Michael Barnes
This coming of age novel is centred on Violet Larkin described as tall, funny, musical some might say dramatic (as a young'n even played in a Broadway production of Peter Pan) had become 'wild' partying, casual sex with all genders (so grateful to see some bi/pansexual representation) which comes crashing down when her younger brother Sam attempts suicide.
This feeds into her belief her family has a 'shipwreck gene' and Vi goes/is sent for the summer to spend with her uncle in a small coastal Maine town, home to generations of her family, and working through her guilt over how did she not notice/ignored Sam was struggling/downing.
In Maine working at an Aquarium she meets the very handsome Orion despite having sworn off romance, but as she bonds with his friend group she falls completely for his hoped-for girlfriend, Liv. Drawn into Liv's local history obsession, she researches the story of her legendary ancestors and seeks the site of the shipwreck, The Lyric, that begins her family story.
I loved the book's playful yet unobtrusive echoes of Twelfth Night, I loved the stumbling romance that only appears two thirds of the way in and in the relationships between the Larkin family. The novel reveals ' The Last True Poets of the Sea' as a phrase the Oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau gave fondly to his crew of the research ship Calypso.
This coming of age novel is centred on Violet Larkin described as tall, funny, musical some might say dramatic (as a young'n even played in a Broadway production of Peter Pan) had become 'wild' partying, casual sex with all genders (so grateful to see some bi/pansexual representation) which comes crashing down when her younger brother Sam attempts suicide.
This feeds into her belief her family has a 'shipwreck gene' and Vi goes/is sent for the summer to spend with her uncle in a small coastal Maine town, home to generations of her family, and working through her guilt over how did she not notice/ignored Sam was struggling/downing.
In Maine working at an Aquarium she meets the very handsome Orion despite having sworn off romance, but as she bonds with his friend group she falls completely for his hoped-for girlfriend, Liv. Drawn into Liv's local history obsession, she researches the story of her legendary ancestors and seeks the site of the shipwreck, The Lyric, that begins her family story.
I loved the book's playful yet unobtrusive echoes of Twelfth Night, I loved the stumbling romance that only appears two thirds of the way in and in the relationships between the Larkin family. The novel reveals ' The Last True Poets of the Sea' as a phrase the Oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau gave fondly to his crew of the research ship Calypso.