A year long voyage to the Bahamas may sound like the dream vacation, but to Rachel it is a disaster waiting to happen. Ever since Rachel's sister moved out, her parents have been fading away. Rachel's distrait father is suddenly trying to "patch things up" by taking them on this sailboat adventure; and Rachel's mom is becoming more distant than ever. Fake even. When their boat's rudder is cracked, her family is stuck in Georgetown where Rachel and her brother Tim are once again faced with an ugly secret. Then there's Col, the cute twenty-something guy from The Flyer. Will the secrets and lies destroy Rachel's family, or will Rachel destroy herself?******
A Thousand Shades of Blue is a unhappy look into the life of one imperfect family....with some major issues. And what family truly doesn't? Rachel's voice is the voice of hundreds of girl who suffer from a distressed family. Her father is a workaholic who never pays any attention to her and her mother is a complete emotional wreck, so naturally the glue that holds the family together is coming unstuck. Rachel reacts, of course, makes some wrong choices and discovers that lies are the true enemy of families.
With that said, I can honestly say this is an edgy book and if I had known what it what exactly about, I would spare myself reenactments of true events. In the end, A Thousand Shades of Blue brought a positive message about families and looking for the "cure" in the wrong place. Though I would never react the same way Rachel did, I feel many girls could relate to Rachel's feelings of pain and the hurt of just being ignored. This book may very well be somewhat of an answer to those who are going through tuff family times. I neither encourage nor discourage reading this book-it is entirely up to you since it is a mutual subject.
"Two feet and teen feet are shades of blue as different as misery and bliss, but when you are floating in between, it's not so easy to know if you have enough: enough happiness, enough love, enough trust. Our family is far from perfect, but maybe there's still enough there to keep us going." - Rachel
About the Author
Robin Stevenson has written six books for young adults including Out of Order, Impossible Things, Big Guy, Dead on the Water, and her latest book, Inferno which recently came out in April. She lives in B.C, Canada.
Pages: 231 Year Published: 2008 Genre: Realistic/Contemporary, Tragedy
Age Group: YA, ages 15+ or mature readers Classroom Use? No
Content: language, family violence, and sexual situations
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