Review Detail

The only reason Denver showed up at her ex-best friend’s party was because of Croix . He asked if she was going, he wanted her there, so Denver braved the ridicule and hatred of the popular crowd and showed up. Worst decision ever. During the party, a tsunami hits and Denver finds herself floating out to sea, stranded with a few of the popular kids who hate her – including her former best friend Abigail.

Going into this one, this seemed like the type of book I could end up enjoying. It seemed like it would be a lighter read, even with the disaster aspect, due to the humour and I was hopeful for a Breakfast Club type feel. I thought it did a good job contrasting the dark humour and lighter tone with the serious, life-endangering situation the teens found themselves in.

I liked Denver’s voice as the main character of the book. She had a bit of survival knowledge from watching things like the Discovery channel or reading books but she didn’t turn into an expert survivalist just because the situation needed her to. She wasn’t afraid to speak up for herself when she knew what to do, even though it meant arguing with the others in the boat, and I loved her dry, sarcastic comments through the book. Her voice reminded me of Veronica Mars in a lot of ways and that’s always a plus for me.

Along with the survival aspect of the plot, there was also the mystery of what happened between Denver and Abigail that caused their friendship to break up. There were flashbacks so we saw how their friendship progressed, where it started to change, and finally what the big event was that tore them apart. The flashbacks also helped develop the two girls as characters since there wasn’t a lot of developing happening in the present, especially for the other three teens on the boat. For the most part, they were just there. There was the jock and the two sidekicks of the main mean girl. There were a few moments of insights into each one but not enough for them to feel like fully developed characters in their own right.

Even with its light tone and humour, the book brought up a lot of good points about social structure in high school and its pointlessness and did so without feeling like an after-school special. I would have liked more depth in the other characters but overall, it was a surprisingly fun read for such a dark plot.