Review #50: The Sea of Tranquility, by Katja Millay

I've been reading more YA literature lately, and I've bemoaned the future of it more than once, so I was pleasantly surprised to come across The Sea of Tranquility. Actually, I was thrilled. Not only is the story well done, but the writing is simply exquisite.

The story is told in two different voices - always a risk in my opinion - and moves between Josh Bennett, a young high school senior, and Nastya Kashnikov, the new girl in school who doesn't speak. She's not shy, she literally doesn't speak. Somehow, Josh and Nastya form a strange sort of friendship. She inserts herself in to his world, having Sunday dinners with his best friend and his family and spending long quiet evenings in his woodshop.

There are no vampires in this book. There are no werewolves. There's no insta-love. The male lead isn't a jackass and the female lead isn't a simpering weakling. They are both strong and weak, both perfect and flawed. They are true.

I've struggled with writing this review because I'm terrified of spoiling the story. But I will say this: this book needs to be made in to a movie, but it never can be, because it needs to be directed by John Hughes, and star Lloyd Dobbler and anything less than that will be a travesty.

This is Millay's first novel, and I hope with all my heart that it isn't her last. This book is perfection.