Review- The Sea Of Tranquility by Katja Millay

Summary-

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.

Review-

The Sea Of Tranquility by Katja Millay is an absolutely beautiful book. I had read a ton of reviews singing its praises and it was so much of a better book than what I thought it would be. It surpassed all of my expectations. The book is just as beautiful as the name suggests. How much ever I may collect my thoughts I don't think I have the words to describe the sheer amazingness of this book. But I'm sure as hell gonna to try.

Nastya Kashnikov has just moved in with her aunt. She was a piano prodigy but a traumatic incident has left her broken and full of rage. She just wants to get through high school without drawing attention towards herself. Nastya doesn't speak. At all. So the beauty of the whole thing was that we got to see everything going around her without her having to utter a single word. And then she meets Josh.

Josh Bennett just wants to be left alone. He's already lost all of his family and he has no intention of ever letting anyone close again. Everybody gets the message to the stay the hell away from him. Except Nastya. She comes into his life full of mystery and embeds herself into every thread of his life. Josh was a fascinating character. He was calm and composed and brooding. Its like he broke all of the cliches and stereotypes which surround boys.

Unlike so many books there is no opposites attract in this one. There is a lot of attraction but mostly because they find comfort in the fact that the other person is just as broken and fucked up as them. Josh and Sunshine, as he likes to call her, make sense even if everything else in their world doesn't. The romance and tension is subtle and it takes time. 

Josh and Nastya are not impulsive. They've both been through a lot so their relationship develops at a slow pace. But it was an absolute pleasure seeing their feelings intensify. Nastya understands why Josh wants to build furniture and Josh gets Nastya's obsession with names. Each of them had their own unique personality and that is what made this book distinctly different from the others.

The writing was blissful. Each word, each sentence pulled you in and made you feel exactly what Josh and Nastya were feeling. It is a character driven book. Each one has his or her own flaws and nothing is perfect. They don't try to save each other but there is hope. I loved the quote "It's a promise and a memory of the future and a book of better stories." That was how it ended and it was perfect. All I can say is go read this one asap because it is definitely worth it.

  X 5

 Janhvi