Drift

Determined to provide for himself and his younger sister, Eflet, Tenjat plans to join a group called the Handlers, who protect his island from naga monsters. The tension created by his dangerous quest—and by their family secret, which may put the island in danger—will keep readers turning the pages. M. K. Hutchins has created a wildly inventive world that is filled with danger and surprises. It is also made plausible by its internal consistencies. For example, it makes sense that the community in which Tenjat and Eflet grow up has negative feelings toward large families because they live on an island atop the back of an enormous turtle, which must be able to swim fast enough to elude hostile sea creatures. Detailed writing, full of precise observations, makes this strange world visceral and immediate. For example, describing one of his training missions in the ocean with the Handlers, Tenjat says, “All of us kept a tight formation, watching for other monsters, but nothing came. The mists grew warmer, darkened, and thickened. I could still swim and see a little, but it felt like tar. Every stroke seemed to suck me backward. Glowing eddies filled the space above us, as numerous as the stars.” [b]Eflet is a compelling character in her own right. While Tenjat feels that he must provide for and take care of her, Eflet proves to have her own powers, and her own unique way of understanding their life on a moving island.

Seventeen-year-old boy Tenjat, who lives on an island on the back of a giant turtle in an ocean filled with sea monsters, wants to join the warrior Handlers rather than marry. A big battle with the naga monsters is approaching, and Tenjat's sister may hold the secret to saving the turtle. The book's strong world-building gets bogged down by unstable plotting.