August 10, 2015

The Blue - Lucy Clarke


Touchstone, August 2015.





Five Stars


Lana and her best friend Kitty leave home to escape the unhappiness and uncertainty of their former lives – they pick a spot on the globe and end up travelling to the Philippines. While there, they meet up with a group of fellow travellers who are sailing a yacht, The Blue, to New Zealand. Sharing a sense of adventure and wanderlust, the girls join up with the crew for what seems like an idyllic journey, snorkelling, swimming and exploring beautiful islands. It starts out perfect, until one of the crew disappears overboard – and the dark secrets of the others begin to emerge.

 

Lucy Clarke does a fantastic job of setting the scene. The ocean and islands are vivid, colourful and almost dreamlike. The sea plays a major role in the novel: it is almost a character of its own, and as the weather darkens, the storm casts a shadow over The Blue’s tropical paradise. It is responsible not only for the dark mood of the novel but also the unpredictable actions of the crew. While individual beaches and coves are described so clearly that I could taste the salt and feel the sand, they really could have been anywhere. This isn’t a novel about the countries that one travels to, it is simply about travelling. None of the characters seemed to be on the boat to learn about new cultures; instead, they are there to escape from their own reality.

 

The novel is within the genre of psychological thriller, but it is deeper than that. It is character-driven, but every time we feel like we are getting to know a character, they surprise us. The crew are forced into close quarters which deludes them into a sense of closeness – in fact, they really don’t know each other at all. Flashbacks allow us to get to know Kitty and Lana in particular, but even then we aren’t sure what they are capable of doing. Everyone’s motivations are coloured by Lana’s negative experiences on The Blue, and it works because we don’t trust anyone. Clarke is adept at dropping hints so subtle that we don’t realize until much later that they were clues to the darkness that lurks beneath these characters.

 

At first, life on The Blue seems perfect. Great company, fresh fruit and fish, plenty of rum. Everything is democratic, including votes on any issue that arises on the yacht. However, it doesn’t take long to see that there is plenty of manipulation going on amongst the crew, and some members have a dangerous hold on the others. All we have is Lana’s perspective, and her confusion and suspicion as more secrets swirl around the decks of the yacht. With no omniscient view of events, we must piece together the mystery from Lana’s view of “Then” and “Now”, as the chapters are divided into past and present.

 

As secrets are revealed to Lana, our own perspective as reader changes too. From the foreshadowing of the prologue, we know there is a death coming. Clarke, via Lana, leads us slowly down the path to eventually discover what happened. And as soon as you think you have it all figured out, more secrets are revealed, right up to the last page and the shocking epilogue.

 

The non-linear plot is a perfect device to tell the story of The Blue. The mysteries of Lana’s past in England, her time on the yacht, and her present circumstances in New Zealand are all woven together to create intrigue. The thriller aspect of the novel was well-developed and competently explored, building tension and anticipation right up to the final page. It’s hard not to identify with the travellers who were willing to risk everything to maintain their idyll on The Blue – but it couldn’t last. As Lana eventually tells Kitty, “The Blue was never a boat. Not really. The Blue is a mindset. A place within yourself.” (p. 378) I think that mindset, that freedom to find yourself outside of everyday life, is what appeals to us about travelling, and about stories such as this one.

 

I received this book for free from Touchstone/Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.

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