Adrift by Paul Griffin
My rating: 3/5 cats
until the very end of this book, i was prepared to give it two stars cats. it’s not terrible, it just reads like the YA from my youth and not like the more complex and enticing-to-adults YA that we are blessed with nowadays. the characters are wooden, the dialogue is unconvincing, and the sequence of events is more about making sure point a gets to point b than telling a naturalistic story. but i definitely think it’s a book that will appeal to teens, particularly that crucial subset of reluctant readers. the things that make it ho-hum to a growed-up reader are the very things that will attract readers who aren’t looking to get bogged down in details and just want a plot-driven adventure.
john and matt are two seventeen-year-olds who come from the working class neighborhood of woodhull, queens. from my computer here in woodside queens, i fist-bump. represeeeeent! they are spending the summer working in montauk, where the wealthy come to play. while they are selling ice creams and sodas at exorbitantly jacked-up prices on a private beach, matt meets a lovely girl named driana. she is from the upper east side, and she is lounging with her cousin estefania and stef’s boyfriend joão (jojo), who are visiting from rio de janeiro. dri invites matt and john to a party at her house that night, during which stef behaves recklessly; taking a windsurfer out into the water late at night, and causing the four (yes, all four) to come to her “rescue” in a rickety old boat borrowed from an absent neighbor. she probably would have been fine, but once they all meet up on the open water, circumstances occur that put the five teens in a world of trouble, and they end up adrift in that rickety old boat for fifteen days without supplies, shelter or cell phone service and exposed to sharks, hunger and dehydration, heat-blisters, boredom and fear. View Spoiler »one of them is seriously injured and one is off their meds. they won’t all make it through the story alive.
complicating the matter is the tragedy that matt and john recently experienced together, an incident that john never wants to talk about, despite matt’s prompts. and a further complication is john himself. not to mince words, john is a dick. his coworkers call him “iceman” not because he is cool like val kilmer, but because he is silent and emotionless, partly from grief but also because he hates rich people. if it’s instalove between matt and dri, it’s instahate between john and the other three. john has a huge chip on his shoulder when it comes to the wealthy (one wonders what he thinks of successful former woodhull residents like l.l. cool j, young MC, al sharpton, russell simmons/run DMC), and he’s curt and bossy and downright rude to everyone on the boat, including matt. even when dri proves herself calm and competent and john learns that there are hidden depths to the others – that their lives haven’t always been all rosy and carefree, he still behaves like a snide jerk. and there’s really no reason for it, other than just insecurity. had the big tragedy that binds matt and jeff together in any way involved a richie-rich antagonist it would have been one thing – excusable because of grief, but it doesn’t. it’s just part of his personality and it’s ugly and misguided.
“She’s too pretty for me, right?”
“Too rich.”
and as examples of dialogue that doesn’t sound like it’s coming from the mouths of 17-year-old boys:
Matt, she’ll rip the sweetness out of you, right through your rib cage. You’ll never be able to squeeze it back in there. Look at him mope now.
and
“I couldn’t help myself.”
“What?”
“She’s beautiful. She was holding my hand. How do you let go? You don’t. You can’t. John, I’m sorry.”
“Save your apology for my mother.”
“Then why’d you climb aboard?”
“Shut up and hold the light steady.”
and that’s the kind of delightful attitude john gives off throughout the novel, to dri:
Dri checked under the other bench. She held up a heavy-duty flashlight.
“Spot her with it,” John said. “She’ll think the cops are after her and stop.”
Dri yelled over the engine noise. “Knowing Stef, I’ll bet she’ll try to get away.”
“Don’t argue,” John said. “Do it.”
and even to his bestie matt:
I should grab the surfboard,” I said. View Spoiler »
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” John said.
“I want to use it as a-“
“I don’t care why, just get it done.”
rude.
so the characters are not the strength of the book, but the survival parts are pretty good, and there’s some practical information in here, should you ever find yourself in a similar situation. but don’t. find yourself in this situation. it’s no fun. the medical stuff is smart – matt has undergone a first responder course, and manages to more or less handle the various physical injuries and discuss the risks knowledgeably.
I felt like a fraud, acting as the ship’s doctor, but I was the closest thing we had to medically trained personnel.
and
I knew enough first aid to know I didn’t know enough.
so between the “things i learned” and the good action parts, i enjoyed it more than the rocky beginning and all the lackluster characterization led me to believe i would.
however, i did really like the ending. it’s got a very Paper Towns-style ending, where it’s unconventional but realistic and bittersweet.
so – many stars cats to the ending, if you can make it there through all the clunkiness and the irritating character of john. john, you suck, dude.
