Showing results for "Ocean" in Coming of Age

In the first line of Ocean State, we learn that a high school student was murdered, and we find out who did it. The story that unfolds from there with incredible momentum is thus one of the buildup to and fallout from the murder, told through the alternating perspectives of the four women at its heart. The murderer Angel, her mother Carol, and the victim Birdy, all come alive on the page as they converge in a climax both tragic and inevitable. Watching over it all is the retrospective testimony of Angel’s younger sister, Marie.

Despite a childhood of privilege and a college degree, Tony Joppa was stuck in extended adolescence fueled by drugs, alcohol, and apathy. After a drunk-driving accident lands him in jail, Joppa begins his journey to sobriety and self-realization. That journey takes him across the country, around the world, and deeply inward, where his life changes thanks to the help of Alcoholics Anonymous, Buddhism, The United States Navy, and the many teachers he meets along the way.

Nineteen-year-old Tristaine lived a life of bitterness. When her mother abandoned her family, and her father began drinking, Tris discovered the only thing that truly brought her happiness: the sea. It called to her like a lover and flowed through her like a life force. When her only peace is threatened to be taken away, Tris realizes there is nothing she wouldn't do to remain with the ocean.

Jay Murchison believes he is a nobody at his high school in Oklahoma. Coming from a conservative family of affordable luxury, Jay has an overwhelming desire to become something great. After a mysterious girl named Saphnie in North Carolina mistakenly texts him, an unlikely relationship develops that affects Jay's self-perception and influences the rest of his sophomore year.