Hello, wonderful readers!
I recently read Love and the Sea and Everything in Between by Brian McBride and I LOVED it! There was so much emotional rawness that I was completely in awe. But that’s what this review is for, so let’s get into it!
Blurb
College Freshman Adam West’s world has been falling apart for a long time. Broken, betrayed, abandoned, alone… there’s nothing left for him but a handful of mental illnesses. He’s tired and ready to end it all. Then, Elizabeth Richards comes along. All it took was the kindness of a stranger to make Adam’s world a just little bit brighter. For the first time in a long time, as they travel the West Coast together, he’s starting to see that there are still some adventures worth living for. But pain isn’t easily forgotten. And the past doesn’t just disappear. Sometimes the only way to come alive is to fight and wrestle through all the darkest places. For fans of Stephen Chbosky’s THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER and John Green’s THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, LOVE AND THE SEA AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN shines a light on some of the darkest places of human struggle. Heart-rending and raw, it reminds us that love has the power to bring healing to even the most broken places.
And now, we are above it all. Just me and her and the stars. The world is at our feet.
Love and the Sea and Everything in Between
Characters
Adam suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder as well as Bipolar Disorder. He’s been depressed and suicidal for longer than he can remember and he has a past he just wants to forget. There’s a raw intensity to every chapter featuring his POV, and you can’t hep but break for him and the struggles he has. He was a wonderfully flawed, refreshing male protagonist; one of the best I’ve seen in a long time
Then we have Liz, a quite, hopeful dreamer who shines with such light that you can’t help but see the silver lining in everything. She’s a struggling young Christian, trying to figure out who she is and what she wants while also keeping her past behind her. I didn’t like her quite as much as Adam, mainly because she’s the one who’s supposed to be the Christian, but never really acts like it. But, this was realistic of how many Christians in their young adult days can often be swayed by the world.
Plot
The plot of the story was easy to follow and definitely made sense. There were a few times where things felt rushed/crammed or time-skipped a little too often, but nothing major and I devoured the book in two days. The plot centers around mental health, which I absolutely LOVED. It’s so needed in today’s literature and it was especially refreshing to see it from a Christian perspective.
Overall Enjoyment
Umm, love it?! XD. But seriously, I’m obsessed with this story. It’s hard to read–full of pain and raw brokenness–but SO worth it. There are some content things that I personally think the author didn’t have to add, but it was handled very maturely. The one issue I genuinely had was the somewhat careless handling (SPOILER WARNING) of the teen pregnancy (the consequences of premarital, unprotected sex weren’t discussed at all) and smoking. Both are almost written as if it’s just something that’s going to happen. (END SPOILER) Besides that, excellent!
Maybe my heart is the moon and hers is the sun and everything else is gravity.
Love and the Sea and Everything in Between
Content Warnings
Teen pregnancy, fade-to-black sex scene, smoking weed and cigarettes, mental illness, mentions and flasbacks of rape, abuse, and graphic self-harm.
Thanks for reading! To purchase Love and the Sea and Everything in Between for yourself, click this link here.
oceanemcallister.com 