Julia Drake has written an excellent first novel. Violet's pain is palpable and the changes that occur in her relationships were realistic. Drake did an especially good job on portraying her parents and their concerns and reasons for doing things. Also, queer teens!!!

The Last True Poets of the Sea is a novel about wrecks, shipwrecks, human relationships wrecks, and how to salvage hope and new life from the wreckage. Violet is in crisis as we meet her and follow her through her summer break in small town of Lyric, Maine. We read her flashbacks to the previous "Wild Year" and the family and personal events that led to her taking refuge/banishment in Maine for the summer. This novel will stick with me, the characters are complex and fully formed, the relationships and trauma are real and sometimes painful. I will re-read this novel and gain new insights into myself and the characters.

A beautifully written and well developed novel. The character dynamics are so enthralling that I had trouble setting this book down!

Based loosely on Twelfth Night by Shakespeare, The Last True Poets of the Sea is a beautiful blend of family hardship, what is means to be a friend, how we are more than the "family name and legacy," and mental health wellness. Violet is sent to her uncle Toby's house in Lyric, Maine for the summer after she can't turn off the "romance channel," even while at the hospital visiting her brother who attempted suicide. Sam, meanwhile, has been sent to get better at a treatment center in Vermont.

In Lyric, Violet and Sam (and their whole family) are semi-famous as their great-great-great-grandmother was the sole survivor of a shipwreck, who then ended up marrying a guy and they founded Lyric. In Lyric, Violet becomes friends with Orion, Liv, Mariah, and Felix. Violet tries to do some match-making, but ends up falling herself....

Meanwhile, Violet and Liv are on a mission to discover the actual wreckage of Great-Great-Great-Grandma Fidelia's ship. They run into a lot of dead ends, but also some progress, which leads to quite the final action sequence! But the most important progress is the mental wellness that Violet is trying to accomplish. Throughout the story, she attempts to "fix herself" without any outside help, and while she isn't self-medicating anymore, she doesn't see a whole lot of progress until therapy starts at the end of the book. But Sam's mental wellness progress (off-screen) is spectacular. While it isn't stated explicitly, I'm guessing he's on the autism spectrum, probably on the high-functioning end, but complicating a single diagnosis is an eating disorder and depression. Nevertheless, both Violet and Sam come out strong and progressing in their mental wellness journeys. Drake does an excellent job of demonstrating that mental wellness doesn't happen all at once and certainly not without work and hard discussions and truth-telling.

I picked up The Last True Poets of the Sea because it's based on my favorite Shakespeare comedy, but it is brilliant on its own. It truly has poetry and a beauty towards language that, in other YA books, can be annoying and/or pretentious. In The Last True Poets of the Sea, though, the poetry is more of a device that Drake utilizes when Violet (our narrator) is feeling buoyed up in her emotions and reflective of mental wellness and extreme joy.

Additionally, the emotions that Violet shares via narration when she gets together with [spoiler] are exquisite in their verisimilitude. They narration is choppy and quick, just like the quickly beating heart that is running away from Violet in this moment. It's indicative of what teenagers (and others in love) actually feel, and Drake's execution of it is *kisses fingertips.*

Romance features two bisexual females, although one doesn't like using "that term."

I received a complimentary copy of The Last True Poets of the Sea from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Cool book. Took a few unexpected, yet semi-forshadowed turns. I very much enjoyed searching for the heart of Violet's grandma's sunken-ship backstory as well as the connections all of these teenagers share. Characters real enough to walk off the page and many intriguing layers to this novel add to its charm.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Taking my own advice, I decided to read several young adult novels. My choices were Scars Like Wings by Erin Stewart and The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake. See May 21, 2019 entry). I should point out that both books won't be available until October 1, 2019.

FIRST LINE: "Fun fact: my great-great-great-grandmother was the lone survivor of a shipwreck."

THE STORY: Drawing comparisons to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Violet has been banished to Lyric, Maine for the summer after her brother Sam attempts suicide and is placed in a treatment center.

There Vi meets Orion (Orsino) and Liv (Olivia), who seem to be perfectly suited to each other. She is fascinated by both of them.

As children, Vi and Sam spent hours planning how they would find the shipwreck someday. Their ancestor Fidelia founded Lyric, Maine. Now the goal becomes an obsession for Vi.

WHAT I THOUGHT: In general, I do not often read Young Adult books, but this one came highly recommended. In other reviews no one mentioned the complicated language. How the young people communicated was foreign to me and there were many words with which I was not familiar. Abstract and clever, I still found it difficult to follow.

Obviously the world has changed since I was a teen. Some of the content was unexpected: the discussion of specific sex acts, bi-sexuality, depression, and mental illness. Obviously young people today need to be able to relate to the new world they must navigate.

I enjoyed the theatrical aspects, the search for the shipwreck, and the details about the Lyric Aquarium. I wish I had liked the book better.

BOTTOM LINE: Sometimes choppy, sometimes poetic, I guess I would recommend reading this book before sharing it with someone you love. You'll want to be able to discuss how it affects them and you.

Disclaimer: A copy of The Last True Poets of the Sea was provided to me by Hyperion Press/Net Galley for an honest review.

Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion (October 1, 2019)
ISBN-10: 1368048080
ISBN-13: 978-1368048088

Julia Drake grew up outside Philadelphia. As a teenager, she played some of Shakespeare's best heroines in her high school theater program, and their stories would stay with her forever. She received her BA in Spanish from Williams College, and her MFA in creative writing from Columbia University, where she also taught writing to first-year students. She currently works as a book coach for aspiring writers and teaches creative writing classes for Writopia, a nonprofit that fosters love of writing in young adults. She lives in San Francisco with her partner and their rescue rabbit, Ned. (From Amazon)

DNFd, this wasn't that interesting to me and I couldn't get involved. I think I will try again when the finished copy arrives

Sorry, this just wasn't for me. I didn't connect to any characters, and while I wanted to know about Sam's secret and the town's secrets, I got bored of the flat protagonist before anything was really revealed.

Violet’s family isn’t just lucky, they persevere. This is what her family always tells her. Passed down from generation to generation is the story of her great-great-great grandparents. When her great-great-great grandmother was the only survivor of a shipwreck, she washed up on the shore where she met her future husband. Together, the two founded Lyric, Maine, but the ship was never found. When her brother, Sam attempts to commit suicide, Violet’s parents see her partying non-stop as having a breakdown. As a result, she is sent to live with her uncle. She starts the summer working at the aquarium her family founded. Violet realizes, however, that the incomplete pieces of her family's story still haunt her. With the help of Liv Stone, a local amateur historian, the two attempt to find the lost ship. Will they succeed? Will Violet find romance? The characters are fully developed and easy to like. The plot is slow in parts, but makes the reader want to see what will happen next. Fans of romance, mystery, and realistic fiction will enjoy reading this book.

A tale of grief, loss, and the power of connection. A gut-wrenching coming-of-age story that is beautifully crafted and draws you in from the beginning.

I tried so many times to get into this book and I just cant. I don’t know exactly why, the writing is fine and the characters are good I just feel like this is taking forever to get going. I was really excited because so many people said this was a stunning and meaningful book and I’m sure that it is, but I feel like I would be pushing through it to see and I really don’t want to do that for a book I’m not really enjoying. I feel so bad about this but I’ve gone back about three times and I just can’t do this book.

If you’re a fan of teen sex, (granted, it’s not graphic, but it happens) teen same-sex relationships, suicide attempts, teen drug use, and under age drinking, all with no real consequences, then you may like this book. I’m not a fan of promoting these things as glamorous or normal among teens, nor am I a fan of planting seeds in young minds, so I would not recommend this as a YA book. The writing was fine, and kept my interest, but I just think that our young people should be reading more positive content. Thanks to NetGalley for an advance read copy.

This book is beautifully written and involves complex, vivid characters I still feel close to even after finishing the book. I think the weakest part is the actual plot—there isn’t much story, and what is there isn’t that compelling and leaves some strings hanging. But this author has amazing potential for awesome, beautiful work.

I enjoy interspersing YA novels in between some of my “heavier” reads and it was refreshing to read a YA novel that didn’t make me feel old. The quick wit and snarky comments of Vi and her friends was fun to read. Their quest to find a shipwreck that has been hidden for over 100 years is so true to the teenage spirit. As a mother, I’m telling the characters “no, stay safe; don’t be ridiculous”, but as a reader I was applauding their nonsensical journey. I hadn’t realized the Shakespeare inspired reference prior to reading this book but that just adds to my high opinion of Julia Drake’s debut. She will soon become a must-read author.

Spectacular, remarkable, anguish-filled, yet breathtakingly beautiful book. I loved absolutely every bit of it, from the intertwined plots to the tangled relationships. I loved the settings and the weirdness of the specificity of the locales. And what an ensemble of a cast. I mean, damn!!! So gloriously wrought that I feel them next to as I read. Goddamn this book is good. Really. Freaking. Good. 🤓💜📚

I thoroughly enjoyed this witty, elegiac and moving novel about the power of myth and how painful it can be to change your mind about your own story. Highly recommended!