Reviews

Adrift by Paul Griffin

annw's review against another edition

4.0

I thought this book was wonderful. It was pacey, enjoyable and engaging. Had a bit of trouble with the point of view, so I felt like I was playing catch up with the characters. John and Matt were certainly the most interesting characters.

jane_kelsey's review

5.0

Four teenagers on a boat adrift in the ocean... what can go wrong? Everything that can go wrong will go wrong and I loved getting to know these characters and the lengths they go to in order to survive. The psychological aspects were very well written and the race for survival kept me "at the edge of my seat" (I listened to it as an audiobook so no seats when I listened to it) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

4.5 stars.

lyndsiamanda's review

4.0

I initially thought this was the book the movie was based on. Gotta admit though listening to the author read about the five kids and their (for some of them) 15 days on a boat and how they survived. Damn good book finished in two days.

derekerpelding2's review

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This was my favorite book I have read so far. I really liked most of the characters. I thought that the book was kind of cheesy. It was one of those books where it's kind of like a horror movie where your constantly saying don't do that and then they do the dumbest thing imaginable. The ending kind of threw me off a little. I thought Dri and Matt would get married or something but Dri ended up ghosting him. Then she saw him one night and acted all affectionate again then ghosted him. It was bogus she led him on. I also got surprised that John and Matt hate each other now because they were like brothers before. It's because when Dri fell out of the boat during the storm Matt went to save her because he wanted to die with her if they didn't make it back. John felt that he had to get even with Matt because Matt took a bullet for him so he knocked Matt out and saved her himself.

fyrekatz's review against another edition

2.0

It was alright! Thought the movie that was coming out soon was based on this movie... I was wrong but was more then halfway thru it so I continued to read it!

kimball_hansen's review against another edition

1.0

I saw the preview of the self-same title a few weeks ago, I figured I'd check out the book before and if I watched the film. I don't think the film is going to be much like this book. The film says it's based on actual event, but nothing here told me this story was even remotely true. There were times when I really wanted to give this 4 stars and other times it just made me mad. I will settle on 1.5 stars. Here's why:

The narrator was pretty bad for the audio version. There wasn't much distinction between the voices making it very hard to tell who was speaking. And while we're on that note, the writing style wasn't too great either. Even if there was a good narrator, it was still hard to tell who was speaking because the dialog structure and composition didn't flow well at all. At least the author narrated this book. Props to that, especially for fiction. But it'd have been at least another star if a professional narrator had done it.

Weak characters. You couldn't connect with any of them really. Maybe Matt, and that's a big maybe.

I couldn't quite picture what kind of boat they were on nor the size of it. Especially coming from someone that doesn't know anything about boats, the author should have done a much better job describing it to help paint the picture in my mind.

The characters acted way too dumb for being in the situation they were in. All they did was just argue especially towards the end. And speaking of the end,

Spoiler

Matt and John just stopped talking to each other after being rescued? No, that's not how that would have played out in real life. These situations bring people closer together. They were best friends before the accident even. The same with dumb Dri. She left and fell off the face of the earth after everything happened. Not cool. Plus why was she acting so retarded after John saved her from the storm? She was mad at both of them. Then when she and Matt finally see each other after almost a year they act like best friends. And then she just leaves. Two things that also wouldn't have happened given these circumstances.

The underlying drama of John's

Spoiler

father being killed was a pretty weak story after all was said and done. It could have been utilized much better

. In fact, this story had potential to be very, very good but was instead a great, big let down.

Matt and Dri

Spoiler

kissed after more than 10 days of being out on the boat when they were all sick and nasty. It just came out of nowhere. There was nothing that sparked it. If they were going to get romantic, they would have done it on the first or second day.

But it would be pretty terrible to be on a boat with an unmedicated Jojo. That shark scene was wild.

Spoiler

After they were rescued

it didn't really go into how they adjusted. The author could have touched more on that.

mitchil_smith's review

dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

To me I thought this book was very good and had an interesting plot. All of the characters in the book were somewhat likeable and created a good relationship with each other. The book started out on a beach when John and Matthew were out selling ice cream and sodas until they came across a group of tennagers that wanted them to go night surfing. Matthew and John declined this offer, but after, one of the girls Driana came up to them with a piece of paper with her address on it stating that she was going to throw a party. 
Matthew convinced John to go to this party which ended up being the downfall for their next 2 weeks. The whole story is about a group of 5 tennagers who get lost at sea, because of a bad decision one of them made. The group lasted out there over 9 day and only 3 of them came back alive. Overall this book was very tragic, dark, emotional and had amazing characters. 

faithl's review

3.0

The thing about books set in isolated places is that nothing much can happen. Which is why this book was relatively short.

We have our main characters Matt, John, Driana, JoJo and Stef who have both no logic and also uncanny survival skills. Driana just happens to know how to distill salt water with limited supplies and Matt is a first aid expert. I don't know why I refused to except this but I personally found it unrealistic. JoJo and Stef are dumb teenagers who have no idea how to keep their head straight and rational in life and death situations while Matt, John and Dri on the other hand are sometimes a little too calm.

Throughout this book you get those typical heart-stopping, action-packed scenes with violent storms, people dying, man-eating flies, you know the drill. And then there other scenes where they are literally drifting in the middle of the ocean with little conversation and pretty much nothing happening. It wasn't that I didn't like this book. In fact, I enjoyed it and I read it through one sitting because it's one of those books that you cannot put down because if you do, you lose the whole feel of the novel. But this read did leave me with nothing. The ending is anti-climatic and almost bland and what I took out of this novel was nothing interesting or entertaining. Also, the reason why they ventured out to a huge span of ocean in the middle of a storm only to end up stranded in the first place was just plain stupid.

In conclusion, this book was action-packed and will hook you to read it in one sitting. It's only very short so that fact is very possible. But this novel will also leave with an urge to smack all the characters.

fruitylish's review

3.0

I think the beginning was a little rushed but overall the book was good, I couldn't put it down.

noahthebibliophile's review

2.0

It was adventurous, but I didn't enjoy some parts because there were a few graphic gory parts.