Title: Girl at Sea
Author: Maureen Johnson
Goodreads summary:
Sometimes you have to get lost . . .
The Girl: Clio Ford, seventeen, wants to spend the summer smooching her art-store crush, not stuck on a boat in the Mediterranean. At least she’ll get a killer tan.
The Mission: Survive her father’s crazy antics. Oh, and also find some missing underwater treasure that could unlock the secrets of civilization.
The Crew: Dad’s wacky best friend Martin, his bizarre research partner Julia, her voluptuous daughter Elsa . . . and then there’s Aidan, Julia’s incredibly attractive, incredibly arrogant assistant.
What’s going on behind Aidan’s intellectual, intensely green eyes, anyway?
As Clio sails into uncharted territory she unveils secrets that have the power to change history. But her most surprising discovery is that there’s something deeper and more cryptic than the sea—her own heart.
. . . to find what you’re looking for
Review:
I fully expected to like this book. At this point I’ve read quite a few Maureen Johnson books and I have yet to be disappointed. What I did not expect was to be left with the impression that this is a contender for my favorite Johnson book yet.
Clio is absolutely furious when she is whisked away by her father for the summer. Her parents divorced some time ago and while Clio lives with her mom most of the year, she has an academic project over the summer so dad seizes the opportunity to try to reforge the bond between himself and Clio.
If only it wasn’t on a small, six-person boat in the middle of the Mediterranean.
I think what continues to impress me about Johnson’s writing is that she’ll give her readers the romance and swoon that she knows they want and isn’t atypical of teenage girls, but her stories are still imbued with comedy and deeper issues. Because yes, part of this story is about Clio’s romance with Aidan and her friendship with Elsa, but largely it is a story about the relationship between Clio and her father that seems to have capsized somewhere during the divorce. Clio’s harboring a great deal of resentment towards daddy dearest and sometimes I was right there with her, frustrated with how they just couldn’t seem to connect.
This would have been a good book even if it had been set on land, but add a treasure hunt at sea? Maureen Johnson, take me, I am yours. I read this book in one sitting.
Rating: 4/5.
