THE CASTOFFS

In LoPresto’s YA novel, two young girls, adrift in their lives, suddenly find themselves stranded on an island.

The author’s latest offering delivers an effective twist on a tale of survivors pushed to their limits by unthinkable circumstances. Thirteen-year-old Grace Cruz is stuck on a boat trip with friends who won’t talk to her, making the whole affair seem like a “big parent conspiracy to get their kids back together.” Boredom yields to terror, though, when a violent storm upends the boat, and Grace finds herself floating helplessly off the coast of Maine. She encounters a fellow castoff in 18-year-old Sam White, a passenger on a small plane that recently crashed into the sea. Before disaster struck, Sam, a recent high school graduate, was struggling; she couldn’t envision the next step in her life, beyond taking a part-time job, “like at a fast-food restaurant or something”—much to the disappointment of her parents, who expected her to go to college. Now, Grace and Sam must find a way to survive the dangers of the storm and work toward getting rescued. They soon manage to swim to a rocky island, but it doesn’t mean the end of their problems. As they navigate such issues as finding fresh water and food, Sam and Grace must also try to resolve their inner struggles for acceptance: “We’re both cast off,” Sam matter-of-factly informs her newfound friend. LoPresto presents a briskly told and effective tale that works on two levels—as an account of a struggle for survival, and as a story of a quest for personal identity. Sam and Grace are awkward and self-effacing yet fiercely committed to their emerging visions for themselves. It’s an emotional conflict that many teenagers experience, and it will feel instantly relatable to that audience—whether they focus solely on the main characters’ fight to get back to the mainland, or their journey to learn who they are. Whatever readers decide, they’ll find it a trip worth taking.

A smartly crafted coming-of-age twist on a classic survival plot.