Reviews

This book perfectly portrays the teenage experience. The growing pains, love, and friendship. To highlight a great point of navigating self discovery.

kuuraketti's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

wardenred's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

You’re a kid. Be lost. Ask questions. Be safe but stupid. Listen.

This is such a difficult book to review, even though I loved it to bits. It feels more like an experience or a mood than a story even though it most definitely has a plot, and character arcs, and all the other things that make a sequence of events and feelings book-shaped. Somehow, it reminded me a lot of when I was the characters' age, even though I faced completely different emotions, struggles, and situations. I can't say I was ever like Violet, or Liv, or any of the characters, but I still got caught remembering how I was just as confused and struggling to make sense of life and trying to shuffle through versions of myself to find one that didn't suck.

This is a story of families, and grief, and how it's not only the dead you can grieve for; of making sense of mental illness in the family and in your head; of learning to build connections; of letting go; of being a mess; of getting out of the mess you've made; of looking into the past to find the future; of shipwreck-hunting; of diving too deep and finding a way out. It's written in beautiful, beautiful prose, it contains some of the most hauntingly, viivdly engrossing snapshots of being by the sea I've encountered in literature since Ruthanna Emrys's Winter Tide, and a love triangle that actually makes sense.

It feels like being on the cusp of growing up: bittersweet and confusing and painful, and also full of wonder you don't immediately recognize. I wish I had books like this when I was that age.

Content Warnings

goldenfenris's review against another edition

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2.0

I'm mostly just going to go with that this book was not for me, nor was it meant to be. I'm older than its intended age range. I'm not even sure if I would have enjoyed it as a teenager, but it is a little late to make that assessment. I found Violet to be extremely unlikable and annoying throughout, which I understand that she is supposed to be, but I didn't find her interesting or find myself routing for her at any point, however to a certain extent this could just be my age as well. A bigger issues for me though was that everything just felt unfinished or not particularly well done. The different arcs, the character development and growth, and even the setting just felt half-baked. They all left me wanting more, but not in a good way. I read more than my fair share of Y.A. and this just didn't really hold up when compared with some of the other books that I have read this year.