[Content warnings included in the book: suicidal ideation, attempted suicide, depression]
THE SEA IS SALT AND SO AM I follows Harlow Prout and twins Tommy and Ellis MacQueen as they fight to save their hometown from being destroyed by the ocean, to save/maintain their changing relationships with one another, and to save each other from themselves.

Most of what I appreciated about this book relates to the depictions of Tommy's severe depression. Tommy's feelings at all stages of recovery--from immediately after his attempt, to the extreme lows from when he stops his meds with telling anyone or doctor consultation, to the grey areas of feeling neither good nor bad but absolute nothingness--were authentic and realistic. I especially appreciated how Hartt showed that many people just assume what is best for people who have survived attempts, rather than asking what those survivors need and letting the survivor be an active part of how they're treated during recovery.

Additionally, I appreciated the realism behind the clear signs of wavering mental health (if not explicit mental illness) that Harlow and Ellis showed, yet characters' unwillingness to acknowledge anything was wrong with them--not because I ever want ANYONE to experience mental illness, but because this is how real life often is. When someone has a diagnosed mental illness, it is easier for the self-destructive, negative, and/or harmful thoughts and actions of the people around them to go unchecked. This is an unfortunate but real truth, and though occasionally discouraging to read, since Harlow and Ellis were clearly hurting, it was validating to see this difficult balance being represented.

However, all of the smaller side plots and conflicts really bogged the book down. I believe this is more of a character-driven story than a plot-driven story, but that just meant the semblance of plot--trying to save the town from being swept away by the ocean in the next big storm--kept detracting from the larger character development at play. MANY conflicts that seemed important early on were ignored in the last 25-40%, while others were purposely being hidden from readers so they could be "big reveals" at the end.

While I normally love dual points of view, I found the shifting between Ellis, Harlow, and Tommy to be distracting at best and unnecessary at worst. Especially early on, we see Harlow's perspective way more frequently than Ellis's or Tommy's, which gives the impression that Harlow is supposed to be the character readers should trust/root for the most, even though the "prologue" and "epilogue" (what I am choosing to call the bookend chapters that use third-person narration, rather than the perspective of one of our protagonists) seem to suggest all three characters should hold equal weight. Ellis receives the least amount of narration time, and his chapters are frequently the shortest; it feels as if his chapters were after-thoughts to add details that would push the "plot" or the conflicts between Tommy and Harlow along, not because his perspective held equal value. As slightly alluded to earlier, the shifts allowed a "justification" for the secrets behind conflicts to be hidden from readers. Any time a character was ready to think about what was wrong, the chapter could end and a new character could share their perspective, thus moving into a new topic. It felt like intentional deception at points, which is the biggest pitfall (and disappointment) of dual perspectives.

Overall, this isn't my new favorite book, but it wasn't a bad read, either. I really appreciated the themes regarding mental illness and nonlinear recovery, and I hope others can too. I would recommend this to older YA readers looking for difficult/complex characters, realistic mental illness representations, and/or Northeastern-US Gothic tones/vibes.

This was an incredibly poetic and literary book about depression and the complicated relationships of young people in a small Maine town worried about everything. The worry of climate change and coastal erosion; the worry of a rare plover species selecting their beach for nesting and helping it live but also needing a jetty replaced in the same area; the worry about one twin, Ellis, with a prosthetic leg making it to college on a running scholarship with his best friend Harlow like they’ve been planning; the worry of Ellis’ twin brother Tommy’s depression and Tommy's sick dog who is his heartbeat; the worry of the twisty confusing feelings these three teens have for one another - strong familial love, hatred and fear based on past traumas and self guilt, romantic love that feels forbidden and extra dangerous given everything else, jealousy of one another’s various love for each other ... so many extreme and complicated emotions run like a current through this book, but amidst it all is a steady thrumming hum of calm, like a storm’s eye that feels alluring and sad all at once.

I really enjoyed this read because of all it held, but also the writing was truly gorgeous. Can’t wait to see what else the author creates.

2.5 stars

I will start with the positives. Hartt's concept and the way that she uses prose are both incredibly evocative. It's not the first time I've read a story about teenagers struggling with the confines of living in a small town, but it is one of more delicately rendered versions of that trope.

Unfortunately for me, the beauty of the language couldn't overshadow what I felt were glaring issues. Even though the book's main trio were going through events that should have endeared them to me, the majority of each POV was dedicated to discussing how much they hated the other two characters. I could tell that this was done to demonstrate how complex the relationships between the three characters were, but the presentation of positive feelings to establish the tangled web was so scant in comparison. The characters spent the whole book telling me that I shouldn't like or sympathize with them...so I didn't. Using unlikeable characters is normally not an issue for me, but having unlikeable characters in a story where an extreme amount of emotional investment is being asked just seems contradictory.

I will give it to Hartt: she has a facility with language that I very much admire. Unfortunately, this book just didn't do it for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Roaring Brook Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions expressed herein are mine alone and may not reflect the views of the author, publisher, or distributor.

Something tells me I should vet what I read a little more closely instead of doing my usual "dive in head first and then recover" move. Because I didn't like this...not even a little.

Likeable characters aren't a necessity for me when I read a book. But sometimes you get characters the author presents as wanting you to like them, and they're just awful people. Everyone's down for drama in a book, but like...when you have brothers like Ellis and Tommy, and then someone like Harlow, the active venom gets tiring. The lack of character growth and change is really what sinks the boat here.

Last year I read a book where only one character was remotely likeable, and all the other people around her just constantly insulted her, told her to "get over" the massacre of her people and destruction of her culture, and that really made her my favorite. Because she didn't deserve any of the vitriol and she just took it. I wanted to give her a hug.

In THE SEA IS SALT AND SO AM I, Tommy is that character. And Harlow and Ellis' constant haranguing rightfully drive him into a depressive state. It's no wonder he hates both of them.

Characters like this make it hard to absorb anything else in detail, and all I can think is how much I disliked Harlow and Ellis. Sorry, folks. This one's not a winner.

Wow. What a book. I loved it up until the last 5-10%. I definitely understand WHY the author ended the book the way they did, but I don’t agree with it — especially for a teen and young adult audience, it feels like it unraveled the entirety of the story in one epilogue-esque chapter.

Will post an updated review with a link if I decide to review the book on my blog. Thank you to the publisher for granting my wish on this title!

I had a feeling I was going to love "The Sea is Salt and So Am I," but I had no idea just how much. This is a book after my own heart.

The main characters are Harlow, her best friend Ellis, and his identical twin Tommy. I love the complicated mess that is the relationship between these three, and Hartt really nails the way they interact with one another. Harlow and Ellis feel like people who've been ride or die best friends since childhood, Harlow and Tommy feel like two people who've misunderstood and hated each other for just as long, and Ellis and Tommy feel like brothers who've grown apart. Harlow and Ellis aren't always nice and don't always make great decisions, but they're not irredeemable, and anyway they wouldn't be as interesting to read about otherwise.

One of my favorite parts of the book is the evolution of Harlow and Tommy's relationship; they're not great for each other at the start, but I love what they become. And I love Harlow and Ellis as friends! Which is why--well, I'll just say that this is the sort of narrative that uses a lot of subtext and lets you draw your own conclusions about certain things. There is one thing in particular I wish wasn't left up to interpretation, but if I'd gotten what I wanted I might not still be thinking about this book days after finishing it.

The writing is descriptive and beautiful and often emotionally gutting. The way Hartt captures depression in particular hurt to read at points because it felt so authentic.

I adore this book! I know it won't be for everyone, but if you appreciate complex, "unlikeable" characters, and some things left up to interpretation, you might love this book too.

Overall, I felt kinda meh about this book. Not necessarily bad, but not particularly memorable either. Giving it 2.5/5 Stars.

The Sea is Salt and So Am I was darker than I anticipated, even though I knew the subject matter going in. Harlow and Ellis totally lost me from the beginning, when they suspected Tommy of going into the water to commit suicide and decided to ignore it entirely. However, given their ages, their emotions do seem realistic for the situation. Despite Harlow’s flaws, I did admire her commitment to trying to save their town.

One thing I loved about this story was the setting. The author does an excellent job of making the reader feel like they’re there. It’s like you can feel the raindrops on your skin.

Ultimately there were some things that worked for me and some things that didn’t (mainly personal preference). I think this book will be a hit for YA fans.

“Some things have stories behind them and some things don’t.”

I tend to fall in love with books with lyrical writing styles, and The Sea Is Salt and So Am I didn’t disappoint in this regard. The setting of West Finch, a tiny town in Maine that is literally at risk of collapsing due to climate change, gifts the whole novel a semi-magical edge, which balances nicely with harsher realities of car accidents, financial troubles, and SATs (every high school student’s worst enemy). Although the narration style barely changed between the three POVs, it was enjoyable to explore, and I particularly loved how Hartt employed sentence fragments in unconventional ways.

But this mysteriousness also frustrated me at times. For example, details about the characters’ pasts were gradually revealed, but I wish these reveals had employed more “telling” and less “showing” as I often had to reread scenes to decipher the subtleties. I also had a difficult time getting invested in the main characters, especially Harlow, who was often cruel to Ellis, her supposed best friend, and Tommy, Ellis’s brother. Honestly, I didn’t like the relationship between Harlow and Tommy at the beginning or the end of the novel, despite the major shift that occurred by the latter. Also, I still don’t fully understand what happened between Harlow, Tommy, and Ruby, Tommy’s former artistic friend who drifted apart but still cares deeply about him. The reason for their separation was one of the big reveals at the end of the novel, but it fell flat to me, and it disparaged Harlow more.

“I tell her things I don’t believe. The world isn’t ending. Things don’t always get worse.”

That said, I could still sympathize with each character. Harlow and Ellis were both invested in “The Plan”—a fantasy entailing both of them acing the SATs and Ellis getting an athletic scholarship so that they can attend the same college—to the point of unhealthiness, and Tommy was often excluded from their aspirations. The characters were self-centered, but so many teenagers are, and I appreciated how the characters called one another out for their selfishness and irresponsibleness. The three of them were well-developed—even if unlikeable—and that’s a sign of skillful writing.

The Sea Is Salt and So Am I is the pretty, vulnerable kind of book that confuses you but moves you at the same time. Despite an unsatisfying conclusion, the characters are complex enough to revisit just to parse their actions and motivations, and West Finch is the perfect place for such quiet destruction to ensue.

Disclaimer: The quotes in this review are from an uncorrected proof and are subject to change.

dnf at 15%
I was really hoping to love this book but sadly, I'm not connected to the characters and have very low intrigue.

I'm really sorry to say this, but the content in this book referring to suicide was just too triggering for me to read. From what I read before putting it down, the writing was beautiful and the character work was just exquisite. I can't say I recommend this book or not to all my followers because I didn't read enough to determine my thoughts, but from what I read this book seems to be of high quality. Rating this 5 stars because I don't want to mess up the average rating and ratings are required for review submissions on netgalley. Thank you for the ARC :)

Content warnings: depression, suicidal ideation, and attempted suicide.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I tend to gravitate towards character driven books, and this one is definitely one of those! The characters were real, flawed, and relatable. The depiction of mental illness was tough to read, but well done and necessary. I really enjoyed the writing style and it was always engaging. My only real issue was the pacing. It was not consistent to me, and lulled at some points and felt rushed at others.

I do recommend this book, but just be careful of the content warnings.

Star rating-  ☆☆☆


CONTENT WARNINGS ⚠️ : depression, suicidal ideation, and attempted suicide. Tread carefully when picking up this book.


Overall thoughts: The writing is beautiful, the setting is phenomenal, and the character driven plot was interesting. Though, I didn't enjoy some of the characters. They are all flawed and I had a hard time connecting with them. The topics that were discussed in this book were done carefully but could easily trigger people who are struggling with mental health. I loved the atmosphere of this town and the metaphors that came with a town being washed away by the sea. Overall I'm not sure what the point of this book was and I'm not sure I would recommend this book to people because of the topics that it explores.

** Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book. **

I went into this book very cautiously due to the authors trigger warning about the suicidal content.
While I love the writing, suicide is a large trigger for me and I’m choosing to DNF this book because of it.

Unfortunately this book was just not for me. I was not interested in the characters and how toxic they were to each other.

The writing in this novel is absolutely gorgeous-feverish and evocative, strange and compelling. And I was drawn in by the premise (I love a Maine setting, and ecological collapse is certainly a timely topic) and was amply forewarned about the focus on depression and suicidal ideation/suicide attempts (kudos to the author for the full-page content warning at the outset). What I wasn't prepared for, and what in the end kept me from enjoying this book, was the levels of unlikeability these characters would achieve (particularly Harlow). I don't mind an unlikeable character, but Harlow was so self-absorbed and lacking in sympathy that I couldn't really deal. I understand that she has massive codependency and anxiety issues, and I appreciate that they were woven into the narrative in fairly nuanced ways, but I could not stand this character, nor could I really stand her friend Ellis. Tommy and his dog Goose were fairly sympathetic, though Goose's cancer diagnosis and treatment make that element fraught for different reasons. In the end, this book took me forever to get through, and I hated being in the company of these characters and their toxic relationships. I loved the world, and I loved the writing, but I just couldn't deal.

CW: depression, suicidal ideation, attempted suicide, previous alcoholism and infidelity, death of loved one, car accident, cancer and chemotherapy (pet dog related), underage drinking

I'm not quite sure how to rate/review this book. It may definitely be a case of it's me not you. Cassandra Hartt's writing was really beautiful and thoughtful and kept me reading into the wee hours of the night, but it was also too convoluted at times with many things implied or hinted at but never fully stated. Perhaps that was the point though?

The Sea is Salt and So Am I is a character driven novel and is told from the POV of the three teen main characters - Harlow and identical twins, Ellis and Tommy. All the characters are flawed from the adults to the teens that the story focuses on, and though I didn't particularly like any of them, I felt that the relationships depicted were very accurate and honest. The complex relationships between childhood friends, parent and child, siblings, found families, classmates, and town residents. Ellis and Tommy's estranged relationship as well as Tommy and Cliff's was especially moving and thoughtful. The discussion and depiction of depression and mental illness was frank and raw and I thought the author did an amazing job. Although I am not sure of the accuracy, the cycle of progression and regression was presented in such a unique and emotional way.

I enjoyed the writing overall, but the pacing of the book stalled at times and made it feel overly long. There just wasn't a lot of action for the majority of the book. The overall tone was very somber and I'm still not sure how I feel about the book. I didn't love it, but I also didn't hate it. Many plot points were left unaddressed, but that was likely the point (especially given the way the book concluded). I think perhaps I just didn't fully understand this one.

*I voluntarily read an advance review copy of this book*

Cassandra Hartt’s The Sea is Salt and So am I is a beautiful novel filled with poetic words and powerful imagery. In a symbolic nature, the story navigates both personal changes affecting the main point of view characters and the environmental change affecting their home. Overall, the book is a thoughtful and fantastic debut for Hartt.

Readers of The Sea is Salt and So am I follow the stories of three main characters. First, Harlow is a violet-eyed teenager driven to fix things (both people and places). even though her actions are more likely to break them. The twins, Tommy and Ellis are very different. Tommy suffers from depression and suicidal thoughts and is an artist who has lost the drive and ability to draw. His brother, Ellis, is best friends with Harlow. Following a childhood accident, Ellis has a prosthetic leg and dates across the gender spectrum. The relationship between Ellis and Tommy is fragmented, and neither of them seems rather interested in fixing it. Their home, the town of West Finch, Maine is on the precipice of falling into the sea. The three teenagers deal with real-world problems (not something out of a fantasy novel) like love and trust between one another, and readers are simply taken along for the ride.

I admit, there were multiple times when I considered not finishing this book. This is not due to the quality of writing, but rather the depth and emotion that Hartt has poured into the book. Depression and suicide are not easy topics to stomach. There is also a distinct lack of “action” and the pacing is slow at times. However, I pushed through and eventually got to the end. I’m glad I persevered, but this is not the type of book that I would re-read multiple times (specifically due to the subject material).

CONTENT WARNING: Readers should be warned that the book features depictions of suicide and depression. They should also know that the depictions are handled with sensitivity and care.

#NetGalley #TheSeaIsSaltandSoAmI
I thank NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review :)
All I have to say is this....everyone pick this book up when releases. it was quite good

I really struggled to finish this book. It’s one of those ones where issues seems less resolved by the end, but the book is without a doubt finished. However, without a doubt my favorite part was the setting. The idea of an sea town being washed away carries a very powerful tone that is felt throughout the book.