Review Detail

The Raft is Robie's survival story in the waters of the Pacific. It has all that most stories has like it, sharks, a boat, no water and no food. As well as those, it has adventure, an okay protagonist and a small twist in the story. It does have its flaws, but it's a short book that is a good example of human survival.

I'm kinda angry at myself for reading this after the Life of Pi, what a stupid mistake, nothing can compare to that, it was an amazing story/movie. Now I'm gonna do a quick comparison with Pi and Robie. Pi is a selfless hero who gave food and water to help another live, he tried to survive, he wanted to live, and he did, for 227 days. Where as Robie is selfish, greedy, weak protagonist, she didn't try to help Max, and stole his food , didn't share her fish she caight, read his journal and chucked him overboard. I know she was trying to save herself, but it seemed she hardly felt any guilt at all. And when she was on the island, she hardly made an attempt to even save herself. She didn't eat the food when she had the chance, didn't make the effort to catch any (other than on the boat), and she didn't try to find water other than the rain. She just gave up after a week, whereas Pi nearly survive a year. She was a week heroine.

It was really confusing with Max. It was real obvious what had happened, and that Robie had gone crazy after a few days. But we really didn't to know about his past, it's not like it would affect the future. And as well, the author didn't make a real effort to learn about him, and if they did want that to be a big part, I think that they should of wrote more journal entries, to strengthen his character.

The book was filled with really useless facts about marine life. Robie should of focused more on her survival than naming and cataloging nature. She spent so much time doing so, that she didn't even bother finding food and water, always worried that she might hurt an endangered animal. If she spent another day on the island she would of died, because she refused to survive.

The Raft is a good survival story that doesn't have any gory details, or very strong characters, and is a light and easy read.