This is more character driven than a plot driven storyline, if that's your thing definitely pick up this Twelfth Night retelling. I wanted more of the background and shipwreck story but the characters are very well developed and keep you turning the pages. Violet, Sam, Liv, Orion and all the side characters are amazing. Loved the way the characters all came together at the end.

The Last True Poets of the Sea didn’t resonate with me. Violet’s perspective of her brother struggling with mental health issues is new and refreshing in that genre. After being sent away, for her behavior, to her uncle’s small town, Violet settles by throwing herself into researching an ancient shipwreck. This shipwreck has a lot of family ancestry connected to Violet; as she is now on a quest to find this ship. This is one of those stories where the character grows after focusing on something positive (finding the ship). There are some likeable moments in this story, but not enough to keep me engaged.

If you’re looking for a compelling character driven book, this is probably for you. I enjoyed this book, but I tend to enjoy more plot driven books so it was difficult for me to get into this one due to the fact that I was always wondering when something was going to happen. Trigger warnings for suicide attempts

This is such a lovely, and rather hard-hitting, story (and from a debut no less!) that it feels a little strange to not rave about it and slap it with a high rating. But while there was so much good, so much of it moving, some of it also left me a little unmoved, too.

<I>I became a bad sister and a bad daughter in an hour; an exile in just under two. By comparison, the <b>Titanic</b> sunk in two hours, forty minutes. Pretty impressive, to have sunk to the bottom even faster than the twentieth century's greatest shipwreck.</I>

Tackling issues of depression, anxiety, self-harm, grief, and self-destructive behaviour, the story takes place against the backdrop of a small seaside town in Maine, featuring the mystery of a shipwreck, a romance that bloomed after, and focusing on the ancestors of the sole survivor of that long-ago tragedy.

<I>I didn't think it was possible to be blindsided by a truth you've always suspected, but there you have it. As it turns out, it's devastating.</I>

The story is queer, and lyrical, and funny, with quirky weirdness and awkwardness and charm. All from the perspective of a tall girl -- woo! It's got a lot of things going for it and I really did love the writing, too. So while this one maybe, for whatever reason, didn't quite hit the mark, I will totally be keeping an eye on this new author and definitely picking up her next book.

<I>There wasn't going to be magic healing; there'd be only a strong of ands on which we'd thread our survival.</I>

This is definitely going to be a hit for a lot of people, I think. I just wish I could count myself among them.

I did not finish this book. I could not get into it the way I hoped. I found the story hard to follow at the beginning with no real background information and the story jumping around. Although I know this is an ARC and the formatting is not perfect, I found the random emoji wherever there should be an 'ft' in a word incredibly distracting. I hope to try this book again when it is in print form and fully formatted and edited.

Lovely retelling of Twelfth Night! I cried a bit at the end. The brother sister relationship was my favorite part. Some clunky bits but overall a good read.

4 (enthusiastic) Stars
Oh gosh. This book. This book made me cry no less than three times. It was embarrassing, really.
The Last True Poets of the Sea is about Violet who, to be blunt, has a lot of problems. After her brother attempts suicide she gets sent to a small beach town called Lyric for the summer. She’s kind of a big deal in this town as her ancestors founded it after her great great great-grandmother survived a shipwreck right off the coast. When Violet arrives she quickly makes a few friends, all of whom I absolutely adored. They kind of couldn't be more perfect. As for Violet, she was likeably unlikeable which is arguably my favorite kind of character to read about. I felt for her so much during her struggles and her internal dialogue was both heart-breaking and hilarious. The setting was fabulous. I love books set in small towns and small beach towns are even better. Lyric was just so cute and wholesome and I just really felt like I was there. My only complaint about this book, and where it lost a star from me, was that at times the writing felt pretty disjointed. I don't know exactly how to describe it but we would be going along in a moment of Violet’s life one second and then the next we’d be off on some philosophical tangent. While it made sense in the context of the book it didn’t always make sense in the moment and it could be kind of jarring.
Overall this was a really solid, emotional book for me and I really loved it.

I am not that familiar with Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, which apparently this novel is an homage/retelling of, so I cannot review from that angle. But I think teens will be enthralled. There aren't many YA novels which deal with bisexuality, and I loved that this character knows who she is and is comfortable with it. . Violet's family seems to be the traditional New England stiff upper crust bury your feelings type, and as her brother has had (undefined) mental illness issues, she had numbed herself with drugs, alcohol and sex. When her brother attempts suicide, her parents send her to live with her Uncle (she thinks as punishment) and Violet swears to herself change and be more present. I also liked the fact that these changes are coming from her own voice, not from a punitive parent or uncle. Violet's journey is one of opening herself up to real relationships and love, both platonic and romantic. The form this takes is by diving into her family's history as the descendants of a lone survivor of a shipwreck, opening her up to new friends and romance possibilities. Just a gem of a novel,

"I couldn’t blame him and I couldn’t blame the shipwreck gene either. This looming disaster was all mine."

As an original contemporary, The Last True Poets of the Sea is spectacular. Full of high stakes, mystery, and adventure, the story feels huge in scope, even though we're just following a single girl through a single summer. I loved the humor, the honesty, and the deep character growth. This is a story of survival: painful, messy, but always worth it. Readers looking for f/f YA that still has everything they love about mainstream m/f reads will love this one.

As a Twelfth Night retelling, though, the book leaves much to be desired. Poets isn't interested in exploring ambiguity in gender, and it just doesn't make sense to invoke Twelfth Night if you're not going to use gender as a thematic center. When you take out the disguise plotline, the crossdressing, the musing on the fluidity of gender, and the comedic subplots, all you're left with is the seaside shipwreck setting (which works beautifully) and the love triangle (which doesn't). My full review goes into more detail about why I loved Violet's journey but was left a little cold by the romance.

Content warnings for The Last True Poets of the Sea include [teen drinking and drug use (on-page), off-page past suicide attempt (and discussion of suicidal ideation), some moderate language. There is some off-page consensual sex between teens as well as some on- and off-page sexual activity of dubious consensuality.

Thanks to Disney-Hyperion for providing me with an advance review copy of this title at no charge in expectation of an honest review. No money changed hands for this review and all opinions are my own.

First of all, thank you Netgalley and Disney books for an eARC!
I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy this one, but I think I did! It's such an interesting, quirky book.
I actually didn't know this until a bit later, but it's a Twelfth Night retelling, which is profoundly interesting to me, because Shakespeare retellings are so limited, and almost always it's Romeo and Juliet!!
Anywho, this was a really sweet, beautifully written book! I highly recommend it! Even if you're not sure, just pick it up and give it a try!!

Thank you to #NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for sharing an advance copy of The Last True Poets of the Sea with me. The book will be released on October 1, 2019. All opinions are my own.

Violet and her brother have always been told that in their family they persevere. Their great-great-great-grandmother, Fidelia, was the lone survivor of the Lyric shipwreck. Fidelia managed to make it to shore, fall in love, and found the small town of Lyric, Maine. Some would view this as lucky, but Violet believes her family is cursed with wrecks. Violet begins spinning out of control and then her younger brother attempts suicide. He is sent to Vermont for treatment and Violent is sent to Lyric to spend the summer with her Uncle Toby. Violet takes a job at the local aquarium, makes new friends, and becomes determined to figure out what really happened to Fidelia and unearth the lost Lyric shipwreck.

If I'm being honest, I don't really know how I feel about this book. There were some incredibly beautifully written passages in the book that I absolutely loved. At the same time though, I didn't really find myself invested in the book...in fact I found myself skimming the last few chapters just to finish it. I think that this book deals with some incredibly important topics: mental health, family, and identity. I just feel that there may have been too much exposition and rising action, not enough climax, and that the resolution came too quickly and easily. This is a YA book and includes both cursing and sexual content. I would not recommend this to younger readers (I'd say 9th grade at the youngest).

This was, without a doubt, one of the most amazing YA contemporaries that I have ever read.

Writing: ★★★★★
Humor: ★★★★★
Heartstrings: ★★★★★

The Last True Poets of the Sea hit me hard, knocked me out, and left me in the dust of its emotional magnificence. Like the coastal Maine, aquatic version of Jandy Nelson's The Sky is Everywhere, I couldn't stop the feelings. Talk about an unputdownable one-day read.

Violet Larkin grew up in a family of shipwrecks. Her great-great grandmother Fidelia was the sole survivor of a shipwreck off of Maine's coast in the 1800s, and the family has become known for disaster—and perseverance—ever since. They leave disaster in their wake, but they never get knocked down. Until this summer.

After her younger brother, Sam, tries to take his own life, Violet's family shuts down to crisis mode. Party-hard, reckless Violet is sent to remote Maine to live on the family's ancestral home with her Uncle, Sam is sent to a rehab facility in Vermont, and their parents attempt to tread water at home in New York City.

Violet's not excited to be in Maine, and she's unwilling to process the events that led to her arrival. To pass the time, Violet joins the local aquarium as a part-time volunteer—where she meets the best-looking boy she's ever seen: Orion.

This meet-cute isn't all that it seems, however, as Orion's had a crush on his long-time best friend for years. Orion invites Violet into the fold of his friend group, where Violet meets his crush, Liv. Violet discovers that maybe Orion's on to something—Liv is an entrancing bay filled with hidden rocks, and Violet can't seem to pull her ship out of the tide leading her to the rocky shore.

Will she do what she does best and create a shipwreck disaster, or will she discover what it means to be herself?

Add in a quest to find Fidelia's sunken ship, some ridiculously poignantly and quietly funny scenes from a bisexual love triangle, and a few moments worth more than a few tears, and you have one hell of an amazing debut. This will remain one of my all-time favorites.

Is it bad that the main reason I picked this up is because Madeline Miller blurbed it? I'm honestly really glad I did though because this book was addicting.

This book is a YA retelling of Twelfth Night. Drake creates a complex main character in Violet, who goes to live with her uncle for the summer after her brother's suicide attempt and her wild party lifestyle in New York gets her in trouble. Violet becomes obsessed with shipwrecks while she is there since her ancestors helped found the town when one of them washed ashore from a shipwreck.

I loved all the interesting side characters that were created in this book as well like Liv, who is obsessed with the town's origin story and Orion, the marine biology obsessed boy who is in love with his best friend. I loved the setting, I could really feel from the writing how worn down this town is and its sleepy beach town vibes. There is bisexual rep in this book with a f/f romance.

All in all, this book is great for lovers of Shakespeare and lovers of summer coming-of-age stories.

I'm gonna sound so cheesy, but this book rooted itself into my heart and I will never, ever let it go. From the friendships to the siblings bonds to the queerness, this book was just everything. It was like a mix of Summer of Salt, Wild Blue Wonder, and everything Ashley Herring Blake has ever written and I JUST LOVED IT SO MUCH AND MY HEART IS SO FULL. Brb while I go pre-order my brother a copy and cry bc FEELINGS 😭

TW: suicide, disordered eating, alcohol abuse, the open ocean

2.5 stars Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC! There were things I enjoyed like the whitty dialogue and some of the characters like the uncle and new friends she made. There were things I didn’t care for-I felt like the Broadway thing came up of nowhere and then became a big part of her comparisons and her life (it needed woven in better from the beginning). I thought her romantic feelings were unclear and then all of a sudden full force as if that’s who she liked all along. I also didn’t get the mystery of he shipwreck and if they actually found it or just felt a connection to it? It just didn’t all seem to line up. Finally, the sexual content sometimes seemed forced-like was it necessary to share some of those thoughts and feelings? Was it the author just trying to sound like an edgy teen? I think it took a book that could’ve been better for a wide age group and limited it to older kids bc of those few things thrown in randomly. With some tweaks, I think it could be great. Overall, though, I didn’t love it like I hoped I would.

This book follows the story of Violet, Sam and their family that is seemingly cursed. It includes both LGBTQIAP+ themes as well as mental health themes. These are two of my favorite things to include in a young adult story so I am definitely here for that! I thought the relationship was well-done and didn't feel like it was a forced thing. This is actually a retelling of a Shakespeare tale (I have found a couple different sources so I'm not 100% sure which) and I read this during my Retelling-A-Thon so it was a perfect fit for it! I think the cover is absolutely stunning and fits well with the whole theme of the book. I love when a book has a stunning cover such as this one! It really makes it eye catching and stand out--it was a cover crush for me partly too. 

I'm in the minority on this one. I just... didn't like it. It isn't a critique of the book itself, but the format of the ARC was confusing to read and there were random emojis in there which was strange? Anyway, I wasn't a fan of this book at all. It felt like it was supposed to be about kids finding a shipwreck and all that sort of mystery stuff. But... it wasn't. It mainly put the romantic relationship first and while I don't mind a romance, it wasn't what I was expecting. It definitely feels more lyrical than a typical novel and not that I wasn't a fan, but it just didn't work for me. I wish that it would have been more about the shipwreck and family history but alas it didn't work out that way.

Violet is a f*ck-up. At least she thinks so. While her brother's been losing a battle to depression, Violet's been partying it up in every way she can in NYC. When her brother takes a turn for the worst and Violet's sent out to Lyric, a small town in Maine, to stay with her uncle Toby, it feels like banishment.

Violet swears off love, shaves her head (calling it at prophylactic) and grudgingly starts working at a local aquarium. Her family's history is deeply tied to this small town-- a great-great-great-grandmother was shipwrecked under mysterious circumstances. As Violet learns more about her ancestors, she simultaneously finds herself embedded in a love triangle with the marine biology-obsessed Orion and the local history buff Liv.

So, this is a Sapphic retelling of Twelfth Night, which is delightful in both premise and execution. The characters are fully-fleshed, endearing, and flawed. They grow and change. They do stupid stuff. They write musicals (Cousteau! sounds brilliant and I very much want to see it). I can't recommend this enough if you're inclined to contemporary YA.

Title: The Last True Poets Of The Sea
Author: Julia Drake
Series: Stand Alone
Pages: 400
Genre: YA Fiction
Rating out of 5 Stars: 3.5

Trigger warnings: Attempted Suicide, Underage Drinking, Underage Drug Use, Underage Sex (teen-not terribly graphic but it is there.)

The Last True Poets of the Sea is first and fore-most a story of self-discovery, self-healing and family. With nods to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Drake spins a tale of learning that though life can be hard, it’s still worth exploring. That the path of healing isn’t always a straight line, there’s no shame in asking for help and change isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

We mostly follow Violet Larkin. When her parents are finally fed up with her partying and other self-destructive tendencies and in light or her brother Sam’s recent suicide attempt its thought maybe some time away from New York will help. Violet is packed up and sent to live with her Uncle Toby in her mother’s hometown of Lyric Maine. There she takes an interest in the families legacy surrounding the alleged shipwreck story the town in founded on.

In Lyric, Violet finds a group of fellow teens that share a common interest in the story as well.
When it comes to the plot...I was underwhelmed but still satisfied. I think the synopsis plays up more to the mystery aspect then it should. There’s a fair amount of work getting you from Point A to Point B that can make the story drag in places as it still played secondary to some of the romantic drama going on within the group.
That aside the characters are wonderfully developed with believable flaws and growth throughout the book. If you enjoy character driven stories, this fulfills that flying colors. I did enjoy reading this and am interested to see what comes from the author in the future.

***E-Arc kindly provided by Author, Disney Book Group via NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

A thoughtful, enjoyable book about siblings that are struggling with mental illness and family difficulties.

This was a very very good book. YA but so much more. Poetic. I enjoyed the determination and romance. Disclaimer: A copy of The Last True Poets of the Sea was provided to me by Hyperion Press/Net Galley for an honest review.