3 STARS
“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.”
The story was not okay in some ways and great in other ways.
The positive first ! I liked the premise of the story. It was mysterious and a little different than other YA novel I’ve read in the past. It was more dark, less happy all the time and it portrayed High School life better than other books. High School can be awful and the story showed that side of going through puberty. As for the rest, I found the characters fine but a little bland.
“Daylight won’t protect you from anything. Bad things happen all the time; they don’t wait until after dinner”
Drew was not a necessity to the story. He was only there to be there. If he wouldn’t have been in the book, I’m pretty sure the story would have been the same. For Josh, he was kind but also bland. His personnality was not easy to grasp since it was not really explained. Finally, for Nastya, well she was something. There were some moments where I found her to be so stupid and others where I found her to be strong. It all depended on her actions. I mean, she’s been through something horrible but the decisions she takes to overcome that and also how she goes through her relationships with the boys was so What The Hell!?!
The love story was genuine but like I said, the decisions Nasty takes regarding Josh is just not intelligent. I was facepalming myself.
In general, the story was too long and dragged on a bit. The premise was original and I did enjoyed the first part of the book.
This is still a 3 stars book for me.
“I wished my mother was here tonight, which is stupid, because it’s an impossible wish.” He shrugs and turns to me, drowning the smile that cracks me every time.
“It’s not stupid to want to see her again.”
“It wasn’t so much that I wanted to see her again,” he says, looking at me with the depth of more than seventeen years in his eyes. “I wanted her to see you.”
