Adrift by Charlie Sheldon follows characters through the fiery death of a ship, survival on a lifeboat in the high seas, and attempts to reclaim the crew and ship amongst treacherous conditions. The book follows multiple characters throughout this journey, with the point-of-view changing every few pages. The reader makes sure the crew is safe with the captain and attempts to save the boat with a salvage crew, amongst other roles. Each change in character provides a unique backstory and perspective as dozens of people attempt to navigate, not just the rolling waves, but the situation itself.
The biggest positive of the book, for me, was the detail and imagery that the author put into his book. For example;
I pulled the above quote because I believe it is a good, albeit small, instance of how the author strategically uses imagery. It really sucked me into the story.“As the ship plowed forward, the wind whipped the flames higher, rising before the stacked containers. Now, against the flame, I saw thick smoke.”
Objectively, however, there were some points where the author may use too much imagery. Part of the fun of reading is taking the words on the page and creating a movie in your mind. Too much imagery and detail detract from the reader’s ability to independently create this movie. Sure, the author may have specific details that he/she wants to portray to the reader, but there is a fine line between just enough and too much. Personally, I thought the author did well walking this line, but I did notice at points where it was too much and distracted from the story.
I would recommend reading the book and making your own decision on this. In fact, I would recommend reading the book in general! Those interested in survival stories would really get into this, but I would warn that although the book does focus on survival in the high seas, it also tells a survival story of those trying to retrieve the ship. It was a different turn on a generic survival story, which may intrigue some and turn away others.
Overall, I rated the book 3 out of 4 stars. I, unfortunately, could not give the book a perfect four as there were some minor grammar and spelling errors throughout the book. Nothing major, but the book could have used another proofread. I thought there may be some misplaced punctuation as well, but this may be the author’s stylistic choice and I simply found some sentences odd to read at times. In total, however, the book does appear to be professionally edited and was well done. Definitely worth taking a peek!
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Adrift
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