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A review by andraebutler25
Words Composed of Sea and Sky by Erica George
3.0
Thank you Net Galley for providing me a digital arc of this book!
I know a three star rating doesn’t look that great but I was actually really pleasantly surprised by this.
I really really really enjoyed it.
This did a lot of things well. The characters that were created in this story were amazing. I really connected with them even though I could not relate to them personally. I have been feeling disconnected with a lot of the books I have been reading recently so it was refreshing to feel absorbed into a story again. I really thought that Erica created a great group of main characters that kept me entertained throughout the novel.
The concept of this book was unique. I did not think that it was going to work for me because I don’t like contemporary or historical fiction but something about this story just clicked. I found the whaling aspect of the story so original and interesting, not many YA novels have written about that time in history that I know of. The dual timeline was done so well, both of our protagonists’ voices were very distinct and the two stories wove together very nicely.
The problems that I had with this were all pretty mediocre. It was very clear that this was a debut novel, some of the writing I felt was subpar at times and I wish that the ending packed a bit more of an emotional punch than it ended up having. However, I think that there is a lot of potential here and I am excited to read more of Erica George’s work in the future.
I also felt like the tropes in this book were maybe one too many. They weren’t as obnoxious and in your face as I have seen in other books but two love triangles... cmon... ANY trope but that one. I HATE LOVE TRIANGLES. Another one that showed up a bit too often for my liking was the damsel in distress... but again it wasn’t too obnoxious I just think that Michaela could have handled some of her situations by herself. :)
The last issue that I had with this book and it is the biggest turn off for me was that Ben Churchill was SO toxic and it was never addressed. (minor spoilers) He was idolized straight up until the last page and he was not a good person. He was very stuck up and snobby and bullied an 8 year old as a 19ish year old man. Never mind the fact that he treated Leta like shit and was very possessive. (also, Elijah is too good for her) It did not sit right with me at all. We did have Caleb on the other hand whose situation I thought was handled extremely well and I thought spread a very important message about toxic and abusive human beings and how we can deal with them appropriately.
That’s all I really gotta say, I feel like I talked about a lot of negatives but I really did enjoy this and I encourage people to pick it up. I just think that in the future this story will end up being forgettable for me.
I know a three star rating doesn’t look that great but I was actually really pleasantly surprised by this.
I really really really enjoyed it.
This did a lot of things well. The characters that were created in this story were amazing. I really connected with them even though I could not relate to them personally. I have been feeling disconnected with a lot of the books I have been reading recently so it was refreshing to feel absorbed into a story again. I really thought that Erica created a great group of main characters that kept me entertained throughout the novel.
The concept of this book was unique. I did not think that it was going to work for me because I don’t like contemporary or historical fiction but something about this story just clicked. I found the whaling aspect of the story so original and interesting, not many YA novels have written about that time in history that I know of. The dual timeline was done so well, both of our protagonists’ voices were very distinct and the two stories wove together very nicely.
The problems that I had with this were all pretty mediocre. It was very clear that this was a debut novel, some of the writing I felt was subpar at times and I wish that the ending packed a bit more of an emotional punch than it ended up having. However, I think that there is a lot of potential here and I am excited to read more of Erica George’s work in the future.
I also felt like the tropes in this book were maybe one too many. They weren’t as obnoxious and in your face as I have seen in other books but two love triangles... cmon... ANY trope but that one. I HATE LOVE TRIANGLES. Another one that showed up a bit too often for my liking was the damsel in distress... but again it wasn’t too obnoxious I just think that Michaela could have handled some of her situations by herself. :)
The last issue that I had with this book and it is the biggest turn off for me was that Ben Churchill was SO toxic and it was never addressed. (minor spoilers) He was idolized straight up until the last page and he was not a good person. He was very stuck up and snobby and bullied an 8 year old as a 19ish year old man. Never mind the fact that he treated Leta like shit and was very possessive. (also, Elijah is too good for her) It did not sit right with me at all. We did have Caleb on the other hand whose situation I thought was handled extremely well and I thought spread a very important message about toxic and abusive human beings and how we can deal with them appropriately.
That’s all I really gotta say, I feel like I talked about a lot of negatives but I really did enjoy this and I encourage people to pick it up. I just think that in the future this story will end up being forgettable for me.