The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

The Sea of Tranquility

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.

Reviewed by Linda on

5 of 5 stars

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This book was fantastic! Nastia was so broken, but still so much stronger than she thought she was. Josh and Drew were also characters that felt very real to me - so very teenaged boys - and the way they interacted with each other, and with Nastia made so much sense.
There is so much darkness in this story, though, but still, it didn't make me as sad as I thought it would. It was more about navigating through a new life, a life that was difficult to want. But that was there, and therefore had to be lived.
The narration was awesome, too - even if the female narrator spoke quite a bit faster than the male narrator.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 18 December, 2019: Finished reading
  • 18 December, 2019: Reviewed