A review by mariebrunelm
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The third son of a wealthy family looking for a purpose in the 19th-century Canadian wilderness, a young girl in the forest of a pre-pandemic world, and an author on a busy book tour stopped in her tracks by a violin player in an airship terminal, find themselves connected by the experience they make of a glitch in reality, a second when darkness engulfs them and they catch echoes of other realities.
This book! This. Book.
I’m very tempted to leave the review at that because what can I say? This book is gorgeous, it made me question my abilities as a writer, it’s doing things other books take hundreds of pages to do in a couple of pages and yet doesn’t feel rushed. I pity the translators for having to work so much information in so little words, all the while keeping the perfect fluidity of the sentences and the overall rhythm of the book. A masterclass in writing.
It won’t be a spoiler, because it’s literally in the contents at the beginning of the volume, that the structure of this novel is like that in Cloud Atlas. I won’t say more, because if you know, you know. It’s not a structure I’ve encountered much in books, but when well done it’s incredibly effective.
And when I thought this book couldn’t get any better, the last line encompassed a writing project I’d had in mind for months.
Do read Sea of Tranquility if you want a quiet, moving, time-travel story that will make you long for something you can’t name.
Rep: bisexual character in a queer-friendly environment.
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