The Raft by S.A. Bodeen

By: S.A. Bodeen

Published by: Feiwel & Friends

To Be Released on: August 21st, 2012

Source: ARC from publisher to review

3.5 stars: It's A Good Read

Pre-Order From: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Robie is an experienced traveler. She’s taken the flight from Honolulu to the Midway Atoll, a group of Pacific islands where her parents live, many times. When she has to get to Midway in a hurry after a visit with her aunt in Hawaii, she gets on the next cargo flight at the last minute. She knows the pilot, but on this flight, there’s a new co-pilot named Max. All systems are go until a storm hits during the flight. The only passenger, Robie doesn’t panic until the engine suddenly cuts out and Max shouts at her to put on a life jacket. They are over miles of Pacific Ocean. She sees Max struggle with a raft. 

And then . . . she’s in the water. Fighting for her life. Max pulls her onto the raft, and that’s when the real terror begins. They have no water. Their only food is a bag of Skittles. There are sharks. There is an island. But there’s no sign of help on the way -quoted from Goodreads

No joke, I have a fear of flying over the ocean. I swear if I ever had to do that I'd 1), need to sedated,  because I wouldn't be able to sit that long, and 2), I would be beyond paranoid that the plane I would on would crash into the ocean. Don't ask me why I have this fear, because I've never flown over the ocean and you'd think flying over the ocean would be safer than flying over the mountains. Regardless, my fear becomes Robie's nightmare in The RAFT. 

The Raft is a book I've been looking forward to reading. I had been hearing some rave reviews about it, and I was really looking forward to reading about Robie and her ocean adventure (if you can call it that). When I sat down to read it, I felt the beginning was a little slow for me, and I was just reading a book vs connecting to it, but I totally got was S.A. Bodeen was doing, and when I got to a crucial moment in the book, I realized she had set up Robie's story perfectly. What she did was introduce me to the remote island life Robie has grown accustom to, what made her hop a plane and go visit her Aunt on the main island, and why she was able to hop on the cargo plane heading back to the island where her parents were at. If she hadn't done all that, it wouldn't be as realistic as to why a teenager was allowed to get a plane bound to a remote island without having to check in and without the permission of her Aunt or parents. Plus, that last element added a real sense of fear in Robie when she realizes she's drifting alone in the middle of the ocean and no one has any idea where in the world she's at (literally).

Robie is an amazing kid! She's smart, resourceful and mentally tough, which play a key role in her survival in this story. She deals with some pretty scary stuff, and some mentally challenging things that no one should have to deal with. There's more than just being stuck in the middle of the ocean in a little raft that happens in this book. It's the other things that really add to the suspense of the over all storyline. I won't tell you what those things are, as that would ruin part of the dramatic storyline. Honestly, if I was in Robie's position I'd want to just lay in the fetal position and cry.... though I'd hope I'd have the strength and courage she does and to do what she did. 

S.A. Bodeen did a remarkable job at taking me along with Robie on an adventure of survival, and what was real and what wasn't. I have to give her huge props for doing what she did with Robie's story. She created a story that was full of danger, suspense, real fear and whole lot of other emotions. What Robie dwelt with is exactly one of the things I fear, being stuck in the middle of the ocean in a little raft all by yourself when sharks come. Go ahead and start bitting your nails now, because during this scene my adrenaline started pumping for Robie. Not only did I feel the fear Robie did, but being a Mom, I started doing the mental freak out of what in the world would I do if she were my daughter. Though this book is short, it is one action packed, sit on the edge of your seat and bite your nails kind of read. It's fast paced and once that plane went down, it was a book I couldn't stop reading.