The Sound of Drowning by Katherine Fleet
Grade: C-
An ARC was provided by Page Street Kids in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: Meredith Hall has a secret. Every night she takes the ferry to meet Ben, her best friend and first love. Though their relationship must remain a secret, they’ve been given a second chance, and Mer's determined to make it work. She lost Ben once before and discovered the awful reality: she doesn't know how to be happy without him…
Until Wyatt washes ashore―a brash new guy with a Texas twang and a personality bigger than his home state. He makes her feel reckless, excited, and alive in ways that cut through her perpetual gloom. The deeper they delve into each other’s pasts, the more Wyatt’s charms become impossible to ignore.
But a storm is brewing in the Outer Banks. When it hits, Mer finds her heart tearing in half and her carefully constructed reality slipping back into the surf. As she discovers that even the most deeply buried secrets have a way of surfacing, she’ll have to learn that nothing is forever―especially second chances.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: I am always game for trying YA books from smaller houses, especially in the case of Page Street. This is the first year I've noticed a big showing from them, and I hope it's a successful showing. However, The Sound of Drowning is the first title of theirs I'm trying, and I found myself a bit disappointed by it.
For the most part, the book felt like what an adult thinks YA is, and the tone was more fitting for YA from at least seven years ago.
I also felt frustrated with most of the beginning because something has happened to keep Mer from wind-surfing and to cause a rift between her mother and Ben's mom (and it's the reason she and Ben need to meet in secret), but it's kept from readers. Considering that the book is written in first-person narration, this felt forced and annoying. Most of all, I just didn't click with the characters. They felt like someone's idea of teenagers, rather than actual teens.
The Verdict: Disappointing.
Will I be adding this book to my library?: No.
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