The Living, by Matt De La Pena, is a book about a boy named Shy, who works on a cruise ship. He has to work so he can pay for his family who live back in Otay Mesa, a small Mexican town by the border. His family is very poor and his grandma has just died of a horrible disease called Romero Disease. On one of his first voyages he sees a man jump overboard and commit suicide. He still has nightmares although the man jumped almost a week ago. One of his friends on the ship, Kevin, tells him he overheard a man was looking for Shy because he needed to ask some questions about the man who jumped. Later, he Skypes his mom and learns that his little nephew Miguel has Romero Disease. Shy is heartbroken, but doesn't have time to worry because the ship is forecasting bad weather so all the crew members have to secure the ship. As Shy is moving umbrellas from the deck a girl named Addie comes out in the rain and asks Shy why her father has a picture of him in his cabin. Shy has no time to answer because the ship announces that a major earthquake hit Los Angeles and was affecting almost all of North America. The earthquake has caused a tsunami and the ship is headed right towards it. All of the passengers and crew get into lifeboats and leave the sinking cruise ship. Shy gets into a lifeboat with only two other alive people. Addie, and an oilman. They stay on the water for days, fighting off sharks and struggling to survive. The oilman dies due to a shark bite in his leg and Shy and Addie are left alone. Addie falls in love with Shy, but Shy still harbors some feelings for a worker on the cruise ship named Carmen. Shy and Addie make it to an island in Hawaii that the other cruise ship passengers and crew are on. Shy and Addie get rest and food. But Shy learns that the company where they are staying started the terrible Romero Disease in order to gain money. They have killed most of the passengers with the disease and plan to kill the rest later by staging a helicopter accident. The book ends with Shy and a few other crew members fleeing the island and heading into the ocean again.I think that the theme of this book is, no matter what situation you are in you still put the ones you love first. My first example is when the ship is sinking but Shy's only thought was to find Carmen and save her."He stopped in the hall, spun around searching for Carmen. It was all that seemed to matter now. Just find Carmen. Make sure she's okay." (119) My second example is when Shy tries to catch a fish for him and Addie on the boat but a shark takes it and they lose the bait and the fish. Addie starts crying, and even though Shy is angry he lost the fish he focuses all his attention on comforting her."'It's okay," Shy said kneeling down beside her. "We'll figure something out Addie. I swear.''' (226) My third example is when Shy's best friend Rodney is sick and Shy sneaks past security guards just to visit him. 'There was no way Shy was gonna climb all those stairs without seeing Rodney.' (270)
The main setting in The Living is the ocean. Shy works on a cruise ship and when the ship sinks he is stuck on the ocean in a raft. The ocean drives Shy crazy and he can't wait to get home to Mexico. 'This sudden awareness crushed down on him and stole his breath, and for a split second he understood why someone could be moved to jump.' (34) When Shy is stuck at sea he gives up hope on even being rescued and just wants to go home. 'But Shy no longer held out hope for a rescue anything.' (177)
My favorite character in The Living was Addie. She puts out a tough shell in the beginning of the book and acts snotty, but when Shy got to know her as they were stranded together, he found out she was actually really nice and they had a lot in commen. Addie is also amazingly brave and strong especially when it's hard to be. She rows the lifeboat for hours, letting Shy rest and get better. She also deals with the crazy things happening to her and Shy in a calm way. Addie just spoke to me as a character and I found her quite relatable. This is why Addie, is my favorite character.
I would recommend this book to other 7th graders. It was a fast paced story filled with adventure. I liked the authors writing style and I enjoyed Shy's point of view.The ending was the absolute best, it left me wanting more and wanting to order the next book in the series.
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