(ARC) REVIEW • SOS Stranded on Island, Send Help (A Map for Wrecked Girls by Jessica Taylor)

We sat at the edge of the ocean—my sister Henri and I—inches apart but not touching at all. We’d been so sure someone would find us by now.

Emma had always orbited Henri, her fierce, magnetic queen bee of an older sister, and the two had always been best friends. Until something happened that wrecked them.

I’d trusted Henri more than I’d trusted myself. Wherever she told me to go, I’d follow.

Then the unthinkable occurs—a watery nightmare off the dazzling coast. The girls wash up on shore, stranded. Their only companion is Alex, a troubled boy agonizing over his own secrets. Trapped in this gorgeous hell, Emma and Alex fall together as Emma and Henri fall catastrophically apart.

For the first time, I was afraid we’d die on this shore.

To find their way home, the sisters must find their way back to each other. But there’s no map for this—or anything. Can they survive the unearthing of the past and the upheaval of the present?[/note]

myreview

[note note_color=”#BFD1D1″ text_color=”#ffffff”]I received this book for free from Penguin for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.[/note]

First sentence: “We sat at the edge of the ocean—my sister, Henri, and I—inches apart but not touching at all. “

Nothing like being stranded on an island that test relationships and reveal certain truths.

On vacation in Puerto Rico, Emma and her sister Henri get shipwrecked on an island with a boy they had just met. They have to rely on each other to survive, but do they?

**WHEN YOU’RE STRANDED ON AN ISLAND, THIS MAY PROBABLY HAPPEN LIKE IN A MAP FOR WRECKED GIRLS:**

Think about what led you to being there.

It’s hard not to think about your choices of what led you to be stranded. What happens to Emma and Henri are not far from Emma’s mind. A Map for Wrecked Girls moves between the present where the sisters are stranded on an island and the past where the sisters deal with issues that have started to spring between them (they’re close, but Emma is very in the shadows of Henri) and with boys (specifically Henri’s constant boy chasing). Their relationship is surely tested when certain boys enter the picture.

Despite learning about the sisters and what they’re dealing with, everything that happened lacked development. I didn’t understand the choices they made because I still never felt like I knew about them. They didn’t feel real.

Work with whoever you’re stranded with to survive.

When you’re stranded on an island, you gotta band together to ensure you can survive. That means you gotta all pitch in to create a shelter, find food, do things that will keep everybody alive. All hands need to be on deck, and communication is key.

For these shipwrecked teens, well…. They’re keeping secrets from each other, and that doesn’t exactly bode well for survival sake. Emma and Alex, the boy they met, work together to keep them alive. Henri is not. She’s withdrawn in her own little world, not seeming to care if they can stay alive or be saved from their situation. She is not someone you want to be with you when you’re stranded on the island.

Relationships get tested.

In intense situations, truths are revealed and relationships get tested. It happens when everybody is on edge.

Emma and Henri are on the outs because of what happened before they were stranded on the island. It gets increasingly worse though when they can’t work together to survive. Henri continues to be awful to Emma, and it’s disheartening to see them on the outs. I don’t quite understand their dynamic since I just wanted to see more into their head.

Should you read A Map for Wrecked Girls? Not really. A Map for Wrecked Girls is not a great “I got shipwrecked on an island” book. It was a pain for me to read. I don’t know how everybody else breezed through this book. I didn’t find the story compelling enough to want to keep going. Some characters—specifically Alex—didn’t add to the story as a whole. I didn’t feel like it was worth my time to read because I didn’t learn anything or affected my whole viewpoint.