‘Omg let me off this boat already’. Slogging through this main character’s long-winded thought process had me feeling like I was buddy-reading this with a six-year-old 🫠

 

Energy: Naïve. Grim. Concerned

 

Wayy too long - not enough substance for almost 400 pages. Ending was Scooby Doo and killed what little suspense was left for me. Surprise twist came out of nowhere in a way that read very ‘grade eight creative writing class - crap I wrote myself into a corner and this is due tomorrow’. Circling back on formulaic inner monologue and speculation felt like unnecessary filler. Too much ‘Who should I tell?! When should I tell it?!’ stall outs. 

 

Constantly eye-rolling at the main character gets old fast and wasn’t believable [Ivy is acknowledged as having terrible…intellect? But it’s like she is there to react in whatever way is needed when the story would otherwise fall apart]. Wish it was more atmospheric, especially for the setting. Tone was too serious for how the story is told (should’ve leaned more into over-the-top camp?). Waiting 209 pages to describe the main character’s appearance. 

 

The first few chapters. Initial intrigue as something seems off on the boat. 

 

Scene: 🇦🇺 Set along the coast of Australia from Queensland toward Darwin on a sailboat.

Perspective: An NYU student taking a break from school after a break-up to travel Australia with their former roommate. They convince them to get paid while traveling as a sailboat crew for a father and daughter duo.  

Police transcripts of interviews after an incident on the boat foreshadow what will happen on the trip.

Timeline: January 2020

🔥 Fuel: Escalating stakes. Revelatory backstories. Character investment. Foreshadowing. Whose body parts were found? Did something happen on the boat? 

📖 Cred: Suspend all the disbeliefs

 

Sweat. Gasoline. Hot dust. Shrimp. Sailboat cabins. Hoodies. Rotten beach smell. Coastline. Waves. 

·       Somethings off father-daughter dynamics

·       Vacay gone wrong

·       Friendship at odds

·       Mutinous, who to trust, hidden motives sailing trip

·       Hearing every thought first person

·       Naïve main character

·       Mysterious strangers

·       On the run secret pasts

 

Content Heads-Up: Teacher-student relationship. Stalking. Parental abandonment (very brief recall). Pornographic images (recall). Sexual content (off page; recall). Trafficking. Abusive parent. Abduction. Murder. Psychopathy/personality disorder. Drugging. Physical attack. Sexual assault, possibly rape (implied). Covid/pandemic (briefly at end). The cat is okay.

 

Rep: American. Australian. Fijian American. Cis. Hetero. Tanned, and freckled skin tones.

 

📚 Format: Library Paperback