ARC received from Netgalley. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.
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.
You know one of those books where you're just sitting there after you finished reading it, and now you're like, "So, Book. What am I supposed to do with life?" I'll let you know the answer when I figure it out.
The Sea of Tranquility gave me hope for New Adult books. Most of their plots are: Girl has terrible super-secret secret. Boy has terrible past. Boy is a misogynistic person. Boy meets girl. Magic insta-love, but they don't know it yet. Boy is still misogynistic, but gets super possessive. Random, confusing stuff happens. Boy gets more possessive and even more misogynistic.The end.
Instead of the extremely annoying overused plot line, we get a girl named Nastya. Yes, she has a secret past, but in this book, it's actually written well. It's not the cliche' d past, either. It's something completely brilliant and wonderful.
Basically, she's this girl who won't talk. To anyone. Because of reasons I won't explain because you need to read this book. She's been completely scarred because of said reasons I shan't explain. To cope, she decides to wear all black. Except for the possibly illegal amount of skin she's showing.
However, her inner narration is completely brilliant. Screwed up, but brilliant. Nastya's sarcastic and mocking, just the way I like my protagonists.
Josh Bennett's life is also completely screwed up. Cliche'd, but still amazingly written. Everyone around him dies- so many people, in fact, that no one comes near him. And he likes it that way.
Until the inevitable meeting of Nastya.
Alright, I didn't completely love him. And, for some strange reason, that makes me love the book even more.
And this is a book where all the characters are developed, not just the main two.
Guess what? There's no insta-love. Which automatically gives this two extra stars, not that it needs any. Their relationship starts out as a sort of friendship, but then ends up as something more. I'd call it something else, but I can't think straight right now because of this book.
I can go on so much longer, but you get the gist of it. So, run off and go read it. In fact, I'll give you an incentive to do this: She wears both a black and a pink bra.
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