Review of Be the Sea by Clara Ward
Clara Ward’s Be the Sea (Atthis Arts, 2024) is an amazing sci-fi novel filled with found family, lost friends found again, stories, and dreams. Set in a world where climate change has occurred but been mitigated in places, it has a fairly cozy storyline and an eclectic cast of queer and disabled characters.
Wend, a marine scientist, barters their way onto a boat with Viola (a photographer and the boat’s owner) and her nephew Aljon (who cooks and helps out with the boat) on their way to Hawai’i. Wend is there to test a theory about dreams and birthdays, and they tells stories to Viola and Aljon to attempt to get their point across. When the group arrives in Hawai’i, they find that several events on their voyage have turned into much more than they seemed. As they reconnect with lost friends and found family, Wend and the others navigate what those events mean for their respective and joint futures.
The general storyline of Be the Sea is fairly cozy, though the repercussions of some events could be seen as having a greater impact on the world in which the characters live. However, those repercussions are not particularly prominent within the story, placing this on the cozier side of sci-fi. There are, however, a number of content warnings for the book (listed here), which are worth noting before you commit to this book.
If you enjoy optimistic stories that take into account the realities of our world but present innovative solutions, you’ll enjoy Be the Sea. Of note is that the author intends to donate 100% of their royalties to conservation efforts for the ocean, which is a wonderful way of helping those solutions become our new reality! Be the Sea comes out March 5, 2024, but you can pre-order it now!
The publisher provided me with an advance copy of this novel for review consideration.
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