“The Living” by Matt de la Pena is told from the perspective of a cruise ship employee in the event of disaster. The ship goes under and he finds himself adrift at sea with no food or useful people. Shy, the main character comes from the border town, Otay Mesa in California. He decides to spend his summer working on a luxury cruise liner to help his family. Unfortunately the ship encounters rough waters and eventually sinks. There are not many survivors, but de la Pena does a wonderful job at describing them all die, one by one, each in their own horrific way, leaving only a few people out of the thousands on board alive. The book constantly twists the plot keeping you reading. However in hindsight you wonder how you did not make the connection. There are a lot of things I loved about this book. The unusual setting, taking place on a luxury cruise liner. The constantly changing plot direction, if you had not read the back of the book, you would be in complete shock at every event that happens. The characters were very fleshed out and you could feel the connection they had. I’m never left disappointed by this author. However I do have some gripes. A lot of the things that happen could only happen in a movie. For example, out of the thousands of passengers, the only survivors were a few of his crew buddies, and other people he encountered on the ship. It gives the book a less genuine feeling. Also a lot of characters were introduced in the beginning and never to be heard of again. He could have probably left them out. Overall I really enjoyed this book and plan to read the sequel, “The Hunted” this time I’m not going to read the back cover and see if I have any clue of what’s going on. I would give this book a 5/5, It’s just really hard to not like a book that kept you reading.
Shy, the main character comes from the border town, Otay Mesa in California. He decides to spend his summer working on a luxury cruise liner to help his family. Unfortunately the ship encounters rough waters and eventually sinks. There are not many survivors, but de la Pena does a wonderful job at describing them all die, one by one, each in their own horrific way, leaving only a few people out of the thousands on board alive. The book constantly twists the plot keeping you reading. However in hindsight you wonder how you did not make the connection.
There are a lot of things I loved about this book. The unusual setting, taking place on a luxury cruise liner. The constantly changing plot direction, if you had not read the back of the book, you would be in complete shock at every event that happens. The characters were very fleshed out and you could feel the connection they had. I’m never left disappointed by this author.
However I do have some gripes. A lot of the things that happen could only happen in a movie. For example, out of the thousands of passengers, the only survivors were a few of his crew buddies, and other people he encountered on the ship. It gives the book a less genuine feeling. Also a lot of characters were introduced in the beginning and never to be heard of again. He could have probably left them out.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and plan to read the sequel, “The Hunted” this time I’m not going to read the back cover and see if I have any clue of what’s going on. I would give this book a 5/5, It’s just really hard to not like a book that kept you reading.