The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay (theme and book review)

The central theme of The Sea of Tranquility is learning to rely on others in order to overcome trauma and hardships. The main character, Nastya, was physically attacked and developed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result. For over a year after the trauma, she didn't speak to anyone. She had frequent nightmares and flashbacks to the attack and her entire personality shifted. She became more introverted and wary of developing new relationships. At first, she had anger and hatred towards her attacker, which played a role in her selective mutism. The attached article describes effects and symptoms of PTSD, many of which Nastya displayed. 

Josh, Nastya's fellow classmate, lives on his own because of his tragic lack of family members. All around school he is associated with death, preventing him from having much of a social life. Josh is also cautious of building new relationships, with the fear of losing yet another person in his life. But when Josh and Nastya meet, they soon bring out the best in each other and learn to be more open. I will stop here and refrain from explaining how the rest of the book unfolds and how each of the conflicts are resolved. Hopefully I haven't spoiled the book too much! Overall, the theme in this book is very identifiable and easy to relate to, on a smaller scale; it's hard to overcome hardships alone.

I'll end this post with a review of the book. I'd give The Sea of Tranquility 3.5 out of 5 stars. It had great character development, diction and suspense. I would've liked to have learned more information about the less-developed (flat) characters, like Nastya's family members. The book really makes you think though, about how you'd react to situations like the ones Josh and Nastya faced. The characters had very interesting points of view because of everything they'd been through. The Sea of Tranquility isn't the best book I've ever read, but it was a quality book nonetheless.

http://www.anxietybc.com/parent/post.php