The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

Title: The Sea of Tranquility
Author: Katja Millay
Pages: 380
Rating: 5 out of 5
From Goodreads:
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.

Full of rage and without a purpose, former pianist Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone discovering her past and to make the boy who took everything from her pay.

All 17 year-old Josh Bennett wants is to build furniture and be left alone, and everyone allows it because it’s easier to pretend he doesn’t exist. When your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.

Everyone except Nastya, a hot mess of a girl who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. 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 may ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding or if he even wants to.

The Sea of Tranquility is a slow-building, character-driven romance about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances.

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There are some stories that make you laugh, some that make you cry, some that make you flinch, shudder, and scream. The Sea of Tranquility made me do all these things and then some. Some stories stay with us for a day or two until we replace them with another, but some wind their way into your mind and heart and bury themselves deep within, refusing to budge. This is definitely the latter.

The Sea of Tranquility is, at it's bare bones, a story about a girl and a boy who are broken and the ways they try to fix themselves and each other. Usually when I read a book that doesn't reveal everything immediately I spend most of the book trying to figure out what happened and can't fully enjoy it. The Sea of Tranquility hardly reveals anything in the beginning of the book, but I never tried to figure it out. I was so in love with the story that I put complete faith in the author and enjoyed the moment.

"It's not that I wanted to be dead, I just felt like I should be. Which is why it's hard when everyone expects you to be grateful simply because you're not."

Nastya was a mystery through pretty much the entire book, yet I still felt like I knew her. Her strength blew me away. I don't think anyone can go through what she did without breaking a little. She doesn't speak, she runs in the middle of the night, and she dresses to intimidate. All the keep the truths that only she knows a secret.

Josh... I could spend all day writing about the reasons why I loved him. He's so much more than your usual YA guy. The losses he has suffered in his life have made him very independent, but somewhat lonely[even if he won't admit it to himself].

Drew is Josh's best friend that's sometimes douchey, usually inappropriate, and always funny. At first I thought he was going to be an asshat, but he's always has the comic relief that this heavy book needs. I loved him too.

This is a book that will suck you in and won't let you go. It's been three days since I finished reading and I still haven't been able to start a new book because I'm stuck in this world, thinking about the characters. If you want to read a book that will stay with you forever, this is the one for you.

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The Sea of Tranquility

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The Sea of Tranquility