Shipwreck Girl

Shipwreck Girl by Jacqueline E Smith tells the story of Juliette Havens, a ballerina who is forced to drop out of New York’s prestigious Pace University after a devastating knee injury. Eight months later, while back at home attending University of California Long Beach, she receives the opportunity to dance in local punk band Sacramento Reign’s music video. It’s an opportunity, that, if she takes it, could change her life forever.

This is the most relatable of Smith’s books so far because Juliette is between a rock and a hard place. She can’t imagine her life without dancing, and yet, the whole reason she ended up back at home is to try and start her life over after a dancing injury. Should she play it safe or keep doing what she loves no matter the risks?

Juliette’s parent’s also make the story relatable. It may come from a place of wanting what’s best for their daughter, as Smith no doubt intended, but it still seems like they think she hasn’t changed at all. They have a preconceived notion of who their daughter is, and if Juliette deviates from that at all, they won’t be happy about it. They just expect her to go back to the way her life was before her injury — including getting back together with her high school boyfriend, Max — without dancing.

Just because the story is relatable in this way doesn’t mean it doesn’t have warm and fuzzy moments. Juliette was so focused on her dance career before her injury that she never really took the time to consider who she was outside of dancing. It’s nice to see her relax and have fun as she develops friendships with the members of Sacramento Reign. There’s Milo Hirsch on bass, who just so happens to be dating Alane, one of Juliette’s friends from school. Lead guitarist Liam Hawke never runs out of Shakespeare jokes to annoy Juliette. Reed Jeong is the lead singer, and last but not least, Landon Best is the band’s exceptionally handsome and talented drummer.

There’s a fun little twist at the end of the story. The members of The Kind of September show up. They’re the main characters featured in Smith’s Boyband series. It’s always nice when authors tie in characters from their other books.

Anyway, all this to say, Shipwreck Girl needs a sequel.