Ruslan, a young boy who lives with his father in the village of Ujing Karang, finds himself alone after the devestating tsunami that hits the coast of Indonesia. Sarah, an American teenager and her younger brother Peter, were on vacation on a sailboat with their parents when the tsunami came ashore. Now separated from their parents, they meet up with Ruslan and are now heading inland. But the devastation left over from the tsunami is only half their troubles. With little food to eat, the children have to worry about starving, wild animals, rebel fighters and finding a doctor for the feverish Peter.
Purchased at my daughter’s bookfair last spring, I was instantly attracted to the beautiful book cover of The Killing Sea by Richard Lewis. Too bad the story didn’t match the exterior.
To the author’s credit, Lewis describes the tsunami in terrifying detail, as you can see in this passage:
Ruslan sprinted up the lane, dodging around slower runners. From behind him came a sound like a thousand bulldozers at full throttle, ripping through buildings and grinding them up. He glanced over his shoulder. A tremendous wall of black water had swept onto the south side of the peninsula and another onto the north, both submerging not only buildings but also coconut palms. The two walls collided with a deafening thunderclap that dwarfed the grinding road. White spray erupted hundreds of feet high.
The author has spent time as a volunteer relief aide worker right after the tsunami and even though this is a work of fiction, Lewis was able to integrate the survivors real life account of survival into the descriptions of his story. Definitely written for a young adult audience (12 and up) the book deals less with the emotional journey of the characters and more about their physical fight for survival. This is where The Killing Sea misses the mark. Quite possibly this was the author’s intention, to tell a simple story of survival in terrible conditions. But by only writing two dimensional characters who lacked depth, there wasn’t an immediate connection between the reader and the story.
All in all I thought that The Killing Sea was an ok read, but nothing great.
Please note that the author is donating a portion of the book royalties to help the Acehnese people devastated by the tsunami.
I wonder if the author thought it would be too much for younger readers to take if he wrote a deeper story. I think, tho’, that for ages 12 and up, it’s important to make them understand the realities of the world around them.
You are probably correct, although in doing so he left the story feeling dry and souless.
This one sounds good. I am going to see if any of my libraries carries it. I am on a book buying diet so that sucks,
Thanks for the review – I think I’ll skip this one.
Hey Lady! The artwork on the cover is taken from the famous Hokusai Katsushika print maker’s “In the Hollow of a Wave off the Coast at Kanagawa.” I LOVE his work!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokusai
Thanks Karen for enlightening me!
Of course Darling!
I love the cover. It reminds me of Japanese woodprints.
I have skimmed this book- it is in my classroom, and so far only one student read it, and she thought it was “a yawner”.
I agree that even though it is for a younger age set, they CAN understand a lot and if they have supportive parents, teachers, and other adults in their lives to help them process the information, they can read some pretty heavy stuff.