Thursday, December 3, 2015

The Highest Tide

The Highest Tide is a novel written by Jim Lynch. This book is his first novel that he has written. Highest Tide , became a bestseller in the United Kingdom after the coming-of-age story was featured on a television show in England. Other books that Lynch has written includes: Border Songs, From May to September and Truth Like the Sun. The main theme of “The Highest Tide is that change happens in the world and we can't doing anything but accept and cope with it. As the story goes more deep into the plot, Miles faces many new changes mentally and physically. Many new things fallout of place and spirals out of control, but in the end everything falls into the right places. Finding creatures of myth, crushing on the girl next door and facing his parent’s falling relationship, Miles must accept it all to move forward.

The story is about a boy named Miles O’Malley. He lives with both his parents and is the biggest fan of Rachel Carson. He's specializes in sea life and even though he knows a lot, he doesn't know everything there is to the deep sea. One moonlit night, Miles goes out to hunt little sea creatures, such as shells, crabs and starfish but what happens next, turns his world upside down as he finds a certain mythical creature only founded in the sea. His parents are obviously unhappy with each other and are unaware of both his secret life on the Sound and his knowledge. He has a huge crush on Angie Stegner, the older girl next door who has always babysat him. Angie, though, is living life on the edge, is the lead singer and songwriter of her own band, and is supposed to go off to college in the fall. Florence lives two doors down. She's an old woman and a local psychic who gets almost all her predictions wrong. She's suffering from Parkinson's disease and is in increasingly failing health. She may have to move to an assisted living facility. Miles spends more and more time stopping by her house, tending to her needs and checking out the books piled everywhere in her home. She tells Miles of an unusually high tide coming in September, even though Miles knows the tide charts predict no such thing. One day there is an earthquake close to where Florence lives. Even though she predicted it years ago, why did it happen now? People get injured but not a single person gets seriously hurt. When Miles is questions by the media, he tells them “maybe the earth is trying to tell us something?” If the earth is really trying to tell us something, then why send a creature that doesn't belong in the Sound and why the high tides and fearful earthquakes? Seeing new things and experiencing life, Miles starts to see the world and what is in it.

I think that this book was a really good book. With the sea life concept, it feels like going back to the ocean with my family and plunging into the deep blue sea. The great use of metaphors and words, allows imagery to take take over the reader’s mind.  Showing the wonders of life, along with the secret life of the sea is a refreshing novel for many readers. The Highest Tide offered a specific setting about a boy who goes out again and again to sea. He sees things and notice brings people don't usually take interest I.  A wonderful and complete story, which is what every reader is looking for. If you enjoy the sea or learning about the secret  life of world, then I would recommend this book above all.



Book Review by Cheng L.

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