Publishers Weekly
★ 07/29/2019
In a strong debut loosely based on Twelfth Night, 16-year-old Violet’s family splinters after her brother Sam’s suicide attempt. Their parents enter counseling at home in New York City, Sam heads to Vermont for treatment, and party girl Violet is exiled to Lyric, Maine, where her family used to spend their summers. Living quietly with her uncle Toby and volunteering at the local aquarium, Violet reflects on her childhood with her brother, makes new friends through coworker Orion, and gains interest in the history of her great-great-great-grandparents, the town’s much-celebrated founders. Against the evocative backdrop of rugged coastal Maine, Drake’s suspenseful novel offers three strands of high drama: the impact of Sam’s mental illness on Violet, Violet’s family history (her grandmother, the lone survivor of a shipwreck, posed as a boy while working for her future husband), and a complicated love triangle between Violet, Orion, and Orion’s friend Liv, who has a special interest in Violet’s ancestors. The story of her grandmother’s transformation creates intriguing parallels with the internal changes Violet undergoes. If at times the novel seems crowded, Violet emerges as a genuine, sympathetic protagonist struggling to create something new from the wreckage of her life. Ages 14–up. Agent: Peter Knapp, Park Literary & Media.(Oct.)
From the Publisher
2020 CCBC Choices List 2021 Best Fiction for Young Adults (BFYA)
"At once hilarious, insightful, and swashbuckling, Drake's debut is a lyrical adventure like no other."—David Arnold, New York Times best-selling author of Mosquitoland
"As warm and bright as a beach bonfire on a hazy summer night, The Last True Poets of the Sea will lift you up on a tide of love and lyricism, and carry you away, laughing and crying."—Jeff Zentner, Morris Award-winning author
"This story of a young woman coming to terms with herself and her family is so filled with virtues and heart that it is hard to know where to begin. It is at once tender and incisive, profound and page-turning, warm and beautifully written and very funny."—Madeline Miller, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Circe and Song of Achilles
*"Wry, quick-witted, and filled with deep grief and fathomless joy in equal measure, this is a triumphant debut. Echoes of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and the barest touches of magical realism give shape to the story, which precisely and profoundly maps the ebbs and flows of surviving through trauma."—Booklist, starred review
*"A warm, wise, strange meditation on developing the strength to be vulnerable."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
*"Drake has created an authentic and romantic tale, loosely based on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, that shows that life can be embraced again even after enduring a tragedy."—School Library Journal, starred review
*"Violet emerges as a genuine, sympathetic protagonist struggling to create something new from the wreckage of her life."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
*"Drake's enthralling debut doesn't shy away from the big stuff. The Last True Poets of the Sea explores themes of identity, mental health, romance, and family with grace and gravitas."—BookPage, starred review
School Library Journal
★ 08/01/2019
Gr 8 Up—Violet is an out-of-control NYC teen who is shipped off to her mother's hometown in coastal Maine after her younger brother attempts suicide and her parents try to get a handle on both of their children's problems. While living with her uncle, Violet is forced to volunteer at the aquarium in town. While there, she makes friends with some of the local teens and begins to research her family's origins, with help from her new friends Orion and Liv. Supposedly her great-great-grandmother survived a shipwreck and was a founder of the community. Violet's search for answers about her mysterious ancestor mirrors some of the journey she and her brother Sam are on. Debut author Drake has created an authentic and romantic tale, loosely based on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, that shows that life can be embraced again even after enduring a tragedy. Teen sexuality is respectfully addressed with a frankness that is welcomed. The realities of questioning yourself and the deep emotions that go with falling in love are ably displayed with the burgeoning relationship between Violet and Liv. Sibling bonds and the importance of family also balance out this narrative about battling grief and building bridges to a better tomorrow. VERDICT This contemporary romance has relatable characters on journeys of self-discovery and healing. A must-buy for all YA collections.—Nancy McKay, Ella Johnson Memorial Library, Hampshire, IL
OCTOBER 2019 - AudioFile
Tavia Gilbert’s expressive narration shows careful attunement to the emotions of 16-year-old Violet, who is sent for the summer to Lyric, Maine, a town noted for her great-great-great-grandmother’s survival of a shipwreck. Gilbert deftly portrays the wreck that is Violet. She’s sarcastic and jaded on the surface but suffering and vulnerable underneath after her brother’s suicide attempt and a year of wild drinking and empty sex. Gilbert deftly portrays secondary characters and gradually shows Violet thawing through her uncle’s kindness, the friendship of locals, and her investigation of her ancestral past. These renew and restore her sense of self and her creativity. Gilbert smoothly differentiates Violet’s nuanced feelings, deepening her emotions as she falls in love for the first time with Liv. S.W. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2019-07-14
Sixteen-year-old Violet is shuffled off to stay with her uncle in coastal Maine after her brother, Sam, tries to kill himself.
The near mythic family lore of Violet's mother, whose great-great-great-grandparents founded the fictional town of Lyric, is the thread that weaves together a host of interesting characters in this witty, surprising novel as it explores grief, mental illness, and both family and romantic dynamics. After a wild year of drinking and impersonal sex that ultimately results in Violet's suspension from school for smoking weed near campus, she arrives in Lyric with a freshly shaven head and a vow to keep to herself. Though she cares about her kind uncle, Toby, Violet's avoidance of her painful and difficult emotions means that she holds him at arm's length and speaks little to her parents back in New York City or her brother, who is at a treatment center in Vermont. Slowly, through the relationships she develops with her similarly musically talented co-worker Orion and his tightknit, eccentric group, Liv, Mariah, and Felix, Violet begins to contend with her own anxiety and her near paralyzing fear about her brother's illness. Most of the characters are white; Mariah is Indian American, and several are queer.
A warm, wise, strange meditation on developing the strength to be vulnerable. (Fiction. 14-18)
