I enjoyed this book. It’s funny how it was able to stick with me. I started reading this book Back in May, got away from reading for quite some time yet I still had this book with me when I picked it back up to finish it.

This was a very powerful story indeed.

Sarah Conover lost her parents and her grandparents when she was only a toddler and has no memory of any of them. So, she pieces the story of HER from whatever sources she can get.

The author intersperses interviews that she conducted with various family members and friends as well as newspaper articles of the disappearance of the Conover family yacht.

I don't even know how you can possibly cope with something so awful happening to you and losing all those very special people in one foul swoop. Somehow, you just have to keep on putting one foot in front of the other and keep on going, which is exactly what she did.

The uncle and aunt who brought her and her sister up are clearly exceptional human beings. I don't like the sound of Mere, the grandmother who went for custody of Sarah and her sister, one little bit. She sounds a bit too much like my own mother who is all about what SHE wants and never mind what the right thing is.

Interesting that with the interviewing of the family members that Sarah gets a different perspective on her life and her family dynamics. I am glad she was open to listening to everyone and that she worked so hard to process what had happened. Her husband sounds like a really special guy :)

5 stars from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and 55 Fathoms Publishing.

I had high hopes for this one, requested in a fever of wanting to read more non-fiction. Sadly non-fiction just doesn't seem to be for me! I got bogged down in the details of this one.

January 1958 the author and her sister lose both their one set of grandparents and their biological parents at the same time by unfathomable tragedy at sea. A situation that seems impossible with Grandpa Harvey Conover being a trophied ocean yachtsman who even qualified for Olympic trials. This was such a big story that it was even covered by Sports Illustrated magazine. There are two story lines to follow one is the search for the family members and yacht at sea and what happened. The second is the impact on the various family members left to pick up the pieces. Overnight the author being 18 months old and her sister being 3 years old had an aunt and Uncle that became Mother and Father, the fight between family members to take care of the girls with the believe that money was a driving factor, the impact on the aunt and uncles' biological children's who were kind of pushed aside with the addition of more children. In the beginning the two sisters are there for each other but overtime their life becomes more of a competition. There are snippets throughout the story that come from newspapers, news reports and coast guard reports relating to the search (you will have to read the story to see if they find them). All through the book the author wanders various places learn about many different religions trying to find as she says a place and a tribe to be a part of. One heads up to the reader do not go into this book thinking that the main focus is about the search for the family and yacht that is a small part of this story. Regardless this is a good read. I liked reading about her experience in San Luis Colorado which is small town if you know the area

This was quite a journey to read. A wonderful and insightful story of love and loss for a child who lost everything. Highly recommend

When Sarah Conover was just a baby the most important adults in the little girls life went on a sailing trip in the family yacht and although her grandfather who was a skilled yachtsman and sailor and had survived many storms at sea was on board this time the ship would not return and her family would be lost to her forever. Every family member had their own account of what happened during that sad time but regardless of whether it made a huge mark or no mark at all it seems everyone close to the tragedy wouldn’t get out unscathed. Where one of her cousins barely remembers that time another feels like she was put upon by her mother who Sarah and her sister went to live with. The whole time poor Sarah had no memories of that time at all. She wouldn’t remember the accident then going missing Norwood she remember her parents and that is what this book is about. In this book she reconstructs the accident and gets its meaning testimonies of those who remember that time. What I love most about this book is when she puts down other peoples words you can clearly tell that it is verbatim what they told her and I love that because most authors will reconstruct what others say to make it more fanciful but not the case with Set Adrift by Sarah Conover this is a sad tale told by its smallest victim and it is a compelling and highly intriguing read. This book feels like an honest and as if it was told with the upmost truthful intentions by the author which in my opinion isn’t always the case. I am not a big fan of autobiographies but I am a big fan of this one. I receive this book from NetGalley and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Read almost half of the book,just couldn't bring myself to finish.
The book kept losing me,as it kept returning to the past & eventually nothing made sense.
Her parents had been lost to a humongous storm more than 50 yrs.ago,supposedly in the Bermuda Triangle & she just couldn't let go.
Her life & the roads it took,all were caused by this tragedy & everyone from that day forward.
I thought it would be more about the Bermuda Triangle & not her life.Just couldn't stay interested.
Thank you "NetGalley" for the opportunity to try & read and to the author (Sarah Conover) for presenting.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It is a well-drawn depiction of what it's like to process a MAJOR family trauma that happened when the person was too young to understand or clearly remember it. The outward spiral of these experiences for generations are all too common. Personally, I expected that the author had discovered the answer to the mystery of what happened to her lost family members but that never happened. I suspect that many prospective readers will have a similar expectation, that of a mystery being solved, and may be disappointed.

Looking forward to this book, it didn't disappoint. Very interesting.
Thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free, it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

Sarah Conover has written a beautiful memoir that kept me reading late into the night. I had not heard about the sailing tragedy that happened to her family and she describes it and her life with grace& humor a really involving read.#netgalley #setadrift,

Oh my gosh I literally was up all night reading this. It was so worth the lack of sleep. I started reading this novel early in the day and could not force myself to stop. It was so good that I wish I could go back and force myself to slow down, reread it and savour every moment.

In January, 1958, a renowned sailing family was lost in a storm in the Bermuda Triangle. The youngest of two daughters, Sarah, suddenly an orphan, grew up never knowing her parents and grandparents. As an adult, she began to pursue the mystery of her family and their disappearance, and discovered that their stories were far different from the versions she was told. Sarah Conover’s memoir follows the national media’s investigation of the Revonoc’s vanishing, and exposes the truths that led her to “unstory” the family history, creating a new understanding of their lives, and hers.

This memoir really redefines that search for family history, and how knowing and finding that history can set your own life in a totally different direction. Reclaiming the past and owning what you can create of your future is a powerful thing, and through her words and discovery, Sarah Conover is able to do that for herself, and for her readers.

Set Adrift is slated to be published March 1, 2023. Thank you to 55 Fathoms Publishing, NetGalley and the author for the Advanced Reader's Copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rich, resonant language fills the pages of this beautiful memoir, revealing Sarah Conover’s complex journey through a family tragedy filled with secrets and love. Over many years Conover kept writing her origin story, peeling away the layers of water and waves that at times almost sunk her. Conover’s memoir structure effectively uses official excerpts from the long search for her parents and grandparents who disappeared while sailing in the Bermuda Triangle while she was still an infant. These excerpts are woven through Conover’s long search for the truth of her family narrative until letting go of anger and grief, she moves move forward in love and forgiveness. It is painful for humans, writers or not, to rip open old wounds, and then ask loved ones to do the same. Conover shows how to do it with love. Her journey to escape grief through adventure and romance kept me turning the pages. In the end her need for closure and forgiveness deepened my own understanding of how to survive great loss. Sail on, Sarah Conover. You inspire me.

Sarah Conover's parents and grandparents were all lost at sea during a major storm when she was a very small child. Her memoir explores the meanings of family, love, motherhood, and loss in a unique way. Told in vignettes, Conover discusses the impact of the tragedy on her family's lives and how it affected her deeply. The second half of the book dove into Buddhist thought as Conover attempted to come to terms with the loss and lifelong narratives that she grew up with.

This was beautifully written, with passages so pure and piercing that I had to set aside the book and contemplate the words for several minutes. However, it felt a bit repetitive, with the author continually asking the same questions and trying to find different answers, until I found myself impatient for the story to end. Perhaps it would have benefited from editing out 50 pages or more to sharpen it up a bit. Otherwise, a very moving book.

Thank you to Goodreads and the publisher for the eARC.

This is a hard review to write. When I chose to read it, I thought Set Adrift would have more information about the disappearance of the yacht, but (spoiler alert) there is virtually nothing because virtually nothing is known. It disappeared. A dinghy was found. But the yacht and the people lost with it never were. The subtitle is “a Mystery and a Memoir” – it might have been better called “an Unsolved Mystery and a Memoir” or just "a Memoir."

This reads like a therapy diary. I hate to be critical of someone’s attempts to work through their childhood trauma, but the narrative is all over the place. The transcripts of the author’s attempts to interview family members are uncomfortable and not illuminating. The author seems to be trying to force some kind of resolution where no resolution is going to be found.

Her memories are definitely not reliable, and family members, especially her adopted dad, don’t seem to get fair treatment. There’s a lot of mental running in circles. There’s a lot of trying to make the Bermuda Triangle into more than it is. Despite being not yet two when her parents died, and being raised by an aunt and uncle along with her older sister, the author really leans into her primary identity as an orphan.

If you are working through trauma, or are trying to find your own answers through religion or meditation, you may find Set Adrift of interest. I’m sorry the author lost her parents and grandparents at such a young age and in such tragic and unresolved circumstances, but I had no patience with her, especially with her need to push family members to places they didn’t want to go. Good thing I was not her therapist.

I read an advance reader copy of Set Adrift from Netgalley.

Set Adrift was a really great book. I’d never heard Sarah Conover’s story before, so it was interesting to read and learn about this accident and her story afterward. As far a memoirs go I really enjoyed this story, it was very well written and I’ll definitely be revisiting it.

I really enjoyed this book. It is a fast easy read - gets right to the point. There were a few items that could have been explored more. The author touches briefly on her relationship with her brother but seems to leave a lot out. The timeline was a little confusing. It may have helped to include dates throughout. I did like that the author included excerpts from the reports concerning her family’s disappearance. It really added to the story. Overall, a very good memoir.

Sarah Conover's memoir begins with the tragic loss of her family as they sailed on the yacht "Revonoc" off the coast of Florida in 1958. Sarah's grandparents, Harvey and Donna Conover, her parents Larry and Lori Conover , and family friend Bill Fluegelman were an incredibly well seasoned and trophied ocean yacht crew. If this had taken place in the last 20 years it would be the focus of episodes of network television news investigations such as "Dateline". They succumbed to a freak storm on January 2, 1958 while sailing from Key West to Miami. The "Revonoc" left few clues as to her fate, although there were thorough searches by the U.S.Coast Guard, Navy and Air Force and the Cuban Navy.
Sarah and her sister Aileen are left orphaned and are swept into a custody fight between their father's famous, well connected family and their maternal grandmother "Mere".

"Swept Adrift" is the story of an adult Sarah, digging through what she has been told, what has been written, and what she and others remember about the holes missing in her family story. She uses the actual articles artfully to help document what happened and to build a timeline for the incredible story.

Sarah Conover’s honesty, humor, and grace illuminate her exploration of the oceanic depths that claimed her family in "Set Adrift: My Family’s Disappearance in the Bermuda Triangle, a Mystery and a Memoir." Investigative journalist, poet, and writer’s writer, she describes how she uncovered family myths distorted by trauma. Psychological and spiritual rigor inform her discovery about her prominent New York family and reveal wisdom about “the story of her suffering.” A powerful and unforgettable reading experience.

A captivating memoir of a lost family and finding one’s way.
With her family falling victim while yachting through a Bermuda Triangle storm, Sarah pieces together the story of what happened with endless determination. Articles, Coast Guard reports and newspaper clippings lend different version of this maritime disaster and a difference in what she was told and what she was learning.
She faced the loss of her parents, withstood custody fights with her grandparent and eventually being adopted by Dick and Fran and part of a blended family.
Sarah writes with graceful prose. She shares intimately and honestly and steers the reader through a journey unlike anything they have read or experienced. She takes time to bring her ‘once thought truths’ into reality and reconstructs them as she begins this new chapter of her life.
Harrowing moments, difficult to face truths and the blooming of a new found self makes for a remarkable read.
Very recommended.
Thank you NetGalley, Sarah Conover and 55 Fathoms Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.