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A review by kblincoln
Sea by Heidi R. Kling
5.0
I thought I was going to give this book a 4 because sometimes the characters were just waaaaaaaaay to wise, and the ending is a bit too pat....but I couldn't.
I had to give it 5 starts. Even with those faults, the book really satisfies on so many levels.
Haunted by nightmares mostly surrounding the death of her mother in a plane crash over the Indian Ocean, Sienna agrees to go with her father, a noted PTSD psychiatrist to an orphanage (pesantren) in Indonesia for two weeks to help with tsunami survivor orphans' therapy.
At the pesantren, Sienna meets Deni, a boy who has lost so much and survived so well, that Sienna begins to heal her own hurts while helping him discover what happened to his father.
Okay, so the good things are that we get a great view of Indonesia. Deni isn't afraid to tell Sienna things like only tourists say "thank you" in a certain way, or to explain and share his countries' customs with no sense of apology.
Sienna is a believable and sympathetic character despite her white-American privilege. Watching her deal with primitive conditions at the orphanage with a normal reaction of disgust without making too much of an issue of it in front of the orphans was a deft handling of this particular problem.
While Deni sometimes seemed too wise beyond his years ("We do not choose what happens to us. We can only choose what we do after. What we do now. We can only choose to keep going.") and sometimes his English too skillful, his relationship with Sienna was poignant, honest, and exciting. I mean, how romantic is stealing away at night from a gender-segregated orphanage to ride around the streets of Java on a moped scooter with your arms wrapped around a beautiful boy?
I loved watching Sienna break out of her grieving shell of a persona and begin to understand and appreciate her life and the people in it.
This Book's Food Designation Rating: Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice ) chock full of shrimp, chicken, and luscious vegetables with a hint of fire for the romance.
I had to give it 5 starts. Even with those faults, the book really satisfies on so many levels.
Haunted by nightmares mostly surrounding the death of her mother in a plane crash over the Indian Ocean, Sienna agrees to go with her father, a noted PTSD psychiatrist to an orphanage (pesantren) in Indonesia for two weeks to help with tsunami survivor orphans' therapy.
At the pesantren, Sienna meets Deni, a boy who has lost so much and survived so well, that Sienna begins to heal her own hurts while helping him discover what happened to his father.
Okay, so the good things are that we get a great view of Indonesia. Deni isn't afraid to tell Sienna things like only tourists say "thank you" in a certain way, or to explain and share his countries' customs with no sense of apology.
Sienna is a believable and sympathetic character despite her white-American privilege. Watching her deal with primitive conditions at the orphanage with a normal reaction of disgust without making too much of an issue of it in front of the orphans was a deft handling of this particular problem.
While Deni sometimes seemed too wise beyond his years ("We do not choose what happens to us. We can only choose what we do after. What we do now. We can only choose to keep going.") and sometimes his English too skillful, his relationship with Sienna was poignant, honest, and exciting. I mean, how romantic is stealing away at night from a gender-segregated orphanage to ride around the streets of Java on a moped scooter with your arms wrapped around a beautiful boy?
I loved watching Sienna break out of her grieving shell of a persona and begin to understand and appreciate her life and the people in it.
This Book's Food Designation Rating: Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice ) chock full of shrimp, chicken, and luscious vegetables with a hint of fire for the romance.