Sea Change
Ratings8
Average rating3.9
Ro is stuck. She’s just entered her thirties, she’s estranged from her mother, and her boyfriend has just left her to join a mission to Mars. Her days are spent dragging herself to her menial job at the aquarium, and her nights are spent drinking sharktinis (Mountain Dew and copious amounts of gin, plus a hint of jalapeño). With her best friend pulling away to focus on her upcoming wedding, Ro’s only companion is Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus who also happens to be Ro’s last remaining link to her father, a marine biologist who disappeared while on an expedition when Ro was a teenager.
When Dolores is sold to a wealthy investor intent on moving her to a private aquarium, Ro finds herself on the precipice of self-destruction. Wading through memories of her youth, Ro realizes she can either lose herself in the undertow of reminiscence, or finally come to terms with her childhood trauma, recommit to those around her, and find her place in an ever-changing world.
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Hiii! mini disclaimer - I did recieve this book for free because I won it in a [Goodreads] giveaway via vintage/anchor books :)
I was ecstatic when I recieved the email saying I'd won a copy of this book because it was a release I had been actively looking forward to - & thankfully I can say that it certainly did not disappoint!
The author clearly put a ton of love and raw emotion into the writing of this book & it was such a wonderful read.
Following Ro's journey of love & loss, and everything in-between as she navigates life from young age(s) to her 30s, was equal parts heartwarming & at times (ouch chapter 10) heartbreaking.
Also really adored her 'relationship' with Dolores! [a charismatic, color-changing, giant pacific octopus]
Can I just say I am here for messy Korean-American female protagonists. In Sea Change, Ro is going through it in this slightly skewed near future world. At 30 she's still mourning the loss of her father — who disappeared 15 years ago researching the Bering Vortex, the most polluted region of the world's ever warming ocean. Her boyfriend has left her — to join a privately funded mission to colonize Mars. And her best friend is moving on with her life, getting married and selling the one consoling constant in Ro's life — a giant mutant octopus that lives in a mall aquarium. When the kids say “it's complicated”, they're not kidding.
Ro is decidedly not dealing with any of it — instead she's hitting bars and driving home drunk, or holing up at home downing gin and Mountain Dew and obsessing over how everyone in her life leaves. She is flailing and failing and generally making a mess of things as she leaves her 20's behind. It's that struggle to keep moving forward despite the losses, to hope for more, and to invite a little grace into her life that I loved. I'll raise a sharktini to that any day.
