Ellis and Harlow and Tommy: high school teenagers with inter-twined lives. With chapters from their separate perspectives, the beginning of The Sea is Salt and So Am I reveals their unvoiced anxieties, their heartsickness, their despair. Set in a small town in Maine where the ocean is visibly eroding the coastline, this novel, miraculously, does not feel depressing. There are too many unknowns inspiring our curiosity: Why doesn't Ellis realize what Harlow feels for him? Why did Tommy and Ellis's parents divorce? Why did Tommy swim out so far in the sea that it was clear he didn't plan to come back? Radical changes have begun in this town and we must follow them to their conclusions.