Review on The Sea of Tranquility

*deep breath in* *deep breath out*

I’m currently on a book hangover from this book. Gah. So good. I can’t express how good this is. I promise my review is much more eloquent but I thought I’d write a little note here. If you’re on the fence about reading this book—go read it. If you’ve never heard of this book—go read it. If you don’t think this book is for you—go read it. Seriously, you’ll thank me.

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.

Josh Bennett’s 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 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 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 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. 
Age: Young Adult (Leaning more towards the Mature side of YA, though)
Review: 5 freaking heart-breaking butterflies
I’m going to admit that this book wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. I thought it wasn’t going to be my style. I thought it wasn’t going to be good. I thought I wasn’t going to like it.

I blame this on the synopsis. It doesn’t do the book justice. It should say something like “This book will tear your heart out and put it back together, but you won’t ever be the same.” or maybe “This isn’t merely a love story, it is an amazing, rich story with deep and unique characters that will steal your breath and make you feel absolutely everything there is to feel.”

This book was amazing. It was beautiful. It was heart-breaking. And it was hopeful. It had this and more, so much more.

Nastya has had her spirit crushed and her body broken, but she still goes on. She doesn’t live though, not until she meets Josh. Their lives intertwined and they were never the same. Both of them are broken, both of them feel they are hopeless, and both of them will leave you in shreds when they tell their stories.

This story was an emotional rollercoaster. It had its highs and its lows, it took me through loops and had many twists I didn’t see coming. I want to re-read this all over again, now that I know the whole story, to catch the things I didn’t catch before. Looking back at the clues that were left there so when the whole story was revealed I was left to admire the author’s handiwork. The author planted pieces to the puzzle that we didn’t know were pieces until the whole puzzle was solved. She’s as amazing with words as Josh is with woodwork or Nastya was with a piano.

I loved the plot. I didn’t expect a lot of the things that happened and honestly did not know if things were going to end up happy. Normally I would hate this, but I knew that things weren’t going to be resolved easily for them. It wouldn’t fit and honestly I would have been disappointed if they were. I think that the book ended perfectly. The ending was truly, honestly, and amazingly perfect.

Those last two words. Oh my God, those last two words. My heart stopped right there and I knew right then and there that this book is going in my favorite books of all time. Actually, that’s a lie. I knew that it was going to my one of my favorites of all time way before that. It’s that good.

You guys know those books you’re torn between recommending them to the whole world so they can read the beautiful story you’ve read and never telling anyone so you can hold onto it because it’s yours and you want it to keep being yours for ever and ever? That’s me. I want to shout about this book on the rooftops and want to never tell anyone and just clutch it to me so it never leaves my side.

Honestly, though? Go read this book. You won’t regret it. The characters and so deep and profound and broken that you will love them forever and want to re-read this book for all time.

P.S. I loved Nastya’s obsession with names. Wonder what she’d think of mine? ;)

A free copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Book links: Goodreads * Amazon * B&N * iTunes * Kobo * Google Books * The Book Depository * Simon & Schuster

Yours,

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