Take a photo of a barcode or cover
alborland 's review for:
The Sea of Tranquility
by Katja Millay
I don't really know what to think of this book because I can see it from all angles. For one, it's long. Very long. And that alone is a good enough reason to dislike The Sea of Tranquility because the author doesn't justify the length with a carefully-developed plot. In fact, a lot of the plot points seem to be tidbits used to fill the gaps of a story which Katja Millay got carried away with. There is a solid overarching story line - but it takes a while to get there and tons of subplots are thrown in. It reads as if someone had been creating this soap opera in her mind for years and when it came time to publish, she didn't want to sacrifice any single piece of it. So that's why it's 800 pages, not because there's some highly-detailed descriptions or character development. It's just overly-detailed melodrama. But I'm unemployed and actively procrastinating changing that status so reading this book in a day is right up my alley today.
I also understand the perspective of someone who reads a lot of contemporary romance books and knows all the tricks and cliches. This book employs a lot of them. Sassy and quirky narration, mysterious and tragic back stories, changing POVs, unique manifestations of post-traumatic stress disorder, love triangles,and parents who just don't understand. I read these same stories over and over again. I'm as tired of them as everyone else on GoodReads. But this time, it oddly didn't feel redundant. I don't know, maybe I let myself get lost in the prose for once or maybe Millay is just a superior storyteller than the authors of the trite I've read before, but I was actually captivated by the story. And the male lead! I think the fact that he wasn't overbearing and jealous and a direct descendant of his Neanderthal ancestors was really all he needed to be for him to be completely different from every other hot guy prototype in romantic literature, and actually attractive to me. Sure, he was goodlooking, brooding, isolated, sort of mean - just like all the rest - but for the first time in a long time I read about an intelligent male who is ruled by more than his sex drive. However, I can see the other side on this too because he does exhibit some questionable judgement throughout the book.
There are a lot of downfalls in The Sea of Tranquility in general. The author relies heavily on the slut stereotype when it's not necessary or warranted. There is a baffling amount of violence that goes unnoticed and a huge absence of sensible parental supervision for a story about high school seniors. The main character refusing to talk to most people is so frustrating that it's painful to read many scenes because of the glaring miscommunication that occurs over and over. It confuses me that she has such a normal, well-adjusted internal thoughts but then hasn't talk to anyone in over a year? Wouldn't she display more irrationality in her line of thinking since it's such an irrational way to deal with trauma? But I'm the kind of reader that can justify the nonsensical for the sake of finishing a book and there wasn't anything glaringly wrong with it.
Overall, I liked it, but tentatively. The relationships that Nastya builds over the course of the story are really well-written, especially the one with Josh and despite the fallout from her tragedy being pretty bizarre, at least it put a different spin on the same played out story, making it more tolerable. The ending is well done, I liked that tie-in with the last line a lot. There were a lot of instances of thoughtfully written details throughout the book, I just wish it applied to the overall plot. I feel letdown by certain larger reveals, like the motive for her attack, a lot more thought could have been put towards that.
Also, my real name is somewhere in this book, and I've never seen my name used in a book before :)
I also understand the perspective of someone who reads a lot of contemporary romance books and knows all the tricks and cliches. This book employs a lot of them. Sassy and quirky narration, mysterious and tragic back stories, changing POVs, unique manifestations of post-traumatic stress disorder, love triangles,and parents who just don't understand. I read these same stories over and over again. I'm as tired of them as everyone else on GoodReads. But this time, it oddly didn't feel redundant. I don't know, maybe I let myself get lost in the prose for once or maybe Millay is just a superior storyteller than the authors of the trite I've read before, but I was actually captivated by the story. And the male lead! I think the fact that he wasn't overbearing and jealous and a direct descendant of his Neanderthal ancestors was really all he needed to be for him to be completely different from every other hot guy prototype in romantic literature, and actually attractive to me. Sure, he was goodlooking, brooding, isolated, sort of mean - just like all the rest - but for the first time in a long time I read about an intelligent male who is ruled by more than his sex drive. However, I can see the other side on this too because he does exhibit some questionable judgement throughout the book.
There are a lot of downfalls in The Sea of Tranquility in general. The author relies heavily on the slut stereotype when it's not necessary or warranted. There is a baffling amount of violence that goes unnoticed and a huge absence of sensible parental supervision for a story about high school seniors. The main character refusing to talk to most people is so frustrating that it's painful to read many scenes because of the glaring miscommunication that occurs over and over. It confuses me that she has such a normal, well-adjusted internal thoughts but then hasn't talk to anyone in over a year? Wouldn't she display more irrationality in her line of thinking since it's such an irrational way to deal with trauma? But I'm the kind of reader that can justify the nonsensical for the sake of finishing a book and there wasn't anything glaringly wrong with it.
Overall, I liked it, but tentatively. The relationships that Nastya builds over the course of the story are really well-written, especially the one with Josh and despite the fallout from her tragedy being pretty bizarre, at least it put a different spin on the same played out story, making it more tolerable. The ending is well done, I liked that tie-in with the last line a lot. There were a lot of instances of thoughtfully written details throughout the book, I just wish it applied to the overall plot. I feel letdown by certain larger reveals, like the motive for her attack, a lot more thought could have been put towards that.
Also, my real name is somewhere in this book, and I've never seen my name used in a book before :)