This young adult story is mostly set at school in Florida, where a damaged girl stays mute to avoid telling anyone about the beating she took from a man, which ruined her hand and her prospects of being a pianist.
Nastya, as she calls herself, stopped being Emilia at fifteen and feels that her life ended. She was home- schooled for two years and then enrolled in a new school where nobody knew her. Josh and Drew at first think she is weird but gradually get annoyed at others for teasing her, and tell them to leave her alone. Josh, who has lost his family, becomes someone she can spend time with, in his garage, and Drew takes her to teen parties and looks out for her. Although Nastya has regained memories of what happened to her, she does not tell police because she wants to get revenge on the man who assaulted her. She has learned some self-defence but mainly she is convinced that a man is always going to be stronger and she would be wise to run first and run fast, if a similar situation arose. Nastya gradually begins to talk but only with her two friends, and other girls still feel strange around her. She thinks that the wall of hate and fury she has built up is enough to keep her going until she destroys the man who beat her, but even if she manages to do it, what will be left?
THE SEA OF TRANQUILITY is a sad, intense, atmospheric tale of school days as nobody should experience them. Many loner young people will identify with Nastya, even if for different reasons. I did find the start slow because it was all about Nastya sulkily enrolling and refusing to text her mother, and only when other people's viewpoints of her were introduced did the story gain momentum. Drew was at first irresponsible but turned around to take good care of Nastya, especially when a party situation gets out of hand. Josh remains her good friend, bringing her for Sunday meals with his family, treating her like a normal person and not a freak, gradually bringing her out of her shell. Author Katja Millay gets deeply into the heads of these young people and finally leaves us with hope that the damaged girl can have a second chance, and the three will have a better life.
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 herΓ―ΒΏΒ½her
identity, her spirit, her will to liveΓ―ΒΏΒ½pay.
Josh BennettΓ―ΒΏΒ½s 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 wonΓ―ΒΏΒ½t go away until sheΓ―ΒΏΒ½s
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 sheΓ―ΒΏΒ½s been hidingΓ―ΒΏΒ½or 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.
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