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The Starboard Sea

by Amber Dermont (Goodreads Author)

3.61 of 5 stars 3.61 · rating details · 1,614 ratings · 343 reviews

“A rich, quietly artful novel that is bound for deep water, with questions of beauty, power and spiritual navigation as its main concerns. The title refers not to the right side of a boat but to the right course through life, and the immense difficulty of finding and following it.”--Janet Maslin, The New York Times

Apowerful first novel about life and death, friendship and...more

ebook, 288 pages

Published February 28th 2012 by St. Martin's Press

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Dec 17, 2011 Jeanette rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: all-fiction, america, cultural-and-social-commentary, four-star-fiction, av, domestic-and-relationship-fiction

Rules of conduct are flexible for rich kids, and never more so than at Bellingham, a co-ed prep school for misbehaving teens who have been booted out of more prestigious academies. In her debut novel, Amber Dermont revisits the zeitgeist of the Reagan era through the eyes of Jason Prosper, a senior who lands at Bellingham in 1987 following the suicide of Cal, his best friend and sailing partner.

When Jason arrives at Bellingham, he is full of secrets and emotional baggage involving Cal's death, h...more Rules of conduct are flexible for rich kids, and never more so than at Bellingham, a co-ed prep school for misbehaving teens who have been booted out of more prestigious academies. In her debut novel, Amber Dermont revisits the zeitgeist of the Reagan era through the eyes of Jason Prosper, a senior who lands at Bellingham in 1987 following the suicide of Cal, his best friend and sailing partner.

When Jason arrives at Bellingham, he is full of secrets and emotional baggage involving Cal's death, his parents' faltering marriage, and his own sexuality. The school provides an atmosphere amounting to supervised juvenile delinquency, where "if you could pay, you could stay." Many of the students devote more energy to sailing, sex, hazings, and substance abuse than to academic pursuits.

Jason falls in with a gang of kids who seem to practice delinquency almost as an art form or a religion, and they do it with the insouciance of the indulged. Not for them the grief or consequences that plague the rest of us. At least not on the surface. Sometimes that manufactured mischief is a front for an anguish that has no other outlet. And when Black Monday hits in October, some of them learn they're not as immune to reality as they'd imagined themselves to be.

In the enigmatic Aidan, Jason finds a confidante, but she's a damaged and troubled soul. Rumors and speculation swirl around campus about her history and her violent tendencies. After a hurricane batters the East Coast, Jason is left with questions about Aidan's capacity for harming herself.

Ultimately this is Jason's story of managing grief and guilt while examining some questions of ethics involving his friends, his brother Riegel, and his parents' generation. In a larger sense, it spotlights the ways in which privilege supersedes societal strictures and the whispers of one's conscience.

The Starboard Sea is quite a remarkable debut novel. Dermont's dialogue and characters are real enough to be both entertaining and disturbing. Beautiful sailing and stargazing imagery abounds. The one weakness I would cite is the way the novel ends. Secrets are revealed, the school year is over, and the story is finished. With so many serious considerations introduced throughout the book, the end feels abrupt and leaves hazy the author's intentions for the story's message. Highly recommended, nonetheless. [4.5 stars](less)

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Aug 02, 2012 J.A. Tone rated it 4 of 5 stars

It was a melancholy but engrossing story of a boy in a prep school for misfits. Plagued with regret, he befriends a troubled girl as they navigate the social pitfalls of the rich. The main character, Jason Prosper, even though from a wealthy family, struggles with his wealth and his role as he searches for himself and to solve a mystery that slowly develops. The book is well written and you feel like you know the main character, but his melancholy does weigh on the book. I loved the nautical ele...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Zen Nana rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I mentioned once before that my personal experience with New England boarding schools is not something I would wish on my worst enemy. That was in a review for The Twisted Thread, a young adult novel about a murder on one of these campuses. I liked it; didn’t love it. This book, The Starboard Sea, is light years beyond that one. I don’t think it’s promoted as YA, and although sophisticated teens might love it, the depth and breadth of this one is so far beyond the Pretty Little Liars genre that...more

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Apr 04, 2012 Cynthia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Cynthia by: Madeline

Shelves: myfavorites

One of the themes of this novel is bullying. It starts on page 4, as our narrator, Jason Kilian Prosper, describes playing tag with his older brother, Riegel. (I have never met a Riegel and I can't say that I want to.) Here Jason is speaking with his mother at their summer home in Maine as they drink champagne mixed with grapefruit juice:

"'We used to play tag. Chasing each other, then forcing the loser into the wig.' Riegel had made up this game as a way of torturing me. A brittle net material c...more One of the themes of this novel is bullying. It starts on page 4, as our narrator, Jason Kilian Prosper, describes playing tag with his older brother, Riegel. (I have never met a Riegel and I can't say that I want to.) Here Jason is speaking with his mother at their summer home in Maine as they drink champagne mixed with grapefruit juice:

"'We used to play tag. Chasing each other, then forcing the loser into the wig.' Riegel had made up this game as a way of torturing me. A brittle net material covered the inside of the hairpiece, and my brother the bully liked to pull it over my nose and push the scratchy lining into my face. The suffocation became my own definition of blindness. Not an absence of light, but a prickling concealment. A rough and painful mask."

Most of the novel takes place at Bellingham Academy. Jason the narrator explains that Bellingham has its perks.

(page 5)"Most of us who found ourselves at Bellingham had been kicked out of better schools for stealing, or having sex, or smoking weed. Rich kids who'd gotten caught, been given a second chance, only to be caught again and then finally expelled. We weren't bad people, but having failed that initial test of innocence and honor, we no longer felt burdened to be good. In some ways it was a relief to have fallen. To have fucked up only to land softly, cushioned, as my dad reminded me, 'by a goddamn safety net of your parents' wealth.' Bellingham offered us sanctuary, minimal regulations, and a valuable lesson: Breaking rules could lead to more freedom."

The world of trust funds, vacation homes, prep schools, competitive sailing and connections is foreign to me and completely fascinating. The closest brushes I've had with this world Jason lives in were when my high school boyfriend went off to Stanford and described his new friends to me. My daughter Madeline went to a private college and described women in her class who were debutantes. Amber Dermont teaches at this school--Agnes Scott College. She was one of Madeline's creative writing professors.

Jason comes from a world of privilege but unlike many of his classmates he sees the warts and knows that money can vanish like the wind, can be lost like a dear friend.

Jason has lost Cal, his best friend. On page 270 he is thinking about Cal, but sailing with Race, a new "friend." "Each time the boat began to turn, I released the jib, positioning myself windward, trimming the sails. Race relaxed his body against mine, and though we shouted rallies of orders and agreements in urgent, curt voices, from time to time we'd catch each others eyes and smile, as if to say, 'Can you believe how lucky we are? Could anything in the world be as much fun?'"

Like I say to my girls all the time, do you girls have any idea how lucky you are?

Congratulations Ms. Dermott on a fabulous first novel. I loved every single page.(less)

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Aug 24, 2012 Fred Daly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'd been looking forward to this, and it mostly met expectations. It's about a boy at a new boarding school for his senior year in 1987-88. The sense of privilege that permeates the place is outrageous; there's a ton of casual cruelty that just made me shiver. The author makes some interesting choices with her protagonist -- he's like Holden Caulfield, but actually with more reason to be messed up. There's a lot about sailing, and my main criticism of the book is that the boats and the winds and...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Arna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An excellent read. Vividly written, and evocative. The Starboard Sea tells the story of Prosper, removed from one exclusive prep school for another - renowned for its acceptance of spoilt little rich kids, who won't be accepted anywhere else. Set in 1987, on the eve of the stockmarket crash, it tells the story of Prosper's acceptance of himself after a terrible tragedy, his forgiveness of himself for his no small part in it, and his attempts, sometimes misguided, to make good choices. With an em...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Richard (Bound & Determined...) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: best-of-2012

Though unable to relate to the overindulgent upbringing of the cast of characters, what I could relate to is the feelings they experienced. Feelings of invincibility, self-loathing, pride, indecision. Jason wears these like a banner waving in the wind. He internalizes them also, but bears them vibrantly for the reader to evaluate their own feelings against his story. To become so entwined with him that they are not two separate yet equal beings, but the reader and Jason become joined, their emot...more

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May 07, 2012 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: best-of-2012, contemporary-fiction, read-2012, usa-contemporary

From Jane Eyre to The Chocolate War to The Outsiders fiction has explored the hurts and the conceits of that most vulnerable and brutal of humans beings: the teenager. And from A Separate Peace to Never Let Me Go to the Harry Potter series, readers flock to the romance of that exclusive teenage club to which most of us never belonged: prep school. One of American literature's most iconic characters, Holden Caulfield - newly-expelled from Pencey Prep as The Catcher in the Rye opens - has been th...more

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Mar 02, 2012 Melanie Coombes rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads, fiction

What I liked the most about this book was the setting at a New England boarding school for wealthy, privileged teenagers. Just reading about the advantages these students had due to wealth and their family name was pretty fascinating reading. However, we soon learn that no amount of money can protect you from dangers.

Set in the 1980's, this is the story of Jason Prosper. He transfers to Bellingham Academy after the suicide of his close friend and sailing partner, Cal. Blaming himself for his de...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Jenee Rager rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1st-reads, general-fiction

Set in the late 1980's "The Starboard Sea" delicately balances the heartbreaking tale of Jason's senior year at prep school against tongue in cheek references to the over the top 80's social scene.

Jason stoically deals with bi-sexuality, suicide, racism, divorce, classism and even a murder as he navigates his way through his "second chance" prep school senior year. His parents, are non-entities in his upbringing and seem to think that there is no problem too big that they can't throw enough mon...more

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May 19, 2013 Pam rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction, historical-fiction

Dermont writes about privileged life in the late '80s and doesn't shy away from the cruelty, snobbery, and heartless nature of entitled youth. For those of you who love sailing, there are pages and pages devoted to knots, regattas, and all things nautical. Having read it on the heels of The Tragedy Paper, it didn't seem as meaningful nor as interesting. Although Dermont had a lot of dialogue that was plausible, I knocked her down a star just because the dialogue was almost exclusively teenage bo...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Elliot rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I started this book with high hopes, as it had received great reviews and was about sailing and boarding school, two things that have had a big impact in my life. I even spent a summer sailing at Tabor Academy, which is where the author went to school and appears to be the inspiration for some aspects of the book's fictional "Bellingham Academy." However, while the characters aren't supposed to be likable, they also aren't believable at all. Sure, there are cold and callous people in the world,...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Virginia rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book pissed me off. The author was pretentious, and, among other things, loved waffling on about sailing and how much she knew about rich kids in boarding school. I went to boarding school around the same time this book takes place, and I think she's pretty much full of crap. The only two things she got right were 1) all dorm rooms blast Bob Marley, and 2) boarding school is call just that because it is boring.

In addition, this book was one in which you can predict exactly what will occur o...more

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Apr 02, 2013 Jean rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: general-fiction

The Starboard Sea fits firmly in the tradition of the "prep school" sub-genre of coming-of-age stories. As such, it doesn't rise above just OK. The finest story of this type, and the novel that began the trend, is A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, published in 1959. Other stories, including the movie Dead Poet's Society, also show the angst of the teenage boy and the secrets kept, and the tragedies suffered.
The story is bout Jason Prosper (a little heavy on the symbolism here; too Swiftian), w...more

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Feb 09, 2013 John rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow, this book wasn't good. Loved the premise of some secret between prep school kids, but the execution of the story was weak. The jacket says "set against the backdrop of the 1987 stock market collapse," but aside from mentioning how a few characters' fathers fared, it doesn't play a role at all. The author continually forces musical references into the story. An example of which is "Even with the music blaring, with Robert Smith imploring 'Oh, why can I, I, I, be you?' I heard Chester hit the...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Sonya L Moore rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I received this book as an advance copy, read the cover blurb (thought "Separate Peace"? or "Catcher in the Rye"?) and then placed it with my TBRs, where it disappeared beneath the growing pile. One night, searching for a short book, a quick read that I could pick up and put down,I pulled it out. Bad decision, as I was up all night finishing it. I was captured.
As Amazon describes it: "Set against the backdrop of the 1987 stock market collapse, "The Starboard Sea" is an examination of the abuses...more

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Feb 01, 2013 Leeswammes rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed reading The Starboard Sea, although it's hard to pinpoint exactly what I liked about it. While there was a storyline, it meandered for a long time with nothing much really happening. Only later on, there is a dramatic event that Jason, the protagonist, starts to investigate.

The book was well-written and I happily kept going, learning about Jason, his rich (very rich) friends and their families, the boarding school he was at, the new friends he acquires. It wasn't the sort of book you h...more

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Jan 19, 2013 Ellie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary

Jason Prosper had lived a charmed life until the year his best friend Cal, committed suicide. Jason blames himself, and his wealthy father, wishing to hide away the shame, sends him off to Bellingham Academy; a prep school on the New England coast. Whilst he soon makes friends, Jason struggles to come to terms with his loss, walking away from the very thing he and Cal loved so much; sailing. The night the hurricane hits, brings fresh tragedy and forces Jason to re-evaluate his friendships.

One of...more Jason Prosper had lived a charmed life until the year his best friend Cal, committed suicide. Jason blames himself, and his wealthy father, wishing to hide away the shame, sends him off to Bellingham Academy; a prep school on the New England coast. Whilst he soon makes friends, Jason struggles to come to terms with his loss, walking away from the very thing he and Cal loved so much; sailing. The night the hurricane hits, brings fresh tragedy and forces Jason to re-evaluate his friendships.

One of the things I didn’t enjoy about the book is the very thing that makes it effective as a story. I really disliked Jason’s so-called friends at Bellingham. Preppy, privileged, arrogant, whatever you want to call them, they are the epitome of spoilt rich kids. There's a lot of name dropping of artwork they own or people they are connected to. But the fact that Jason is lost at sea amongst them says something about his character. There are times when he appears to fit in; to comply and feel at home. Then there are these glimpses of the real Jason which break your heart.

The story of Jason and Cal is told in glimpses. There’s a tenderness underneath the harsh exterior of the superficial world. He did come across a bit passive throughout. He appears to let people get on with things and his feelings seemed dampened. The story is set in the 80s, with Black Friday making an impact on many of the families. The economic crash also marks a turning point for Jason, his loyalties, already being stretched, seem to start to change when he sees how the follies of the few can affect good people.

I normally love coastal settings but I found the rather functional descriptions of sailing a bit boring. There are words I recognise well enough, but without a real interest in competitive sailing, they didn’t conjure up scenes or emotions. There are a few moments, when Jason is looking back on times he sailed with Cal, which get across what sailing meant to them, but mostly, the detail got in the way. It’s probably of much more interest to sailing geeks.

It's also one of those books that mentions several other, well-known books or authors during the text. Presumably things the students read but it does act as a roadmap of sorts for what Amber Dermont likes and it's maybe not surprising that they are not amongst my shelves. It's a good book but too many things not to my tastes.
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Nov 23, 2012 Shoshana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, grown-up

3.5 stars, rounded up.

I picked up "The Starboard Sea" because I recognized the author - I took a writing class taught by Amber, several years ago. But I can definitely say I enjoyed the novel through its own merits.

Jason Prosper is getting his "second chance," spending his senior year of high school at Bellingham, a prep school full of over-privileged, over-indulged boys and girls, most of whom are also on their second (or third) chances. Jason is also suffering a highly unfortunate streak of po...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Roxanne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't know how to articulate what I think about this book.

It started very slow for me - the characters are unlikeable and over the top privileged. It's not scandalous, it is just boring and yucky. Or maybe some people are into that, I don't know. It's boarding school (which is probably why I got it from the library in the first place - love boarding school!) but it lacks the charm of other boarding school settings.

The most interesting piece of the story was the dead best friend - but we don't...more

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Aug 16, 2012 John Swift rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In a world where those who have the money make the rules, Jason Prosper joins the other prep schoolers whose parents always had the money but never the time. Consequently their kids get kicked out of all the decent prep schools that have rules, and wind up at Bellingham, the last refuge, a place where money fixes problems and makes the rules. But Jason brings along enormous grief and the burden of pain that comes from the knowledge he has caused the suicide death of his best friend, who may have...more In a world where those who have the money make the rules, Jason Prosper joins the other prep schoolers whose parents always had the money but never the time. Consequently their kids get kicked out of all the decent prep schools that have rules, and wind up at Bellingham, the last refuge, a place where money fixes problems and makes the rules. But Jason brings along enormous grief and the burden of pain that comes from the knowledge he has caused the suicide death of his best friend, who may have been guilty of an untimely venture from the closet at the previous prep school. The author’s prodigious talents make us feel this pain and share Jason’s hope for the Starboard Sea, the right sea, and the right life. But it is not to be. The female component of his heterosexual love affair at Bellingham washes ashore during a hurricane, a drowning victim of a murderous hazing prank originally intended for him, which will be swept under the rug. Jason’s resulting act of defiance is solved by his father’s checkbook. While this story ends with the school year, we are buoyed by Jason’s determination to live a different life than his father and those of similar persuasion. Of all the little Dostoevsky-like moral decisions made by Jason that show us he is changing, none is as well done as his caring refusal to deflower a fellow schoolmate(the present she requests for her fifteenth birthday.) That is determination.

This would have been a better book had the editor refused to let the author completely botch the ending by telling us exactly what happened to cause all this grief and pain. This is exactly what we do not need to know at this point. This jarring authorial intrusion knocks us out of our world with Jason, and, in the end, is not all that important. By this time, we can already guess what happened, and it was horrible. Let us live with that.

I draw an analogy to Da Vinci's two paintings of Virgin Of The Rocks, the darker one normally at the National Gallery, the brighter one at the Louvre. I'm on the side of the critics who think that the darker one, being capable of more interpretation, is the more artistic.

To Amber Dermont, the author, I say: Spectacular debut; the world awaits your next effort. Make it soon, please.

I will draw an analogy to DaVinci’s two paintings of Virgin Of The Rocks, the darker one normally at the National Gallery, the brighter one at the Louvre. I think I’m on the side of the critics who believe that the one from the National Gallery, being susceptible to more interpretation, is the more artistic.
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Aug 01, 2012 Victoria rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a good, fast read. Nothing special and I won't revisit - but I did read it cover to cover in two days... so I liked it. If you like WASP tales, prep school tales, sailing books, The Preppy Handbook, Lacoste, Bar Harbor - you will be ok.

The story of Jason, a priviledged NYC resident and New England prep school student who is also an accomplished sailor. His life is going according to the plan filed when he was born until his best friend Cal commits suicide during their junior year. Ok -...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Ciara rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012

another novel i got sucked into reading thanks to reviews that made the plot sound all mysterious. it's all, "rich kid gets booted out of nice prep school & transfers to prep school for misfits, where he starts up a friendship with a troubled redheaded girl. but when she turns up dead, he has to confront painful memories. also, sailing." i was all, "wait, who died? why? did someone else die too?" this is the same impulse that sends a person down an hour-long rabbit hole in the CNN crime news...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Scott rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Only boarding-school-novel completists need bother with The Starboard Sea, Amber Dermont's debut about rich kids at last-chance Bellingham Academy, located on Cape Cod, hence the nauticalish title. The plot elements are standard-issue for this sort of thing: crushes, suicides, gay-shame, bullying, that amazing feeling of finding someone who understands you, pranks, drugs and booze, bonding, wealthy spoiled self-destructive teenagers. The biggest USP of the Starboard Sea is that Bellingham is ren...more

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Jun 18, 2012 Kevin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Amber Dermont is a genuinely talented writer. I read this book with some joy at the simplicity and clearness of the writing, and its ability to still evoke poetry and personality. She is very disciplined and has imagined a full character-narrator. And she likes sailing.

These characteristics propelled me through the entire book with great pleasure.

It had to. There is a point in every book -- as in every movie -- when you know it needs to be over. I knew when I had read past that point, but the f...more

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Apr 28, 2012 Stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It is 1987, and Baby Jessica was rescued from a Texas well, Robert Chambers, "The Preppy Killer," is making news for having killed a young girl during "rough" sex, and the stock market has tanked. Jason Kilian Prosper was "banished" from his exclusive prep school for cheating, and his father is transporting him to Bellingham, the school of last resort, to complete his senior year. The Prospers are the one percent -- their Manhattan apartment is bedecked with Philadelphia Chippendale, Calder mobi...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Joe rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a debut novel and I believe that the author is gifted in that she can write. The book abounds with sailing explanations and references which are interesting and fascinating. The setting for the novel is a classic one-a boarding school. Visions of Catcher in the Rye, Dead Poet's Society, A Separate Peace come to mind. All the good stuff ended there. About 40 pages in, the book became a rock growing heavier with every page. My natural inclination was to throw it into the sea as a fitting t...more

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Mar 28, 2012 Dan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mostly smooth sailing
When you’re sailing and the angle of attack and the wind are just right, preppy Jason Prosper tells a boarding school girlfriend, what a sailboat really wants to do is fly. That’s when a sail becomes a “full-bellied” airfoil and lifted by an abetting wind “a boat can soar right out of the water.”

When “Starboard Sea,” Amber Dermont’s debut novel, is on the water its sailing scenes captivate and lift the words right off the page. Sailing has its own language and Dermont makes...more Mostly smooth sailing
When you’re sailing and the angle of attack and the wind are just right, preppy Jason Prosper tells a boarding school girlfriend, what a sailboat really wants to do is fly. That’s when a sail becomes a “full-bellied” airfoil and lifted by an abetting wind “a boat can soar right out of the water.”

When “Starboard Sea,” Amber Dermont’s debut novel, is on the water its sailing scenes captivate and lift the words right off the page. Sailing has its own language and Dermont makes sure we quickly become absorbed in the mystique of the sea. “Together Race and I made sure that every batten was secured in its pocket, that the clew was secured to the end of the boom, that the halyards were secured to the head of the sail. We made sure everything was safe.”

Unmoored following the suicide of his roommate and life-long friend Cal, Jason has transferred for his senior year to Bellinghem Academy an eastern prep school with an endowment as deep as the Atlantic. Approaching the campus in his father’s Cadillac, Jason feels weightless, the “entire school appeared to float on the water, like a life raft.”

Jason Kilian Prosper, his name evokes wealth and privilege. He’s insular enough to not care about money because he can afford not to. His name also alludes to Prospero, the conjurer who can call up a tempest. “I’m going to summon a storm for you,” Jason tells a classmate Aidan, someone he’d like to take sailing.

Early in the story in his tryout for the racing team Jason is at the helm and misjudges the wind, his high-performance Fireball capsizes and his sailing partner Race almost drowns, caught underwater in a tangle of rigging. Dermont delivers a riveting scene, the best in the book.

I had been expecting a character driven coming-of-age story, written with clarity and an elegant voice. Instead I found the book weighted down by dialogue too often sounding tinny, a little off. For example I had trouble believing a teenager would use “scabrous” to describe the texture of an apricot pit. I couldn’t help comparing “Starboard Sea” to William Landay’s “Defending Jacob,” a novel I admired as much for nailing the way kids really talk to each other as for its narrative drive.

Adolescent sexuality is handled with a dreamy teen-lit lyricism that doesn’t seem to fit in the real world of young lust, its urgent desire and surging testosterone. And much of the story is a build-up for the race to win the Tender Trophy, one of prep school sailing’s biggest prizes. Then we hear about the race in a few, clipped sentences. “On a mild, sunny afternoon in May, Race and I cruised around the harbor, besting our best competition.”

I’m likely swimming against the stream based on many of the ecstatic reviews, but for me the novel often foundered when it should have been gliding.

[3.5 stars, Mostly smooth sailing and enjoyable, but had been expecting memorable]

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Mar 22, 2012 Susan Tunis rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So, this is how the other half lives…

I pick up novels for all sorts of different reasons. In this case, I thought, “Students in school in the mid-80’s? I was in school then.” That was enough; who isn’t nostalgic about their teen years? I assumed I’d have an instant short-hand, a recognition of the time and place. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

The characters in Amber Dermont’s debut novel, The Starboard Sea, aren’t in high school; they’re at an exclusive New England prep school....more So, this is how the other half lives…

I pick up novels for all sorts of different reasons. In this case, I thought, “Students in school in the mid-80’s? I was in school then.” That was enough; who isn’t nostalgic about their teen years? I assumed I’d have an instant short-hand, a recognition of the time and place. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

The characters in Amber Dermont’s debut novel, The Starboard Sea, aren’t in high school; they’re at an exclusive New England prep school. Bellingham’s a boarding school for the sons and daughters of the rich who have struck out everywhere else. The novel opens as protagonist Jason Prosper arrives at school for the first time. He will spend his senior year there. He’s a subdued young man, having suffered a tragedy at his last school. The bare fact of his roommate and best friend’s death is revealed early on, but it takes the entire novel for the full truth to come out.

At Bellingham, Jason reconnects with friends and acquaintances from past schools, and with some difficulty makes new friends, notably a quiet girl named Aidan. The novel details the events of his senior year, his search for identity, and his coming of age. Dermont isn’t striking out into fresh new territory here, but her writing is subtle and strong.

I have to admit that I had a surprisingly difficult time getting into the story initially. There were so many characters, all these school boys with their nicknames. How to keep apart “Race” and “Taze”? Eventually I did pin most of them down, but there was a sameness to these sons of privilege. Jason and a few other characters (Aidan, Chester) were well characterized and sympathetic, but there weren’t too many truly likable characters in the book. These people engage in every kind of bad deed.

A shocking event occurs halfway through the novel, and things pick up from that point on. By then, the characters and their world have been well-established. (It bears absolutely no resemblance to my experience of that time.) Finally there was some plot to grab hold of. It carried me through the end of the novel, which I found to be stronger than the beginning. At its heart, this is a quiet character study and a novel about loss which, let’s face it, is something of a bummer. While I found The Starboard Sea a reasonably enjoyable read, I’m afraid I can’t join the chorus singing this debut’s praises. It was fine, but nothing I’d go out of my way to recommend.(less)

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Mar 08, 2012 Shawn rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Quotes from The Starboard Sea

“That's what Cal would tell you about me. "Jason's the nice one," he'd say. "He'd give you all his stars.” — 4 people liked it

“You know, I'm going to make it a point whenever I see you to be like the ocean. You can look to me for relief.” — 3 people liked it

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