The Sea of Tranquility: A Novel

by Katja Millay

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.

All Josh Bennett wants is to be left alone, and everyone allows it because they all know his story: each person he loved was taken from his life until at seventeen years old there was no one left. When your name is synonymous with death, people tend to give you your space.

Everyone except Nastya, a new girl in town who 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 a mystery 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. For fans of Perks of Being a Wallflower.

• ISBN10: 1476730946
• ISBN13: 9781476730943
• Publish Date: 20 June 2013 (first published 13 November 2012)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Atria Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[violetpeanut]

I am absolutely blown away by this book and by the fact that it is the author's first. I had a full-blown book-hangover after finishing this book. You know, when you just can't stop thinking about a book. You keep mulling over every detail in your mind. You keep revisiting your favorite scenes. You find it impossible to even consider starting another book right away because you are just not ready to move on. That was my experience with this book. It's difficult to write a real review because it's hard to detail what I liked, and there wasn't anything that I didn't like.

This book is a character driven story centering on Nastya and Josh. Nastya is a damaged girl who has pretty much shut herself out from the rest of the world. She doesn't talk - ever - to anyone since a horrific event from her past. Josh is a lonely boy whose entire family has been taken from him in one tragedy after another. The book is told in first-person and alternates chapters between Nastya's and Josh's points of view. This was a brilliant choice on the part of the author because it really lets the reader into their minds and we get a great sense of their true feelings and motivations. It makes the reader feel much more intimately connected to each character. These characters feel like real people, not like characters from a book. The supporting cast is fleshed out well, also. From Drew to his mom and all of the rest of them, they all felt like living, breathing people.

For me, a good book is one with a great plot that compels me to read more, interesting characters that I can connect with and has great pacing. A truly great book is one that has all of those things and can also make me really feel something beyond just entertainment. This is a truly great book. I went through the entire gamut of emotion: despair, anger, elation, happiness, sadness, anguish, contentment. I was completely filled with emotion and then wrung out until I was empty - over and over again. I felt completely drained at the end - in the best way. There aren't many authors that can evoke that kind of a response from me.

I don't really know what else to say. A well-written book with amazing characters and a story that builds slowly and then punches you in the gut with emotion. I don't want to say more because I don't want to spoil anything for you. This is truly one book that you should just go experience for yourself.

[Ashley]

Book Nook — Young Adult book reviews



This book left me in a complete daze. I almost don't know how to start this review, because how do you possibly put something like this into words? The Sea of Tranquility has so much emotion, devastation, power, helplessness, and an odd sense of hope.

The first half of this book was absolutely hilarious. Maybe that's wrong of me to say, given the nature of this story, but I can't help it. The characters are AMAZING! Their inner dialogue had me totally cracking up. They're both witty, sarcastic, and absolutely hilarious—but without trying to be. This book totally lifted my spirits! ..which is almost odd because it's about a somewhat depressed girl with a horrible, traumatizing past that changed her future. The second half of the book will completely rip your heart out, but at first I was pleasantly surprised by how funny it was!

The only three things that I know for certain took place last night are that one, small elves climbed up my body and tied my hair into a mass of tiny knots; two, I must have slept with my mouth open because something crawled into it and died; and three, I was sucked through a vortex into some animated world where an anvil was dropped on my head.
—The Sea of Tranquility

To be honest, not much actually happens in the first half in terms of intense events. It's really slow building. We watch Nastya and Josh go about their daily lives, sometimes encountering each other, and sometimes not. It's very much an introduction into their psyches. That being said, it wasn't boring. I was devouring every word. Their lives are different enough from "normal" that they're interesting to read about.

"How come you call her honey and never use terms of endearment on me?" he fake whines.
"I do," Mrs. Leighton says, patting him on the cheek as she walks by. "Just last week I called you the bane of my existence."
—The Sea of Tranquility

And on top of that, we have a mystery element. At first we don't know exactly what happened to Nastya or what happened to Josh. They struggle to learn about each other, and we struggle to learn about them. The slow, and almost taunting way in which this information is presented will have you desperately clawing for more!

I'm going to kill the boy who killed me.
—The Sea of Tranquility

Nastya and Josh are both trying (or not trying) to overcome the horrors in their pasts, and that's what slowly draws them together. Both their relationship, and the inevitable romance, slowly (and sweetly) build as the story progresses! The romance was about two people who complete each other—but not in that cheesy "we're soul mates" and "love at first sight" kind of way. Nastya and Josh struggle, grow, and attempt to cope, but they help each other do it (sometimes without even realizing). It almost starts off not as a romance at all, but as some sort of quirky friendship where two people seek shelter with the other. But the sweetness and loveable moments grew and grew until soon enough, I was in love with the characters as much as they were in love with each other!

He's given me a place to belong.
—Nastya, The Sea of Tranquility

The second half of the book was less hilarious and more about the characters finally acknowledging that problems exist. The first half, Nastya was running away from her problems and Josh was hiding from his. But slowly those problems find their way to the surface and explode. There's no more running, no more hiding. They have to face them. It's totally and completely heart wrenching! I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed, like a lost little girl.

Sometimes I just forget how to breathe.
—Nastya, The Sea of Tranquility

I feel like I'm an emotional mess. It's been a long time since I was this invested in characters in a book. I want to cry and scream and laugh all at the same time. And for the first time, I felt like I actually completely understood Nastya. In most books when someone has emotional problems, I sympathize with them on some shallow level. But when they act out or run or hide, I want to scream at them and bash their head against the wall and tell them to grow up. Not in The Sea of Tranquility. Katja did such an amazing job of pulling me into Nastya's life, that I wanted to run right along side her. I wanted to hide and scream and ignore the outside world.

I expect her in my life. And it's terrifying.
—Josh, The Sea of Tranquility

Words can barely do this book justice. It's so intense and powerful that you really need to read it for yourself to even begin to understand! I almost feel numb from reading it. Did I really survive that intense reading experience? Staying up late to devour every word, then waking up to pick up where I left off and clinging onto my pillow as I sobbed uncontrollably? That's what this book will do to you.