"Flight for freedom | Hostage on the high seas"
November 2018 Book of the Month | One of our 2018 Books of the Year
A stunningly original ocean adventure by a one-of-a-kind author whose work defies convention and abounds with a purity of ideas and execution.
Kel was “always running away from something”, seeking escape “from the world she inhabited within and the world that bullied her from the outside”. She’s a swamper, born oceans apart from the wealthy tower people who live in the same Cornish coastal community. She’s also an unforgettable heroine, a girl with danger in her eyes, a baby to care for and “a stupid heart that beat wrong and was shaped wrong and had wrongness stretched clean through it”. Kel “didn’t want what the tower people had; she only wanted two things, a heart she could rely on and freedom from kin”, which is why she kidnaps Rose, the daughter of a cargo ship captain. Kel plans to use her ill-gotten gains to travel to South America to have a heart operation, because in the UK “swamp folk don’t get operations”. Aboard the ship Kel tracks down Rose and forces her to board a smaller vessel, soon running into trouble when the engine fails amidst scenes of devastation on the mainland.
Steering clear of well-worn clichés, Carthew’s stories cut to the heart of human experience, often portraying and championing life’s underdogs and outsiders. What a thrilling, thought-provoking novel this is, brimming with perilous encounters, and the rawness of real-life relationships.
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Breath-takingly fierce, smart and tender, Only the Ocean is a story of survival and courage in the midst of darkness that will thrill fans of Patrick Ness and Sarah Crossan.
The two girls sat at opposite ends of the boat and Kel dug and stretched the oars into the ocean like her life depended upon it because it did. `Just so you know,' said Rose, `everything, and I mean everything, is your fault.' Kel Crow lives in a dead-end swamp with her deadbeat family and a damaged heart. But she has a plan to escape. It's a one-two-three fortune story that goes: stow away on the ship, kidnap the girl, swap the girl to pay for passage to America and a life-saving operation. But the ocean is an untameable force, and wrecks ships and plans alike ...
Sweet, raw and uncompromising - this is the story of an unforgettable relationship forged on an epic journey.
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed Only the Ocean and determined it is suitable for children aged 13-18 years old
Only the Ocean features in the following genres: Adventure Stories, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Books of the Month, Recommendations, Featured Books for 13+ readers, Romance / Relationship Stories, Featured Books for Young Adults
Only the Ocean is available in Paperback, Hardback
Only the Ocean was written by Natasha Carthew and published by Bloomsbury YA an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Only the Ocean has 257 pages
