To Hear The Ocean Sigh by Bryant A. Loney: Book Review

 *No. of pages: 276

 *Average Rating on Goodreads: 4.82/5

 *My Rating on Goodreads: 4/5

*Date of Published: April 21^st, 2015 by Verona Booksellers

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SYNOPSIS Via Goodreads:

Jay Murchison believes he is a nobody at his high school in Oklahoma. Coming from a conservative family of affordable luxury, Jay has an overwhelming desire to become something great. After a mysterious girl named Saphnie in North Carolina mistakenly texts him, an unlikely relationship develops that affects Jay’s self-perception and influences the rest of his sophomore year. This correspondence leads him to a group of thrill-seekers who provide a grand departure from the quiet life Jay is familiar with and eye-opening experiences to witness first-hand the truth behind the loose morals his fellow classmates have come to know.

In a story filled with injustice, hope, hatred, love, grief, and understanding, readers will ask themselves what it truly means to hear the ocean sigh and learn of the dire consequences that come with its responsibilities.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Via Goodreads:

 

Bryant A. Loney is an 18-year-old growing up in the U.S. Heartland. You can follow him on Twitter (@BALoney) and visit his website at BryantLoney.com. He was born on the 4^th of July, year 1997 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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Notes:

This is a spoiler-free review to encourage my blog readers to fully enjoy the pages of To Hear The Ocean Sigh by Bryant A. Loney. Verona Booksellers, the publisher of the book from Tulsa, Oklahoma, contacted me to write a book review of this young adult novel—and I certainly do not regret accepting the offer!

Review:

To Hear The Ocean Sigh by Bryant A. Loney really is befitting for the young adults of this generation who suffer from teenage dramas and conflicts. In this book, you would learn more about the injustice of life, of misunderstandings, peer pressure, depression and of course—you would learn more about the grand schemes of life, of serendipity, of friendship, and of love.

The protagonist, Jay Murchison lived his sixteen years of existence being a nobody. His life was all about going to school and going home, nothing more and nothing less. But everything changed when Saphnie, a popular girl with an adventurous and outgoing personality that lives miles away from Jay, accidentally texted him despite them not knowing each other. With just a wrong sent message that Jay has received, everything changes in his life. He finally has someone to talk to and even though it was not intended, Saphnie became a bridge for Jay to finally make friends and to experience things he never thought he would do.

Jay Murchison is a character that a lot can relate to. A lot of teenagers nowadays suffer anxiety, depression and feels isolated from everyone due to the feeling of being an outsider, an outcast, or even a loner. And although this may be a negative thing, most (if not all), loves an underdog—and Jay might just be one. Yet getting to exchange text messages with Saphnie brought new changes into his life. Saphnie suggested a book for Jay to read, which served as a bridge for him to be friends with Lily, while Lily served as a bridge for Jay to have more new friends and new experiences to add to his boring life.

Truth be told, the story was a bit slow and unprogressive, causing the first few chapters to be a drag. But all of that transformed into something exciting and exhilarating as obstacles and unexpected turn of events happens in Jay’s life. With that obstacle is finding out how his newfound friends admitted that they saw him as what statistics online have been talking about: that in a class, one is bound to commit or attempt suicide—and they saw that one person as him. Then, an opportunity showed up to which he could finally show that he is not what everyone thinks he is. That even though he is quiet, alone, and seen as an outsider, he definitely is not suicidal just because of those.

Everyone misinterprets and misunderstood one another, just how it really goes. Sometimes, just because a person is always alone and has no friends does not automatically mean that he is suicidal and does not see his life as something wonderful and important. Because sometimes, those who appear with huge grins plastered on their faces and has everyone wave at them as they are entering a house party just because they have numerous likes on social networking sites… are actually the ones who are suffering and are the ones who hides behind a façade to which underneath lies the dire need to end what they see as their worthless and fake life.

Saphnie and all of Jay’s new friends teaches him to savor life and every step of it; even to overcome insecurities and to come to an understanding to all of the theories and questions there are about life even though those thoughts started to dwell in your mind due to a newly released book in the first place.

I bet some of you may have heard (if not read!) of All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, and this book struck me the way it did. I am very much not comparing it due to the fact that they are SOOO different from each other but because of implicating the heavy problem of prominent suicidal issues of teenagers nowadays. All The Bright Places may have been obvious of its theme, yet in To Hear The Ocean Sigh, everything that came out small turned out to be actually something big as the story progresses.

After reading To Hear The Ocean Sigh, it reminded me of how Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider, Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns by John Green made me feel as I close the book. That was how much the book pulled at my heartstrings and made me rethink and reanalyze my life and the people around me. So if you read any of the said books, you may now have an idea as to what the ending seemed like!

This book is all about:

-Stepping out of your comfort zone and discovering how much it could teach you;

-Having real friends no matter how few is more important than being popular and with a lot of fake ones;

-There is always more to what we see and what we know of a person and of a situation;

-Strict parents create sneaky kids, but no matter what, an individual should always know his/her limits. Because at the end of the day, the choices we make is always ours;

-And of course, a whole lot more!

I encourage you guys to start looking for a copy of Bryant A. Loney’s amazing novel! For I assure you that is jampacked with lessons about life, friendship, and love, and of course, with characters that has such colorful personalities and beautiful thoughts. So join me, read To Hear The Ocean Sigh to find out how does the ocean sigh, and wonder after that if you would ever have the privilege to hear it. 🙂

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Stay tuned for my next blog post: My chat with Bryant A. Loney, the author of To Hear The Ocean Sigh himself!

Follow him on Twitter: @BALoney

And check out his website on: BryantLoney.com

Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider: Book Review

*No. of pages: 336

 *Average Rating on Goodreads: 4.03/5

 *My Rating on Goodreads: 5/5

 

SYNOPSIS via Goodreads:

At seventeen, overachieving Lane finds himself at Latham House, a sanatorium for teens suffering from an incurable strain of tuberculosis. Part hospital and part boarding school, Latham is a place of endless rules and confusing rituals, where it’s easier to fail breakfast than it is to flunk French.

There, Lane encounters a girl he knew years ago. Instead of the shy loner he remembers, Sadie has transformed. At Latham, she is sarcastic, fearless, and utterly compelling. Her friends, a group of eccentric troublemakers, fascinate Lane, who has never stepped out of bounds his whole life. And as he gradually becomes one of them, Sadie shows him their secrets: how to steal internet, how to sneak into town, and how to disable the med sensors they must wear at all times.

But there are consequences to having secrets, particularly at Latham House. And as Lane and Sadie begin to fall in love and their group begins to fall sicker, their insular world threatens to come crashing down.

Told in alternating points of view, Extraordinary Means is a darkly funny story about doomed friendships, first love, and the rare miracle of second chances.

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Review:

*MAY CONTAIN MINOR SPOILERS*

They say that Robyn Schneider’s Extraordinary Means is John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars meets Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park but I beg to disagree. Extraordinary Means is its own captivating story about life as art, pain, beauty, change, magic, possibilities, chances and “what ifs”. Robyn Schneider managed to form a story about a tragic love story as two young persons finds love in the most unexpected place where love is nothing but a lost cause. Mixed with romance, humor, and inspiration—Extraordinary Means would teach us that life goes on until it doesn’t.

Life, for the characters in this book, is undoubtedly unfair. They are young and they are supposed to be enjoying their youth, not protected in Latham House where their meals are monitored, where teachers are afraid to give them French homework in fear they would die because of it, and where med sensors are bracelets. That’s why over-achiever Lane, was determined to be well enough to leave Latham House as soon as possible because stacks of AP tasks and applications for Stanford University awaits him. Little did he know that he would meet someone from the past—Sadie. And little did he know that Sadie feels strong resentment for him over an occurrence during their time back in summer camp when she was 13 years old.

Before entering the walls of Latham House, Sadie was a nobody in the outside world. But being in Latham House with her newfound friends, she was cool. She was a rebel, she was confident—a girl she would have never been out in the real world. And the same goes for Lane. Before, he lived a predictable life, too keen to achieve his goals but when he got close to Sadie and her friends, he realized that he was missing out on life, only realizing it now when death can come knocking on his door and to anyone in Latham House anytime.

The characters in Extraordinary Means are unique and amazing. Witty, funny, and their personalities mold in such a beautiful way that you can never expect from someone who had been neglected of the chance to live a normal life. But they are living, and they are surely making the most out of it together. They are extraordinary, fun, and marvelous. It pulled a lot of heartstrings, that they changed for the best even if Tuberculosis took a lot from them, creating such harsh and drastic changes that are way out of anyone’s control. However, they were still able to start having good stories even in the most unexpected place—they still had magic in a place where everything seemed to be composed of nothing but false hope.

Relationships in Latham are absurd. Because an individual either goes home or leaves the face of the Earth, bottom-line is: someone always gets left behind. That’s why even though falling in love is not an option, Lane and Sadie did. Every experience they’ve had, every extraordinary and fun moments they shared, was supposed to begun years ago back in summer camp. It was just how it should’ve been four years ago if only one of them had the courage to say hello, a lot of what ifs crossed their minds because now that it is happening, they both know in the back of their minds that it is not meant to last no matter how beautiful it may seem. But, despite the tragedy of the story, Robyn has this creative way of making her readers forget about the tragic part and just make your toes tingle due to it being so romantic!

Latham House promised miracles just like any facility of some sort—but Sadie, on the other hand, who gave up on miracles long ago and saw Latham as a place for waiting instead of miracles. Yet Lane came in and she realized that Lane might be the miracle that Latham House has long promised.

However, the magic of their group subsides when the miracle Latham House promised really arrived—a cure. Everyone rejoiced over the too good to be true fact that they are finally going to be healed and can rejoin everyone outside. Everyone rejoiced but Sadie, who can no longer see the outside world as her life. She was afraid. Whilst everyone including Lane talked about possibilities, plan, and ideas for the future—she mourned over another change yet again and the fear that their group would cease to exist once they no longer share that one thing that brought them together—sickness. Sadie was terrified on where her relationship with Lane may end up, seeing that he is eager to live his old life again while Sadie does not know how to take a step forward for the future she thought she would never have again.

That’s when things came tumbling down and the flow of the story is unbelievably exciting and inspiring. I felt myself clutching my chest as everything gets ruined. They were supposed to be invincible, their group was supposed to stay.

Robyn Schneider did not disappoint with the ending, which I admit was the opposite of what I felt with the The Beginning of Everything. I loved everything about Extraordinary Means even though it broke my heart to tiny pieces. Inspiring, captivating, realistic, painful—it would make you rethink of your life, of your past and future, and make you take a second look on how you are working on your present. Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider is a highly recommended book that would teach us how to love and how to live even if life might no longer go on.