The Raft by S.A. Bodeen

The Raft

Author: S.A. Bodeen

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Pages: 231

Rating: 3.5 Stars!

Robie, 16, lives with her family on the Midway atoll, a group of islands in the middle of the Pacific. Her parents are scientists; it’s an isolated life. Robie enjoys visiting her aunt in Hawaii – she gets back and forth on a cargo plane that brings supplies to Midway. 

During a visit, her aunt is called to the mainland for a work emergency, leaving Robie to get home on her own. On her flight back to Midway the cargo plane hits nasty weather, and goes down. It’s just Robie, the pilot, and Max, a co-pilot she’s never met till this flight, on board. Robie is pulled aboard a raft by Max, who is injured and slipping in and out of consciousness. They have a bag of candy and very little water between them. When they finally reach an island that seems abandoned, Robie hopes they’ll be found quickly. But she’s not sure she was even on the flight manifest. Her parents must be looking for her…aren’t they? 

In THE RAFT, S.A. Bodeen creates a hair-raising suspense story that will have readers agonizing over the same question as Robie -- how long can they survive?~Goodreads

When Robie gets on a last minute cargo flight back to her homeland she really has no idea what she's in for. This type of plane can only hold a specific amount of weight-meaning that all passengers and their cargo NEED to be weighed before take off. Robie unfortunately sleeps through that part.

That’s actually one thing I noticed about this book, Robie slept a lot. She would be doing something and then all of the sudden drift off or be startling awake. I personally think it kind of took away from the story a bit. Scenes lacked detail because she just kinda...fell asleep!

But any who! There’s this terrible storm and down goes the plane. But luckily the co-pilot, Max, is there to literally smack her out of the situation. (Yes, he LITERALLY SLAPS HER! I kinda loved him for it. Ha!) He also gets the life raft (the infamous raft!) inflated and pushes Robie out of the plane.

Then it’s just Robie, Max, some Skittles and the raft...dun dun DUNN!

Gosh, you guys. That would suck so bad. To be stuck in the middle of the ocean, with nothing. I would freak the eff out. I wasn’t even there and I WAS freaking the eff out! What the hell would I even do?! I give Robie so much credit. She had to figure out how to patch the raft, catch fish, not freeze to death, and collect water, not only for herself but Max as well. 

Max. I don’t even know what to say about Max. I just...he...whoa. I started out thinking out one thing about him and once I finished the book...just whoa. That is all.  

There's also this one twist. This one crazy ass twist, towards the end of the book that’ll change everything. It will completely change how you look at Robie, how you look at Max and how you look at their situation. Everything that has happened will make complete sense. The twist was the best part, in my opinion!

But there were some things that didn’t quite sit right with me. The seal scenes (yes, seals) were heartbreaking and made me semi-queasy. And I found all the descriptions of the birds and their patterns a little pointless. There were TOO many details about the birds. I feel like it really slowed down the pace of the story. The ending was also a little abrupt for me. 

Overall, though, The Raft is a frightening survival story that has intense realism and chilling descriptions. You’ll possibly even find yourself a little bit scared to take your next flight! (I know I am. *gulp*)