Review - Sea by Heidi R Kling

Published by Putnam Juvenile
Published 10 June 2010

Summary from Goodreads - Haunted by recurring nightmares since her mother’s disappearance over the Indian ocean three years before, fifteen-year old California girl Sienna Jones reluctantly travels with her psychiatrist father’s volunteer team to six-months post-tsunami Indonesia where she meets the scarred and soulful orphaned boy, Deni, who is more like Sea than anyone she has ever met. 

She knows they can’t be together, so why can’t she stay away from him? And what about her old best friend-turned-suddenly-hot Spider who may or may not be waiting for her back home? And why won’t her dad tell her the truth about her mother’s plane crash? The farther she gets from home, the closer she comes to finding answers.

And Sea’s real adventure begins.

Every once in a while a book comes along that makes you want to slide into its pages and loose yourself in its words.  Sea is one of those books, one of those books that is something more.  I think it must be hard to write about something that has affected and destroyed many peoples lives, and to make sure the shockwaves and the after affects of the tsunami are given the rightful attention and justice they deserve.  Heidi has written this story simply and beautifully, not scared to hit on topics that are heart wrenching, to not overlook the devastation this disaster caused.

Set in Indonesia, which is almost as much of a character in the book as the characters themselves, we get to see and almost taste what life is like in this beautiful country.  From the scenes of complete destruction, to the richly vibrant, each one filled with this amazing culture.  It sucks you in with its descriptions of the people of Indonesia, the clothes, the food, their culture, everything is laid out for you on the pages. It's like you could close your eyes and you would be there, sitting on a beach looking out at the sea, the air hot and sticky around you, or your there on the market, the vibrant colours and smells attacking your senses.  This was my favourite part, because it made me feel like I was there, like Indonesia was just hiding behind my eyelids, waiting for me.

Sienna aka Sea was such a interesting character, and is one of the reasons why I love first person perspective so much.  I love getting to feel and experience a characters journey with them, I love getting in their heads, seeing everything from their point of view, because it makes me feel like I know them.  I connected to Sea extremely easy, she is broken in a way that can never really be fixed.  I really empathised with her, I wanted to jump in the book and go on an adverture with her to see if we could find her mother, not wanting like her, to beleive her mom was truly gone.  Thats what good writing is like, it makes me want to help the characters, to be their shoulder to cry on, to be their wall of strength through the hard times and to be the person to jump around and squeal with when something amazing happens.

The secondary characters were full of life, they never faded into the background.  From Deni, and his haunted eyes, soft skin and full lips.  To Spider, with his sufer boy rockin bod and sun streaked hair.  To the children at the orphanage where Sea spends her time, who were scared and alone. Especially the children, because what they were going through really rings true, and that makes me more than a little sad.  I loved them all.

Heidi has written this intricate and beautiful story with an amazing amount of pride and love for those people who shared their time and skills with the families who were affected by the tsunami.  You can tell from the descriptions of the shattered beach, to the emotions and behaviour of those people who were left with nothing, that this was probably hard for her to write and has been researched and plotted perfectly.  The emotion is there in the pages.  I am in awe of how someone can write something so beautiful and sad all at once.  This is a story about faith and beleiving that sharing yourself and your time is more important than anything money can buy.  That daring to love is one of the hardest things a person can do, and that hope is something worth cherishing.