Matt and John are spending the summer before senior year working on Long Island in the tony Hamptons. The boys are best friends from childhood who happen to share a tragedy that cost the life of John's father. Both are goal-oriented and driven, and the last thing either of them expects is to be stranded in a poorly equipped boat with three other kids from wealthy families. One of the girls, Estefania, has a serious injury. Her boyfriend, JoJo, is in denial. And her cousin Driana is just trying to hold it together. Matt and John are the only two at all equipped to survive, but Matt, the narrator, is beginning to wonder whether he really ever knew John. Griffin keeps the pages turning; he has a gift for drawing out the suspense and immersing the reader in the story. At the same time, his characters are complex, unpredictable, and entirely authentic. Dispatches from rescue units heighten the suspense. It's a great summer read long as you stay on dry land.

Gr 9 Up-Matt and his childhood friend John have summer jobs in the Hamptons before their last year of high school. The summer has gone well, and there are only a few weeks left before school starts again. Matt will return to the selective public school in Manhattan that he has attended since freshman year, and John to the neighborhood public school. Matt hopes to get into Yale, where he wants to major in forestry so he can man a solitary outpost away from people. John wants to get his certification as an electrician like his father. Hoping to make some extra money on their day off, the boys take a couple coolers and fill them with sodas and ice cream bars and head to the beach. They meet Driana, João, and Estefania. What should have been a brief and anonymous exchange alters their lives when Driana invites them to a party she's having. Estefania decides to go out surfing at midnight and thus begins a tragic series of events. Clues about the characters are revealed in a leisurely manner, leaving readers to guess about their true intentions. This contrasts with the rapidity in which the plot progresses, evidenced by Matt's immediate willingness to help people he met only a short time before. VERDICT Recommend to teens who enjoyed Matt de la Peña's The Living (Delacorte, 2013) and other survival stories. Suanne B. Roush, formerly at Osceola High School, Seminole, FL