Book Review III The Living

The Living, by Matt De La Pena is about a boy named Shy who gets a job an a cruise ship and something goes terribly wrong. Shy thought it would be a good idea to work on a cruise ship for the money, but he would also have some fun. Shy has many friends from the crew like Rodney, his room mate, and Carmen who he has a major crush on. Early in on the cruise Shy witnesses a suicide, Shy tries to save the man, but fails. On the cruise Shy Skype's his mom only to find out his nephew has Romero Disease, a disease that killed his grandma. Shy is told that a guy has been following him to find out what the suicide man said to him. One night when Shy's with Carmen an emergency alarm went off, there was a giant earthquake and a tsunami was coming. Shy gets into a raft only to be hit by another wave. Shy and Addie make it to a beaten up raft and survive until they're rescues by Shoeshine. Shoeshine brought Addie and Shy to the island that Addie's dad worked at making medicine. Shoeshine injected Addie and Shy with a syringe to give them vitamins. Once they get up to the hotel Shy finds Carmen  who tells him about how that got shots to make them immune to what they think is a tropical disease, but some scientist took it on a boat. Shy connected the dots and figured out that the vitamins were actually the cure to the disease. Shy also finds out that Rodney has the disease. Carmen and Shy snuck up to where they keep the diseased. When they saw them they could immediately tell it was Romero Disease, and that Rodney was dead. While walking on the trail Bill, the guy that followed him, told Shy all about Lasotech and how the man that committed suicide and Addie dad created Romero Disease to make money off of the vaccine. After Bill told Shy all about the truth about the disease Bill pulls a gun on him and is about to shoot him, but Shoeshine saves him. Shoeshine tells Shy to stay away from the boats going to back to the mainland and then leaves. Shy meets up with Marcus and Carmen. While they're up in the trail they see the boats come in, but they don't welcome them in they shoot everybody and start to set the island on fire. Carmen, Marcus, Shoeshine and Shy all make it on a beat up boat and continue on they're journey to the mainland.

The Living, by Matt De La Pena is a great book and I would recommend it to other readers. The book starts off exciting and stays that way to the end. It has many plot twists that you wouldn't expect so it's hard to put down once you've starting reading. Although I think we should have got to know some of the characters better I still think it's a great book. If you're into books where people are fighting to survive this would be perfect for you. I personally really liked this book because my favorite type of books to read are adventure and mystery because there's always something happening. That's why I would recommend The Living, by Matt De La Pena to other readers.

One of the main themes in The living is to never give up one example of this is when a little boy can't find his mom and Shy stays with him until he finds her mom "The kid wasn't cursing now, he was crying an calling for his mom." (209). Another example of this is when Shy is questioning whether or not they'll ever make it to the island, but the eventually do "It will probably take a damn year with his one stupid oar."(312). One last example of this is when Shy and Addie can't catch a fish, but keep trying and eventually catch one "And I'm gonna catch us a damn fish this time."

The book starts in Otay Mesa, California Shy's home town. He's only there for a short amount of time, but in that time you can tell that he loves it there. Once Shy's on the cruise he's in more of a working mode and a lot more stressed. Except when he's with his friends and he can relax and be himself. When the ship goes down he's scared in survival mode. When they get to the island Shy finally feels safe until it's all taken away once he finds out the truth about it and the island is set on fire. When that happens Shy is back to being scared and vulnerable changing how he thought about the once safe island.