Adrift by Paul Griffin

Reviewed by Lori

Adrift

Title: Adrift

Author: Paul Griffin

Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 104210


Description: Taking a job in Montauk for the summer, best friends Matt and Mike meet a couple girls who enjoy lives of privilege before the group becomes lost at sea in a small boat and must overcome respective differences in order to survive.


Rubric Rating: Level 4 - Love it!


Why I Read It: I picked this book at the 2016 Reading for the Love of It Conference in Toronto.  I was just going to glance at it quickly and ended up starting to read it right there.


Lori's Notes: This book is a very quick read and I finished it over the course of two days.  Matt and John have been friends for years and are bonded over a shared tragedy in their past.  Matt is smart and hoping to head to Yale, John is pragmatic and is planning to become an electrician.  They're spending their summer working the tourist beaches selling drinks and ice cream and this is how they meet Driana (Dri), Estefania and her boyfriend Jojo.  Matt is immediately smitten with Dri and when she invites them to a party at her house he drags John along with them.  But events quickly turn when impulsive Estefania decides to go wind-sailing at night.  Heading out into the sea the four others chase her in a neighbour's boat but not before calling the police.  Unfortunately this is the beginning of a set of events that set the teens on a path that will change all of them forever.  All of them head out to sea and not all of them return, and none of them return the same.  This book is a fantastic read for curriculum study as there are many topics that can be discussed from survival strategies to life-altering decisions.  The characters in this novel were well described and distinctly different.  Matt and John's tragic back story influences how they react in this life and death situation and you feel as a reader you can understand why they make the decisions they do.  I also really liked that Dri's character is kind, compassionate, strong, as well as intelligent.  It's nice to have a female character who isn't a damsel in distress so much as "in the same boat" as the male characters.  I also appreciated the idea that while tragedy can bring people together it can also pull them apart.

Recommended Readers: Grade 9 & 10 English Courses for curriculum study.  The book is suitable for both Academic and Applied level courses.  Grade 7 and up Library.

Favourite Passages: 

  • Own your greatness son.  False humility doesn't become a gentleman.  (4)
  • Right there on the borderline I'm about to become somebody else, somebody I'm not ready to be. (82)
  • The real drag about being stuck on the water is the monotony.  Even the constant feeling of terror becomes boring. (97)
  • Look, we've been here before, and I'm getting tired of it.  Why do you always have to put yourself in harm's way? (116)
  • It was good anger.  It was justified.  (120)
  • The label means nothing to me.  I was right to do what I did that night, to try to hold you back, to save myself when I got the chance, and I would do it again, just the way way. (146)
  • She did it for you.  She did it to protect you.  That doesn't go away, that feeling.  It never goes away. (202)


Themes: Survival at Sea, Teen Relationships, Friendship, Loss, Fathers and Sons, Personality Differences, Coping with Tragedy/Stress, Life or Death Decisions, Teenagers, Sailing/Boating

Cross-Genre Links: 
Music: Message in a Bottle performed by The Police
Movie: Castaway (2000)
Movie: Life of Pi (2012)
Poem: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Websearch: Sea Survivors

Inquiries and Activities: 

  • How might the situation have been different if Matt or John had stayed on the beach to wait for the police?
  • Discuss how one choice can affect your whole life.
  • What do the teens need to survive 15 days on the ocean?
  • What character are you most like?
  • Create a list of character traits for Matt, John, Dri, Jojo and Estefania
  • Why does it take so long before a search and rescue team is sent out?
  • How are the teens finally rescued?
  • What happens after they are rescued?
  • How does this event change each of them?
  • Discuss boating and safety.  What items should you always have when boating/sailing?  Why is it important to tell people what you are doing and where you are going?  


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