Still haunted by nightmares after her mothers death, fifteen-year-old Sienna Jones reluctantly travels to post-tsunami Indonesia with her father’s relief team to help tsunami orphans with their post-traumatic stress disorder. But the last thing she expects is to fall for Deni, a brooding and handsome Indonesian boy who lives at the orphanage.
My review:
You know, for all the buzz this book was getting I was expecting something that was really going to make me think and feel for this novel and her characters days after closing the book. I didn’t have that fierce of a reaction, but I did enjoy it while I was reading it and you can’t blame the buzz for over hyping things because the book really was nice.
Yeah, nice, I’d call it nice, really nice, sweet and mournful at the same time. I do think Kling did an amazing job of capturing a country still in turmoil, but sort of at a standstill, there is a sense of after-the- worst and what-can-we-do spread throughout the novel. Some of the plot points I wasn’t sure what to do with, I didn’t feel a great injustice towards the orphanage head, as Deni did, because it wasn’t ever clear to me if Deni was over reacting, or if his accusations were legitimate. And I already feel a great injustice for the orphans across the planet.
Elli was by far my very favorite character and I wished with all my heart I could go in and pick her up and give her kisses!
Spider is my second favorite character, couldn’t you feel it from the beginning? Sea and Spider forever! I am hoping, wishing and praying Kling will write a sequel set many years later, or, the present day, if you will, where Spider and Sea return to Indonesia and they are together. I would have them fall more in love, maybe arguing about marriage, which is hard for Sea to think about in the place she first fell in love, and maybe they would find an abandoned baby which they fall in love with. The adoption process could be the epicenter, along with the marriage issue, and of course, Deni would need to show up, not to screw with things, but just to remind Sea. Yeah, I would read that, Heidi, please write that!
My only main concern was that I had the most trouble picturing Deni in my mind, I couldn’t get a good physical feel of him, that made reading a bit more difficult, but easier to love Spider!
Thoughts on the cover: Gorgeous cover, but I kept waiting for the significance of the tapestry to be revealed. Hmmm. I think the font in particular was beautiful! One of my favorite blue book covers!
Notes on the names: Sienna nickname Sea was such an amazing choice and it didn’t feel forced, that was something, nothing about the plot felt forced, it felt fortuitous. Spider is a surf punk name, so basically right on target, If I had to guess his real name it would be- Patrick, Donald, or Connor. If Kling ever does write a sequel, I think I would like to see Indonesia and the journey through Spider’s eyes. Deni was a cool choice, it struck the balance between foreign and comfortable, which describes Deni perfectly in my eyes.
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