The Sea of Tranquility

The intensity of the emotions that it evokes with each page, the brokenness of the characters, that ending...holy wow my mind is still reeling from experiencing such a fantastically written piece of work.

The prologue, a mere four lines long, is a quick yet haunting glimpse into the aftermath of a horrific ordeal that has left Nastya a shell of the girl she once was. She has since re-invented herself, moving in to live with her aunt and start a new high school in a desperate attempt to start over with a new name and a provocative appearance, hand in hand with her silence. Making first impressions has never been quite so dramatic. But she's not the only one leaving them.

Josh Bennett. Brooding and thoughtful, he walks in the safety of an invisible force field (Nastya's words) that wards people away. And yet when he does make human contact, he demands an air of natural respect. Nastya and Josh - she, surrounded by a cloud of mystery, and he, enveloped in loneliness. It's a disaster waiting to happen as they inevitably crash into one another's lives, leaving a pile of rubble in their wake.

The Sea of Tranquility is about these two characters and the tragedies that life handed to them early on that cannot be undone. It encapsulates their ingrained grief and inner turmoil that destroys them as they struggle to cope, and in her compelling writing that is simply exquisite, the author realistically takes them through a journey of acceptance and healing. Her dual narrative of the two worked perfectly with the story-telling. Nastya's layers are stripped bare through her articulated musings and she exposes the vulnerability that underlies her bravado and clever facade she has going on, her brick wall that she has put up and cemented firmly. She's witty and smart, but she also has strength that can only be admired. Josh is the suffer-in-silence type who has known nothing but loss, making him mentally detach from anyone who could possibly leave his life. He slam-barrelled into adulthood as his childhood was gently pried away following the death of his father and he was forced into a world where his maturity goes far beyond his years. But he's caring and soft and has a heart of gold that shines through every page that turns with his narrative.

Despite the hints and snippets of Nastya's past, we are kept guessing at her story, at the dark memories that enshroud her shattered soul. Together with Josh, we piece together the jagged pieces of the puzzle as her secrets unravel. He gives her a sense of recklessness that gently nudges her to opening up, and a place to belong when for so long, she has been wandering in a place that took away everything that gave her a sense of identity. In return, she is a kaleidoscope of colours, a flash of brilliance in his life and she gives him a sense of purpose when he has lost all meaning of the word. Their character development is on point; they not only grow as individuals, but they also distinctly bring out the best in one another and their moments together are meaningful and poignant. Their relationship is quite simply, beautiful in its very essence. Its build up is sweet and slow to the point of almost torturous, but worth every word that leads up to it.

This is the story of how two worlds brimming with tragedy collide. It is a stunning tale of two broken people whose cracks desperately need filling as their fragility comes undone, and as it echoes with messages of salvation, redemption, and second chances, it is, at its very core, a tragically beautiful piece of fiction that is easily one of my favourite books of the year, if not all time.