TEXTS & TALKING TUESDAYS: TSoT EDITION

I had the joy...ahem...job of NOT answering Courtney's spoiler pleas as she read The Sea of Tranquility for the first time. Payback, Court, payback. You see, I'm always trying to get Courtney to spoil books for me and she NEVER gives in (hard ass!)...which is why I truly adore her (because she knows I don't really want to know).

WARNING: There may be spoilers...

S: How's the reading?
C: Good! I need you to tell me what the hell's going on!!!!!
S: Ok. You got questions, I got answers...unless it spoils something :)
C: Ok, why doesn't she talk?
S: She'll give details. But it IS messed up that she doesn't. ...This not revealing stuff is hard.
C: bah humbug!

....

C: Drew good? Love triangle?
S: I like Drew. You will too.
C: So far he seems great, friends? Anything...I'm not letting up on this!
S: He's really good to her/for her.
C: Buuutttt we have Josh's POV...I'm dying. LOL

Later....

C: What's up with him (Josh) defending her and then telling her he won't do it again...how he's all bad ass??!!
S: HMMMM
C: SHELLEY!!!!
C: *pouts*
S: I can't. You'll love me for it later.
C: I wanna know, but then I don't because I think it'll make me cry. 
S: This is one (book) that I actually did cry for. In a good way. But it was good and worth it. I can't reveal my reasons.
C: Great!...NOT!...Ugh...I am in a false state of security
C: Deep breaths. That's what I need!
S: Yoga breathing
C: :) too bad I've never been good at that. lol
...
C: Holy eff...she spoke...
S: Eeep!!!!

The next day...

C: So am I right in thinking they changed her name?
S: Hmmm 
S: :)
C: emoticon of flipping me the bird
S: heh heh heh
C: Lol

... Proof that I'm powerless to Courtney wearing me down...

C: Is Drew ever gonna come over to find them hanging out?
S: Do you really want to know?
C: Yes
S: Yes. 
C: Soon?!?
S: Maybe in the 40%'s

...

The next morning:

C: ...so I sort of stayed up until 2:30 and finished TSoT and then was awake til almost 3 processing it...Sorry!
S: OMG. Are you a zombie? What did you think?
S: Oh! And...Cheater!!! LOL I'm ratting you out to the twitter universe.
C: Yeah I know! I was going to confess, I took the read along out...but I freaking loved it! That last line!!!! O.M.G.! ...I wasn't tired and I was fretting about the tornado watch, which never amounted to anything thank goodness, and wanted to know and by then it was 1 AM and I was at like 75% and I dunno what happened! Lol.
S: I forgive you because you used the word fretting and ...that is awesome!
S: The last line...mind blowing. It's so good and I love it just as much this time around!
C: HAHAHAHA. And it's a crazy feeling to feel complete with the story yet wanting more all at the same time.

In the midst of all of this we were tweeting our reactions to this too. Alessandra Torre read along with us; it was a lot of fun! And, Katja Millay was there to hold our hands through it all! Thanks, Katja!

READ ALONG: THE SEA OF TRANQUILITY BY KATJA MILLAY PT.2 AND FINAL THOUGHTS

Where to Find TSoT: 

Amazon | GoodReads | Barnes & Noble

Where to Find Katja Millay:

GoodReads | Facebook | Twitter

This post will be dedicated to the last 50% of The Sea of Tranquility Read Along. Our post on the first 50% can be found here. 

WARNING: Most likely there will be SPOILERS as you scroll down.

***5 Stars***

As I mentioned in our first post on TSoT, I read this book many months ago but had absolutely no problem rereading it. Let me say...it was just as good the second time I read it. 

The last 50% of this novel moved swiftly. We see the relationship between Nastya and Josh bloom. And wither. And bloom again. I loved his reaction to her when she first spoke to him. I loved that he was the first person she trusted enough to speak to. I loved that they didn't just jump each other's bones right after that momentous occasion and that their relationship was allowed to progress slowly and naturally. There are so many scenes I loved between them--the pennies at the fountain, the ice cream date(s), the nights in the garage--all so perfectly crafted and sweet. 

But! Of course it couldn't stay sweet forever. Both Nastya and Josh had too many hard edges to smooth out and so this last 50% contained the bumps and scrapes borne out of the hardships of the burdens they were living with. The break up was agonizing to read. The pain and hurt and self destruction. It still hurts and I KNOW it ends up okay. That's how good the writing in this book is!

In addition to the love story of Nastya and Josh, we also learn more about Drew and Tierney and why those two have a love/hate, love to hate relationship. I wish THAT could be explored in a book (HINT, HINT Katja!). Clay also shows up and it's through a day with him that Nastya begins the roller-coaster ride to healing. 

Here's how I came up with my 5 stars:

1) The writing was phenomenal. PHEN-OM-ENAL. I re-read so many novels with my students during the school year that it says something, I think, that I would willingly re-read this novel just a few months after I'd first read it. I knew that the writing was good. I enjoyed it the first time and the second time, it was just as sharp. The pacing, the character development, the dialogue, and the plot were all puzzle pieces that fit together so well you couldn't see the individual pieces--just the resulting product. The first time I read this novel I did the silent cry. The streams of tears. I don't do that often...like never. I did for this novel. 

2) Nastya and Josh. They were broken but the were able to rebuild themselves. They were still rebuilding themselves at the end and I liked that they weren't perfect. I liked the mess and the hope that they could start finding themselves together and the promise of what that held for them. I also liked that it was so open at the end...no epilogue 5 years later, no bow on the package...just a hope and desire (on my part) that they would find a way to navigate the world together.

3) The story. It wasn't just a romance. It wasn't just about self-discovery. It wasn't just about the mystery of Nastya. It wasn't just about the power of friends and family. It was all of things, plus some. It explored ideas about forgiveness and trust and hope and grief and love. 

4) The final line:: "your garage" . It gets me. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Perfection. The hints about this line were given on Nastya's first run when she finds herself standing there. I remember thinking...why is she so hung up on this garage. Why the niggling thought that kept pestering her? Well, Katja Millay, you blew me away with the answer. 

***5 Stars***

Girl....how in the heck do you expect me to follow that!! So I'll say...What she said...*Throws down the mic*...

Just kidding! But really...

The last half of this book did go so fast. Which would explain why I stayed up half the night to finish it because I just could not stop. The pacing was incredible. Like you said they didn't rush things physically, and really didn't rush things emotionally either. When she spoke I think I about had a heart attack along with Josh. My favorite moments are Josh's thoughts while he's trying to figure out why Nastya sits in his garage every night. He tries really, really hard to get her out of there for sure. All of the examples you just gave with the pennies, ice cream, sitting in his garage are all reasons why no one would be able to help falling in love with Josh. But this story is not as simple as that. At all. 

Then omigah! Bring. On. The. Angst. Not that it isn't fairly angsty from the get go, but it really fires up. Nastya does her usual pushing everyone else away thing, which sets other events in motion. I really, really wanted to be mad at Josh. But then I  remembered that it was all Nastya's freaking fault that things went down the tube. Fantasies of shaking her like a rag doll to "wake up" and see what is in front of her instead of behind her ensued. I hated myself for it. Yeah. 

Drew and Josh and Clay, a little bit Tierney, and a lot Drew's Mom really help Nastya along her journey. They are great friends, but like all normal teenagers they make mistakes and have to learn from and live with them. The secondary parts of the story were just as intriguing as the main one and made me laugh and even cry and pray that Katja might someday give us a few more scenes from maybe their point of view. 

Okay...I gave this story 5 stars, and it has made it's way onto my "favorite books in my entire life" list. I don't do that easily, and trust me I have read and loved a LOT of books, but there was something about this one that was utterly breathtaking, moving, tragic, yet again so beautiful I haven't been able to stop thinking about it for days. I really just fell in love with this broken boy (Josh) who had to accept the cruelty of fate at such an early age. I hated how everyone regarded him (avoided him) but thought it was amazing how both he and Nastya are mature enough to realize the power of their words. Josh mentions several times that Nastya doesn't ever waste her words. I hadn't thought about this much before and haven't been able to stop since. Her physical wounds (that we figure out from all of her slow, subtle clues and know something bad happened to her) pass away, but the power of words can change things forever. She is holding in her words, but to what end and what cost? I admired how they would rather uphold an uncomfortable silence than say something they don't mean or push through said awkward silence with the hard questions that most people don't really want the answer to and aren't brave enough to ask. I really cannot follow up Shelley's "official" review any better than she did, so I will just stop here! My one final thought is now that it is over, I finally see all of the clues that led us to that final line. And it blew. my. mind. 

READ ALONG: THE SEA OF TRANQUILITY BY KATJA MILLAY PART I

I've been singing the praises of this book to anyone who will hear me. It's definitely high on my list of all time favorites..and I LOVE that I can suggest it to my senior students who like to read outside of what I assign for class. So, you can imagine my excitement when Courtney was looking for something to read. As we began this read along it took a lot of willpower to give her 'non-answers' to her questions, but I didn't want to spoil any part of this story for her. I wanted her to have the same, unspoiled, beautiful experience that I did. I could keep on gushing about all of the wonderful in this book...but let's get to the first 50%...

The first time I read this novel I was a bit hesitant. I am surrounded by high school students all day (I'm a high school English teacher)...and there is ALWAYS angst and drama. Sooooo I told myself I'd read the sample pages of what I'd downloaded and decide if I wanted to submerge myself into high school angst on my time off. Well, after reading the prologue I hit the "buy it now" button on Amazon and settled in for the journey.

In the first 50% we know that Nastya doesn't talk, she lives with her aunt, she dresses like a "profanity spewing guttersnipe", she runs so that she can sleep, she journals with an OCD- type consistency, she's an amazing baker, and the two people she 'befriends' are Josh and Drew. It's what we don't know that is intriguing. We are given a bread trail of crumbs...teeny tiny crumbs of answers to the questions that plague us. What happened to her? Why did it happen? Who did it? 

In this first 50% we also get to know Josh. Nastya describes him as having a force field around him that keeps people from approaching him. He's settled in his life, accepting of his loss, and trying just to live in that force field.  He leads a fairly solitary existence (with the exception Drew's family) until Nastya shows up. 

By the time you get to the end of the first 50% the questions are still there. Unanswered. The questions are the subtext; they hover on every page and in all of the unsaid things. Not having the answers should have been agonizing, but I found the journey to figuring it all out to be wonderful.

 Katja Millay is an absolutely superb writer. The characters are rich, the dialogue is exactly what you would expect spewing from many  high school students' mouths (and it's funny, and sad, and angry, and just perfect), and the unraveling of the story is wonderfully paced--no rushing, no dragging. 

I cannot wait until we write about the last half of this book. Warning...there will be spoilers...no way around it. Until next time...

I had saw a few things here and there last year about this book, mostly being how heart wrenching it was and I put it off for a long, long time. I regret that now, but I am so glad we decided to do this read along so that I had you as a sounding board when things got intense! I begged and begged for you to give me hints, but being the amazing book soulmate that you are you knew when to help me out, and when to tell me "hhmmm" which I think is code for suck it up and keep reading! 

So...my goal is to keep this read along as spoiler free as possible, so there will probably be a lot of OMG and WHAT throughout. I say this because it is truly THE MOST compelling, well-written, beautiful, tragic but romantic story I have read in a long time, or maybe ever. I have put it on my list of all-time favorite reads, which is actually a pretty short list (mostly just containing Harry Potter). So, on to the first 50% of TSoT....

The prologue itself was intense. Who knew that 5 sentences would have the power to create like 50 questions! For a long time, things seem fairly normal. You don't know why Nastya is going back to school for her senior year after being home schooled for the last two, or what could be going on with the doctor's notes for the principal. All is well. We get our first glimpses of Drew, and don't really know which way he's going to go on the scale of good guy to douche bag. I adore stories that have both main characters point of views that alternate, so here we get to meet Josh BEFORE Nastya does. Which I felt was a good thing, and  majorly expanded TSoT because Nastya sure isn't giving anything away. 

So the game changer for me almost immediately was the fact that NASTYA DOESN'T TALK. Outloud that is. Her thoughts are glaringly blunt and honest, but she doesn't say a word to other people, ever. Talk about an original idea. At 7% I was wondering how is all of this going to go, because the main character not speaking a syllable to another person started the cacophony of OMG and WHAT!

The day to day stuff, with the running and classes and players at school was very realistic to teenage life (well, except for her practically trying to outrun hell running like she does) but was perfectly balanced to not drive me crazy. (You being WITH teenagers all day long makes us have very different reasons for this being an issue!) It also doesn't stray to far into the realm of impossibility either, and be "too smart" if you will for the age of the characters. It was interesting to witness how each character developed from going to not knowing each other, how they notice one another, and start to intertwine their lives together. This was without adding too much and bogging down the story and uh, the writing was incredible! I usually don't think to much about this, by thinking well who am I to judge their writing style? But, I feel like I have come to be able to recognize GREAT writing when it practically slaps me in the face! Katja hit a home run with this novel, and made me fall in absolute loooovvveeee with Nastya, Josh, and Drew from the start.

I'll shut up now, but want to say the first 50% did definitely dole out as little information as possible from Nastya but focused more, to me anyways, on the "building" side of things. Building their routines, building trust, and definitely building furniture! There were so many funny moments, with Nastya busting Drew's balls every time she got the chance (can't let his ego get too fresh) and her with the ice cream made me LOL!