Sea is a story about a girl named Sienna. Sienna’s mother died a few years earlier in a plane crash. Since her mother’s accident, she has refused to go on an airplane and a part of her hasn’t healed yet. Her father is a psychologist with a humanitarian bent. The story is set shortly after the tsunami. Her father hands her a plane ticket for her birthday with the added bomb shell that they will be going to a remote village in Indonesia to help the kids there grieve after losing most of their family in the tsunami. After some drama, she acquiesces.  Once there, she meets Deni, a very handsome boy who makes her palms sweat.

Although this book has received glowing reviews, I will not be adding to the embers. This novel is Ms. Kling’s first attempt and I feel that she could have written a better novel. Parts of the book were so descriptive it read like a text book, other parts were glossed over. Near the climax of the novel Sienna chooses a path that I cannot believe she would choose. It felt as if Ms. Kling had wanted to take us to a certain part of Indonesia and couldn’t figure out how to get us there. The way the story panned out, didn’t make sense. I don’t want to say more because then I’d have to give a spoiler warning. I also felt that once Sienna falls hard for the handsome Deni, the story really just went off the rails. The rest of the story was spent thinking and obsessing about a boy, whom it was clear, she could never have a future with. If the author would have had Sienna meet and befriend a girl, she may have been able to more believably tell us about the plight of Indonesia after the tsunami. As it is, Sea is nothing more than the obsessions of a fickle, spoiled American girl in a far away country. Not really a book I would consider worth reading. That being said, you’d be hard pressed to find another bad review of this one.

Jellicoe Road…where the tops of the trees reach across the street to form a canopy that the light shines through…Taylor Markham describes her almost home. Just 11 years old when she was abandoned by her mother at the Jellicoe Road boarding school, Taylor is now a senior and a reluctant leader of her dorm.

Marchetta creates vivid characters and a story that wraps you up and keeps you reading. Teens will definitely relate to Taylor who has many struggles including, authoritarian and untrustworthy adults, first love, annoying peers, and abandonment. Haunted by dreams that and hint of her past, Taylor determines to discover her roots. She sets out on a journey to find her mother and finds much more.

Marchetta tells this story through viewpoints of the past, present and future. While this tactic is interesting, builds suspense and lends itself to mystery, there were some small gaps in the story that made it difficult to follow.

It is a dense read and I would not recommend it to younger teens or reluctant readers. Overall, the story was interesting and I stayed up until 2am because I simply could not go to bed without finishing it…I especially enjoyed the Australian colloquialisms.

Wow, I think I may have a hard time trying not to gush about this book. I loved it. It was written in a way that was interesting, the writing style was different and the words were beautiful. You know when someone is telling a story and they sometimes trip over their words? Well there was some tripping in this book. Just a enough to keep it interesting. The style was different from what I am used to, and it took me a while to get into it. Once I was accustomed to the way the story was told, I flew through it. Couldn’t put it down. It was so moving. I guess I should tell you what it’s about.

This is a story narrated by Death. He is telling the story of a young girl in Nazi Germany during the war. Already you should know that this book is not going to be a happy go lucky kind of book. How could a book narrated by Death be anything but depressing? Yet the book is not all grief ridden. It has it’s moments, but there are also moments of fun and humour. It managed to make me laugh and then subsequently, cry. But by the end of the book, I was satisfied.

For your reading pleasure, here is a small excerpt from the book, just to show how beautiful the words are:

When Leisel left that day, she said something with great uneasiness. In translation, two giant words were struggled with, carried on her shoulder, and dropped as a bungling pair at Ilsa Hermann’s feet. They fell off sideways as the girl veered with them and could no longer sustain their weight. Together, they sat on the floor, large and loud and clumsy. I’M SORRY (p. 146).

All slight sarcasm aside I actually liked this book. It was well written, well paced, and draws an interesting and complex new world. I felt the author did a great job of thinking the plot through and eliminating any large plot holes. (A pet peeve of mine with some science fiction.) I enjoyed the character portrayals, most of them torn between love and duty, and driven by love, fear, loyalty, and hate. I found it interesting the powerful women characters in the book were not wives and liked the way that was portrayed. Some of the most interesting plot lines in the book revolved around the planet itself. On a planet with such small amounts of available water it was very interesting to imagine the incredible importance of it and the ways in which your life would revolve around acquiring, retaining and reusing that precious resource. I have been trying to branch out and get my feet wet in science fiction and only wish I had read Dune at the beginning of my foray, and not towards the end as I’m starting to burn out. Did I love it? Not really, but it is the best science fiction book I’ve read in the last five years (I think) and I will get the next one in the series. I said before I read it I would be done science fiction after Dune, but now I guess I have to find out what happens next. Good heavens, what have I done, I think there are about a million and one books in this series. Ahkk, maybe i’m becoming a fan, ha ha. I’m also a little apprehensive to watch the 1984 film by David Lynch (but how can I not?).

As a side note, I noticed on Wikipedia that (unnamed) ‘scholars’ have compared Dune to Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Ummmmm, Wikipedia said the same thing about Foundation by Isaac Asimov. So I’m beginning to think I just need to read Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and imagine it in space.

Is the concept original? Um, no. Was the romance good? Yes, in a young adult sort of way. The writing is great, the characters are fine, and the pacing is crisp. There is plenty of action and enough soul searching and moral dilemmas to keep it interesting past the surface. My main problem with the book is the author’s view of the future, especially surrounding the politics and government in the book’s post apocalyptic time and place. I know it is a work of imaginative science fiction, I just felt it lacked substance and credibility. (As a pet peeve there was one part right near the beginning where Katniss puts on her boots, and then pulls on her pants. ??? How often do you put your shoes on before getting dressed? Sorry to point this out; I don’t know why I noticed this.) Also, you don’t have to give everyone funky names because your book is set in the future. Most names in circulation today predate the bible. Now that I’m done complaining, feel free to check it out. I found it very entertaining and the end will leave you wanting more.

The characters are compelling, well rounded and well written; each with a distinctive voice. The incredible imagery and humor woven through this book make it a pleasure to read. You can taste Barcelona in every scene and the great city almost becomes its own character. The deliciously rich language manages to stay sharp and witty without any obnoxiously long descriptions devoted purely to atmosphere. I read the English translation by Lucia Graves. I would love to compare it in its original Spanish (if I could read Spanish) but feel there was little lost since the prose and dialogue are fantastic. It left me wishing I had copied many of the passages, just so I could read them again and feel their savory velvet roll off my tongue. My only disappointment in the book is Nuria’s letter, which while important, seemed slightly too long (at around 88 pages) and sort of disrupted the flow and cadence of the narrative. The novel was well paced, and I found myself constantly torn between being engrossed in the characters motives and lives and wanting the mysteries of the plot to be unraveled immediately. This is a great book for anyone looking for entertainment that isn’t just fluff. There is some language including the f word. I considered the sex scenes tastefully done.