I received this ebook from Verona Booksellers in exchange for an honest review.
Jay Murchison believes he is a nobody at his high school in Oklahoma. Coming from a conservative family of affordable luxury, Jay has an overwhelming desire to become something great. After a mysterious girl named Saphnie in North Carolina mistakenly texts him, an unlikely relationship develops that affects Jay's self-perception and influences the rest of his sophomore year. This correspondence leads him to a group of thrill-seekers who provide a grand departure from the quiet life Jay is familiar with and eye-opening experiences to witness first-hand the truth behind the loose morals his fellow classmates have come to know.
In a story filled with injustice, hope, hatred, love, grief, and understanding, readers will ask themselves what it truly means to hear the ocean sigh and learn of the dire consequences that come with its responsibilities.
Overall, I did enjoy this book and it read like a typical, coming of age YA book, which is the genre I like reading the most. However, I do feel that initially the story was quite slow to get into and I struggled to find myself gripped to the book and truly interested. I felt that some of the text conversations between Jay and his mystery text friend Saphnie, that make up such a huge portion of the book, were often unnecessarily long and slightly generic, adding little to the story.
Aside from that, I really loved the way Rudderless, a fictional book created for this story, tied all the characters together, despite their differences. It shows how books can be interpreted in many ways and gave a new meaning to each person who read it. It was quite clever how this was weaved in to plant the idea that perspectives can truly vary between individuals as this ended up being a key theme throughout the novel.
Another key theme that was presented quite interestingly was the difference in how we present ourselves to the world and the person that we believe we are. I think this was an important idea to be explored in a YA novel where the way others view us can be a huge worry for young adults. This book really did have some wonderful messages that I feel the majority of people would be able to relate to in their own lives. The darker and more emotional themes of the novel were sensitively approached, which made them easier to relate to.
The theme of religion and what it means to young people was considered in a fresh, interesting way. All of the teens found some comfort and advice at the Youth Club and it's where Jay begins his new social life. This was all unique in a way as religion is rarely presented positively in YA literature as many teens feign disinterest.
I found that the main character, Jay, could be frustrating at times as he was more of a spectator as everything happened around him, rather like Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby. I did, disappointingly, find him cringey and unrelatable all too often. He rather sadly came across as dull and boring and I found myself wishing the story had been narrated from one of the more interesting characters' perspectives, such as Saphnie or Lily. However, as the story progressed, I feel that Jay was given more of an opportunity to develop into a more real and less fictional-feeling character. Jay was so desperate to develop relationships and connections with those around him that I found it pleasantly ironic when all characters later appear to be connected in more ways than they realise.
I did like that all the characters were flawed in their own way as it give them more dimensions and aspects to their personalities. At times, I found that Jay's mother came across as unrealistically over-protective and those passages didn't blend with the novel well enough for me to find them relatable in the slightest. I also sadly feel that the girls in the novel weren't portrayed in a fair light overall as they were all either seen to be crazy, prudish or desperate for attention and obsessed with popularity.
That being said, the novel was enjoyable on the whole and sits nicely in the YA genre, making a great, quick summer read.
6/10
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