"There are monsters in the sea"

I'm the human-turned-monster-by-this-book in the sea

This is like a 4.8 for me.

The diversity of this book was shown and written so well, the quotes made me nostalgic, the theme was something intriguing, the moral of the story was heartfelt, the writing style made me so hooked into everything

. . . It's just all great.


That's why it was such a bummer that the thing that let me down:

Spoiler

was that ending and how petty Wallace was at the end. First of all, Wallace's character wasn't even written out to be that petty. This was such a downgrade from the whole book. It was a let down. I love him and all but what happened?? AND THE WAY THEY MADE UP!! They weren't minding each other for so long and then they make up so easily. . .? Well. It makes me sad just to think about it. . .I couldn't even look over it enough to just rate this 5 stars.


I probably would have finished this book within 24 hours if it weren't for that part that just annoyed me to bits that I couldn't handle reading it for a couple of days.


I am also a sucker for good endings, but sadly, I did not like this ending. It was not nostalgic enough for me (not including the comics at the end because that just made my heart swell). I needed something more pizzazz. I was literally screaming love for this book by like 50% but I died at around 70%.


I needed something to make me really miss the book. There was just really something missing.

Maybe it's just me, personally, with the last 25% who had problems with it but I'm sorry but I just can't seem to look past it for a 5 stars. UPDATE: I have since rated this book 5 stars because I think it still deserves it


Nonetheless, Wallace and Eliza were a good pair in the first half of this book and I was so engaged in it and I really do see what all the hype is about. I cannot get enough of The Monstrous Sea and I would totally read a graphic novel about Amity and her world.


MAX AND EMMY and everything about them. There is just something about their trio-relationship that just touches me. Max kept me laughing throughout the book and Emmy is just such a typical best friend. The great thing about it is that they live countries, cities and ages apart but they still seem to be able to find time for each other. Their age doesn't matter to them even though they give Emmy a hard time about it. This shows such a great portrayal of friendship. They are just so wonderful and I really think it was one of the strong points of the book, plot-wise.

I would definitely more of Francesca Zappia's books in the future though. I really needed this book at this time. This was a great novel, to YA Contemporary readers, pick this up if you want something heartfelt with layers and layers and layers of writing and story telling.

"Our stories have lives of their own—and it’s up to us to make them mean something."