Digesting this book may take a while

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sarahreads95 Avatar

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I'll preface this review by saying, this may be a spoiler filled rambling of all my feelings toward this book, sorry in advance if it comes out a mess.

I'm not entirely sure where to begin. This 368 page book felt, and read, very much like a one thousand page book. Where I'm normally a two night kinda gal, The Sea Is Salt and So Am I took me every bit of a week to finish. Every time I thought I was chugging away, Id see that only twenty pages had gone by. There were times I wanted to devour the content, and other times where I had to pretty much drag myself through it.

I dont think Ill even be able to accurately describe my feeling toward these characters- other than I know who my favorite was. And its a tie between Tommy and Goose.

Certain parts of this book and things harlow or ellis, hell even tommy at times, thought or did really struck me as odd, uncomfortable or uncalled for. Then I think about being a teen again, and all the conflicting, selfish, sometimes destructive things people do, and I could excuse it away like that.

The setting was painted well enough, but Im the type to often never piece a whole picture together while I read, but West Finch became a fairly clear picture in my head.

The internal conflict is what keeps this story moving for me, more than the threat of the town washing away to sea.
Sometimes I felt overwhelmed for the characters, like they were given almost too much to deal with.

Everything but the kitchen sink. Ya know? Twins, amputees, lgbtq, depressed, suicidal, athlete, quirky girl, bad luck bound, rescue dog with cancer. Im sure im missing some (and oops a little spoiler) but at times I felt like everything imaginable was gifted randomly between Harlow, Ellis and Tommy, and they had to helplessly make their way through it all.

Im rambling, and forgetting things Im positive. I finished this last night and woke up to write this review, still reeling from the cliffie that I angrily reread three times until I slammed the book closed. THIS IS NOT, IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM, A HEA. and it kinda killed me. Ellis is so much more mentally in need of help to me than tommy at times. The manipulation he puts harlow through at the end, for fear of losing her, made me cringe. That I pushed through (at times), shipping Harlow and Tommy, just to have a total of a page and a half of third person narrative, wrapping up absolutely nothing and being left with the idea that all of that for nothing. I dont know, I may not be making any sense, but I know at one point last night I said "what the fuck" atleast a few good times.



Longest review ever, and I cant even sum up my feelings. I dont know. I finished it. I could touch on depression, suicidal ideation, everything other people are, but my thoughts for this story just refuse to be organized enough to type.