Survival Should Have Been Done Better: The Raft - S.A Bodeen

The Raft by S.A Bodeen 
Date Released: August 21, 2012
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Pages: 231 Pages
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Rating: Could Have Been Better 
Series: Standalone!

Goodreads Synopsis: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. 

From Goodreads

The Raft was a book that I had huge expectations when I came to picking it up from the library. I love survival books completely right next to academy books, it's my weakness! But The Raft ended up being a book filled with choppy sentences, lack of spark, and ultimately ended up being a disappointment. I heard Bodeen's other books were great, but after reading The Raft, I'm not sure what to expect. 

Robie knows how to travel and knows what to expect as an experience traveler. After taking a flight from Honolulu to Midway Atoll and went on the last cargo flight, she doesn't know what she has to do. After crashing down, Robie and Max have to survive at sea with a bag of skittles as their food. Max was such an awkward and unbelievable character! Seriously, this guy doesn't help Robie at all and she has to learn the ropes herself and <ax never talked but when he did it was just too weird. I get where Bodeen could have come from writing Max this way. It could happen like having someone who is unbelievable and doesn't help, so it has a realistic factor. Robie was a bit iffy to me. Bodeen spent a good one to two pages describing these birds, I was seriously about to drop this book off. *hits head* Like I get it's a survival book, but please make the action or survival feel better. It had so much potential, it just ended up being disappointing.



Filled with little promise but good potential, The Raft won't appeal to much readers. If you do want a okay survival read pick up The Raft, but don't go into it with high hopes! It was a quickie and I just might pick up Bodeen's other books. 

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