The Sea Is Salt and So Am I

Title:

The Sea Is Salt and So Am I

Author:

Hartt, Cassandra

Subject:

Coming Of Age

Depression

Family

Social Themes

Young Adult Fiction

Siblings

Description:

I'll Give You the Sun meets Normal People in Cassandra Hartt's The Sea Is Salt and So Am I, a stunning YA contemporary debut that asks if the secrets we keep and the people we love can change who we are. "Achingly beautiful."-Rachael Lippincott, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Five Feet Apart "Turbulent and tender, this deeply-felt debut will make your heart swell time and time again."-Julia Drake, author of The Last True Poets of the Sea West Finch is one hurricane away from falling into the sea. Yet sixteen-year-old Harlow Prout is determined to save her small Maine hometown. If only she could stop getting in her own way and find someone, anyone, willing to help. But her best friend Ellis MacQueen "fixes" problems by running away from them-including his broken relationship with his twin brother, Tommy. And Tommy's depression has hit a new low, so he's not up for fixing anything. In the wake of the town's latest devastating storm, Tommy goes out for a swim that he doesn't intend to survive. It's his unexpected return that sets into motion a sea change between these three teens. One that tests old loyalties, sparks new romance, and uncovers painful secrets. And nothing stays secret in West Finch for long. Exquisitely honest and shimmering with emotion, The Sea is Salt and So Am I is a captivating multi-POV story that probes the depths of what it means to love and trust-both ourselves and others.

Publisher:

Roaring Brook Press

Date:

2021-06-08

Summary

I'll Give You the Sun meets Normal People in Cassandra Hartt's The Sea Is Salt and So Am I , a stunning YA contemporary debut that asks if the secrets we keep and the people we love can change who we are.

"Achingly beautiful."--Rachael Lippincott, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Five Feet Apart

"Turbulent and tender, this deeply-felt debut will make your heart swell time and time again."--Julia Drake, author of The Last True Poets of the Sea

West Finch is one hurricane away from falling into the sea.

Yet sixteen-year-old Harlow Prout is determined to save her small Maine hometown. If only she could stop getting in her own way and find someone, anyone , willing to help. But her best friend Ellis MacQueen "fixes" problems by running away from them--including his broken relationship with his twin brother, Tommy. And Tommy's depression has hit a new low, so he's not up for fixing anything.

In the wake of the town's latest devastating storm, Tommy goes out for a swim that he doesn't intend to survive. It's his unexpected return that sets into motion a sea change between these three teens. One that tests old loyalties, sparks new romance, and uncovers painful secrets. And nothing stays secret in West Finch for long.

Exquisitely honest and shimmering with emotion, The Sea is Salt and So Am I is a captivating multi-POV story that probes the depths of what it means to love and trust--both ourselves and others.

Author Notes

Cassandra Hartt grew up in upstate New York and Maine, where she spent most of her childhood among the seaside suburbs and rocky beaches that inspired the fictional town of West Finch. She went on to earn an English degree from Dartmouth College and currently works as a program manager for Google. She lives in the Bay Area and wishes she had a dog.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

White and 16, identical twins Tommy and Ellis, as well as Ellis's best friend Harlow, all live in the fictional town of West Finch, Maine, which is collapsing into the ocean--a metaphor for the precariousness of the teens' lives. After Tommy, who is depressed, attempts to drown himself in the same sea, Harlow's efforts to help him, despite their tense past, result in a romance that poisons Harlow's complex friendship with Ellis and reveals a history of toxic secrets. The first-person narration shifts indistinctly between Harlow, a violet-eyed teen with a drive to fix coastlines and people; Tommy, an artist who has lost his ability to draw ("Art happens in my head and my head is no longer a safe place to be"); and Ellis, a competitive runner who dates across the gender spectrum and, following a childhood accident, uses a prosthetic leg. Debut author Hartt portrays Tommy's depression persuasively, but temporal and physical details are less carefully rendered. The book opens with a trigger warning and concludes with an author's note that includes resources for LGBTQ youth and readers navigating mental illness. Ages 14--up. Agent: Jennifer Rofé, Andrea Brown Literary. (June)

Kirkus Review

Three small-town teens navigate sea changes both personal and environmental. After another storm in West Finch, Maine, withdrawn artist Tommy MacQueen attempts suicide while on a swim. His survival triggers events that change both his future and those of his confident twin, Ellis, a bisexual amputee and track star, and Ellis' best friend, activist Harlow Prout. Estranged ever since Harlow entered their lives and drawn further apart by Tommy's depression, the MacQueen brothers struggle to regain their childhood bond. Harlow begins a secret relationship with Tommy out of pity, but what's meant as a distraction becomes a tender romance between the formerly bitter enemies. Harlow and Ellis' volatile friendship is given equal weight in the narrative: Vacillating between codependency and profound devotion, their relationship is the novel's heart. Insular West Finch is as atmospheric and colorful as Tommy's paintings, overshadowed by the acceptance of its own eventual destruction through coastal erosion. Hartt is uninterested in easy answers, unspooling mysteries and emotions that shift what we thought we knew about characters caught in realistically nonlinear growth. The points of view are specific and well realized, with belligerent, loving Harlow, a fixer unable to stop breaking things, being a particular standout. Tommy's recovery proceeds in complicated fits and starts; his depression is portrayed with sensitivity. Main characters default to White. A melancholy and thoughtful debut. (author's note) (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.