job of writing the story in a way that kept you intrigued the whole time by slowing revealing bits and pieces of Nastya's terrible past. Contrasting to Nastya's secretive behaviour was Josh's quite open story. By having dual perspectives, the story allowed you to see all the pains Josh and Nastya struggled with, and you could see them both slowly open up to each other as the story progressed. This part of the story was done exceptionally well in my opinion.
Overall, this story will grab you by hand and refuse to let go until you have read the last page. It's raw and beautiful and everything you want in a story about two broken people being each other's salvation. If you hesitate to begin it like I did, don't stop. It gets better, trust me. This is not one that you want to miss out on!
Happy reading!
~SARINA
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