Review: The Raft by S.A. Bodeen

Release Date: August 21, 2012
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Rating: YA 14+
Genre: Avdenture (Survival), Thriller
Pages: 231

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.

I've been feeling in the mood for a survival novel for a long time, so when I spotted The Raft in the bookstore, I was ecstatic. It promised everything I wanted in a book right then: sharks, a plane crash, and a raft. Even though I finished this book yesterday, I really can't remember much about it, which only happens when a book just doesn't do it for me or when I'm incredibly tired. Since I'd just come back rested from my holidays, I gather it was the former. For me The Raft was a lightning-quick read that was gripping, tense, and exciting, but not by any means memorable.

Our two main characters in the book are Max and Robie. Robie, a fifteen-year-old who's spent her whole life living on an isolated island in Hawaii with her two parents, was frustrating. Sure, at times she was likable and easy to understand and get along with, but most of the time she was whiny and weak. Most of her sentences began with 'I can't', 'I don't', or 'I'm not'. Sometimes I just felt like slapping her! Bodeen, if you're going to write us a survival story, at least include a strong MC who we can, and want to, root for? Max wasn't really present in the book (you'll see why later on) and he spent most of his time sleeping, except for the times when he would just randomly start talking about himself...

The writing style was way too repetitive in my opinion, and centered mainly around Robie's feelings and actions. At one point I almost like the author would start saying 'Watch Robie eat! Watch Robie sleep! Uh-oh, the big bad shark is coming for Robie, what will she do?!' But even that would have been more entertaining than having to painstakingly read about Robie counting skittles, and then sorting them into their respective colors (btw guys, Robie doesn't like the brown ones!) Useful, right? No.

Survival stories (true and made up ones) affect me like nothing else, they're so fascinating and really tug at my heart strings - how can anyone endure that much pain, torture, whatever, and get through it? But of course, they have to be well-written, and The Raft, to put in plainly, wasn't. The twist in the end, though, I have to admit, was really well done. I didn't see it coming at all! And then everything made sense; not the irritating writing structure or annoying MC, but, you know, some other parts of the book. While I know I've been raving about just how much this book wasn't for me and how frustrating it was, I finished it in a mere two hours, because if nothing else, it is gripping, exciting, nerve-wracking, and I suppose not a complete waste of time.

If you like this, try:

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Survive by Alex Morel

Lost Girls by Ann Kelley