Review - The Raft by S.A. Bodeen

Author - S.A. Bodeen
Publisher - Feiwel & Friends
Release Date - August 21st, 2012, 231 Pages

Robie is an experienced traveler. She’s taken the flight from Honolulu to the Midway Atoll, a group of Pacific islands where her parents live, many times. When she has to get to Midway in a hurry after a visit with her aunt in Hawaii, she gets on the next cargo flight at the last minute. She knows the pilot, but on this flight, there’s a new co-pilot named Max. All systems are go until a storm hits during the flight. The only passenger, Robie doesn’t panic until the engine suddenly cuts out and Max shouts at her to put on a life jacket. They are over miles of Pacific Ocean. She sees Max struggle with a raft. 

And then . . . she’s in the water. Fighting for her life. Max pulls her onto the raft, and that’s when the real terror begins. They have no water. Their only food is a bag of Skittles. There are sharks. There is an island. But there’s no sign of help on the way.

     *A review copy was provided through Netgalley from Feiwel & Friends for review purposes*

 The Raft starts off giving us some history of our main character Robie and why she lives on Midway Atoll, a group of Pacific islands. Her parents are researchers so to get away from being on that small island all the time she will escape to Honolulu to stay with her aunt. I really liked the beginning part on how everything went down. She was staying with her aunt, aunt had to leave for business and only agreed to Robie staying there if a friend checked in on her, friend fell through, Robie never told anyone and thought she was going to have a blast by herself only to get a shocking dose of reality by a creepy dude. This sets her in motion to go back home to her parents thus the true story begins.

I was gripped with adrenaline while reading what was going on during the accident and shortly after; you couldn’t have ripped my Nook out of my hands if you tried. But sadly things didn’t hold so well for me throughout the rest. I always give my best when reading so I continued hoping that Robie would smarten up a bit but unfortunately she didn’t. I myself have never been stranded or went days without food or water but I do know this; IF I ever did and food presented itself to me and it had been like 4-6 days since I had eaten…well sorry my sea friend…I’m going to nom nom on you just sayin.

I just wasn’t able to really relate with Robie or connect with her during the survival part (I think I actually yelled at my Nook a time or two). Some things were very predictable while others did leave me a little shocked I must say. I’ve seen mixed things on this one so maybe it’s just me, I’m not sure. I did like it enough to finish it and glad that I did but again it just wasn’t that WOW for me. The ending did give Robie some closure on some things that had happened and she was still trying to figure out what really happened during those days, what conversations may or may not have taken place, so for her to start getting a grip on things again was nice to see. Overall it was a quick read and one that you could read in either one sitting or put down and pick back up without feeling lost. 

-Shellie