The thing that I liked the most about this novel was the convincing teenage protagonist. That’s hard to do, and it’s done well here.

The thing that I disliked the most? That there are two contradictory stories for where she got the surfboard from. Was it a present from the dad or from the mom’s parents? Either I was confused, or an editor missed something.

I was more interested in the grandfather’s life story than in the contemporary story. This is a very difficult novel-writing problem. If you want to tell two stories, you have to make them equally compelling. The contemporary story has pretty small, personal, middle-school concerns. The past story has significance and danger and action. The grandfather has had an interesting life, and I want to hear about it. I am not as interested in this kid. So I kept waiting for the grandpa’s sections to come back around.

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