MIllay's The Sea of Tranquility..

The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

Nastya Kashnikov is an ex-pianist who lives to destroy the boy who took everything from her. Josh Bennett, a fellow student, protects himself with an anti-social bubble to be left alone. Everyone stays away from him, except Nastya. However, the closer they get, the more the  secrets start to unravel.

Let me jut say, wow, it's been a long time since I have seen such a high rating on goodreads for a relatively new  book (4.50 by 24,153 readers). It is also going to be a long time until I trust ratings again as well. I'll start off by saying I love "slow" paced novels (I'll be using that word a lot here, it's a favourite, made-up genre of mine) but this book just kept dragging the story on for way too long. Even though I understand the author wanted to give the book a sense of mystery to the book, Nastya's backstory just too long to develop to the point where it just felt a little anti-climatic. I also did not understand why some characters felt certain feelings for other characters (let's keep this spoiler-free, shall we?). There were also some pretty cringey scenes in the book, but maybe some people like that kind of stuff. I must admit I was disappointed as the plot was very good and it's also rare for me to like a book with a first person point of view, but really, her writing style was very good, it was just the prolonged plot that put me off. I can't be too critical because the writing is good, I just wish the book was a bit more condensed.

Rating: 3/5.

Favourite quote: “I am pressed so hard against the earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I am still able to lift my feet to walk.”