Waves

Written by Sharon Dogar

Narrated by James Clamp

“Where is she? And what was she doing out on the waves that night?”

For Hal, now, this summer is different. Sure he’s spending it, as always, with his family at their cottage on the wild west coast of England. But this summer he meets Jackie, beautiful, impetuous Jackie. Lying with her on the beach while she sculpts mermaids from wet sand–it’s paradise. Or would be, if only he didn’t keep hearing the desperate pleas of his lost sister Charley in his head . . .
For Charley, then, last summer was different. Pete, the impossibly gorgeous surf god, wanted her, she couldn’t believe it! To lick the sand off his lips, to let the sun tan the outline of her hand over his heart–she’d do anything to be with him. Even if it meant sneaking out and leaving her tagalong brother Hal behind. Just for one night. How could she have known what would happen by dawn?
Set at a beach where growing up goes wrong, Waves is a coming-of-age mystery about first love and tragic loss. About a family drowning in sorrow, and the courageous son struggling against the tide to save them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Mar 13, 2007
• ISBN: 9780739346952

Sharon Dogar

Sharon Dogar lives in Oxford with her husband and three children. She loves writing, reading and daydreaming. She also works with adolescents as a psychotherapist. Her previous YA novel with Andersen Press, Annexed, was shortlisted for the Costa Book Award and longlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

Reviews for Waves

[krystlelow · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I admit... this is the longest I've ever taken to read a book.

I also admit that I kinda lost interest halfway through the book, which is probably why I left it untouched for weeks. It might just be me, but I find that the story took longer to unfold than it should, and it ended a bit abruptly. All that unnecessary drama that lead up to the finale was... unnecessary.

I found Hal's character a little hard to relate to at first, but it got better. Also, what Am did in the end kinda confused me. One minute she was all mad and 'hell-hath-no-fury-like-a-woman-scorned', and the next minute she was helping Charley. It was like Am had multiple personality disorder or something. O_o

I dunno... I just didn't really get this story.

After abandoning the book for so long, I decided that I finally had to finish it, so I could get along with my other books. I missed reading every so often, but with this book, I find that I just didn't have the mood to pick it up and read. And when I did, I quickly got bored of it. I was about 60% through with the book when I left it untouched for several weeks,so this time when I read it, I forced myself to finish it, otherwise GOd knows how long I'd take to slowly finish it.

[nicola26 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I actually really like this one at the start. It was interesting, the characters were belivable. It really pulled me in and kept me eager for more. It started to fall apart after about a hundred pages though. The randomly shoved in thoughts between Charley and Hal were annoying and confusing and the story just started going all over the place. It really lacked focus for the second part of the book. It had potential but didn't impress me overall. Also, I'm not sure why they made such a big deal about the author knowing Philip Pullman. He's quoted on the front cover, talk about in an intro and then at the back we're told he taught her English. It was just silly and I feel that a book should be able to stand on its own without relying on the name of one famous author. Once would have been fine but they didn't need to mention him three times.

[kellyannbrown · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Somewhat tedious in the middle, this book picks up at the end, when a young man comes back to knowing what he knew all along... that his sister was strong, in love and that sometimes accidents happen to the wrong people at the wrong time. One of the hardest parts of this book is when the family battles back and forth about taking a young, previously vital young woman off of life support. The family asks, "What would she have wanted?"

One of the best part of this book is the relationship between the young man and his younger sister. You gotta love a boy who is so sweet to his younger sister.

[elizardkwik · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Told in a series of flashbacks and switching perspectives, this is the story of a brother and his older sister, who now lies in a coma after a surfing accident. While trying to find out what happened the night of her accident, he learns more than he bargained for, but must keep seeking the truth, whatever the cost, to get her voice out of his head. More than a little repetitive, this book was more tedious and unending than enjoyable. The story might have been better without the whole literal voice-in-his-head subplot.

[dcollins7984 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Hal's older sister Charlie is in a hospital in a coma that is the result of a mysterious accident at their beach home the previous summer. Hal and his family return to the beach the following summer where Hal finds himself falling for a girl who seems to know something about what happened to Charlie. He also feels as though his sister is communicating with him as he seeks to discover what happened to her. Should be directed toward 8th grade and up due to allusions to sex (nothing explicit). Recommend to students who like a little romance, suspense, mystery and hints of the supernatural.

[mrshillreads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I don't remember first love being this intense; however, the story was interesting and there were enough plot twists to keep me guessing. I cared about the characters and wanted the book to have a different ending.

[alirambles · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This story of a boy trying to figure out what happened to his sister the previous summer started with an interesting idea, but much of the story gets lost among all the repetition (If you took all the "Hal! Where are you!"s out of the book you'd probably cut 10 pages). There are some touching scenes, but many of them were pretty contrived, too. I did keep reading to find out what had happened, but by the time I got to it I'd gotten so tired of the melodramatic voices in the wind that I didn't care all that much anymore. I wouldn't recommend this one, sorry.

[ohioyalibrarian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book reminds me of "The Lovely Bones". In that book, the narrator is dead. In this book we sometimes hear from a character in a coma. She is teenager Hal's older sister, who Hal found unconscious on the beach one morning. Hal sometimes hears his sister's voice in his mind? What happened to her? How can Hal find out? The answer is haunting, as is the book. I loved it!