The Raft

Author: S.A. Bodeen
Goodreads Rating: 3.57
My Rating: 2.5 Stars
Pages: 231
Reviewed by: Nicole

Robie is an experienced traveler. She’s taken the flight from Honolulu to the Midway Atoll, a group of Pacific islands where her parents live, many times. When she has to get to Midway in a hurry after a visit with her aunt in Hawaii, she gets on the next cargo flight at the last minute. She knows the pilot, but on this flight, there’s a new co-pilot named Max. All systems are go until a storm hits during the flight. The only passenger, Robie doesn’t panic until the engine suddenly cuts out and Max shouts at her to put on a life jacket. They are over miles of Pacific Ocean. She sees Max struggle with a raft.
And then . . . she’s in the water. Fighting for her life. Max pulls her onto the raft, and that’s when the real terror begins. They have no water. Their only food is a bag of Skittles. There are sharks. There is an island. But there’s no sign of help on the way.

I really wanted this book after seeing it on Netgalley, but I never got approved. Then, Miraculously, and my friend offered me up a copy. And so I jumped on it because I was super excited for it. Girl meets boy on a raft where they're left alone? With sharks? I'm game.

I wish I could say that I absolutely loved this book, but I can't. I'm not even sure if I liked it a little bit. I hated the narration, and I didn't care much for the things that happened in it. I'm sad to say folks, but this review is going to be filled with SPOILERS.

Maybe I built the hype too much in my own head, but I felt really let down by this book. For starters, I couldn't stand the narration of this book it was way too much of "I did this, and then I did that, and then I did something else, and then and then and then." I felt like there was no depth to it. I also wasn't a huge fan of Robie, I understood her teenage rebellion, but to not let anyone know what she was doing and where she was going was just plain stupid. I get that teenagers don't have a fully developed frontal lobe, but for real.

It was a really quick read which was great, but I also felt like I wouldn't have minded it being longer. I also sort of hated what happened with Max which was essentially nothing. HUGE SPOILER! AVERT YOUR EYES! The fact that he died could have been played out so much better then, oh i've been talking to a hallucination this whole time. It was a neat twist, but handled poorly. END SPOILERS. 

I understood why it was hard to create interactions for Robie while she was on a raft floating to nowhere land, but at the same time, it was less fun to read. I enjoyed learning more about Max and his life and the tidbits about marine life that seemed to help me best my boyfriend during Shark Week when I seemed to know a lot about Tiger Sharks.

Either way, my mom really enjoyed this book, so it may have just been me, so for sure give this book a chance if it finds its way in your face.