The Raft
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- £7.49
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- £7.49
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A simple airplane trip becomes a harrowing struggle for survival in this tense offering from Bodeen (The Gardener). Fifteen-year-old Robie is on her way home to Midway Island after vacationing in Honolulu when the tiny cargo plane she's on develops engine problems. One emergency landing later, and Robie is forced to swim for her life, taking refuge on a life raft with Max, the copilot. In the middle of nowhere, with almost no supplies, and under constant threat of shark attack, their chances for rescue are impossibly slim. As they fight to stay alive, Max's story unfolds and Robie discovers just how far she'll go in the name of self-preservation. Bodeen's tight, pared-down sentences mirror Robie's mood as her ability to cope falls apart ("My throat was so dry, I could barely swallow. I rolled on my back and looked up at the sky. Cloudless. Again"). This psychological thriller uses natural menaces and Robie's eroding mental state to strike one dark note after another, leading to some disturbing twists and an ending that isn't entirely reassuring. Ages 12 up.
