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The Girl and the Wave
170 pages, Hardcover
Published July 16, 2025
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 3, 2025
The Girl and the Wave
By Elizabeth Chayes
Publisher: Independently Published
Publication Date: July 17, 2025
ASIN: B0FHZVQDCG
Page Count: 149
Triggers: tsunami disaster, parental loss, illness, abandonment, grief
Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Skull Dread Rating: ☠️☠️ (for emotional wreckage more than actual horror)
A tsunami, grief, stray magic, and missing context. The Girl and the Wave is touching but clunky, with a strong finish.
What Did I Just Walk Into?
A middle grade to teen mashup of natural disaster survival, grief processing, foster family drama, and magical realism with a lab full of dust and inventions tossed in for good measure. The Girl and the Wave follows Omano, who survives a tsunami only to lose the scaffolding of her life piece by piece. Cue the move to a small town, a mysterious artifact, and a loner neighbor with an inventor streak. It sounds like the setup for a Studio Ghibli film, but the execution leans more like your slightly distracted aunt trying to tell you a bedtime story she only half remembers.
Here’s What Slapped:
The premise. Surviving a tsunami, losing family, and rebuilding your life in an unfamiliar world? That is heavy, real, and could have been beautifully devastating.
The ending actually landed. I know, it is shocking after so many whiplash inducing plot pivots, but Chayes managed to tie a bow on this thing in a way that gave me enough closure to add an extra star.
Omano’s grief journey is relatable. Even when the plot zigzags, her emotional arc, the exhaustion, confusion, and eventual sparks of hope, does pull through.
What Could’ve Been Better:
Consistency. Events happen with zero explanation. Characters appear, vanish, and reappear like we are in a game of literary peekaboo. Whole chunks of connective tissue seem to be missing.
Believability. Yes, it is fiction. Yes, there is magical realism. But when you are sitting there muttering, “Wait, what just happened?” every other chapter, it is not magic. It is poor scaffolding.
Depth. This book needed at least ten to twenty more pages spread across key sections to flesh out people, places, and events. Instead, it feels like half the important stuff was redacted during editing.
Perfect for Readers Who Love:
Studio Ghibli vibes but do not mind them getting interrupted by commercial breaks
Stories about grief and resilience with a pinch of strange magic
Filling in narrative gaps with your own imagination (because trust me, you will need to)
Reviewed by Robin for Robin’s Review
By Elizabeth Chayes
Publisher: Independently Published
Publication Date: July 17, 2025
ASIN: B0FHZVQDCG
Page Count: 149
Triggers: tsunami disaster, parental loss, illness, abandonment, grief
Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Skull Dread Rating: ☠️☠️ (for emotional wreckage more than actual horror)
A tsunami, grief, stray magic, and missing context. The Girl and the Wave is touching but clunky, with a strong finish.
What Did I Just Walk Into?
A middle grade to teen mashup of natural disaster survival, grief processing, foster family drama, and magical realism with a lab full of dust and inventions tossed in for good measure. The Girl and the Wave follows Omano, who survives a tsunami only to lose the scaffolding of her life piece by piece. Cue the move to a small town, a mysterious artifact, and a loner neighbor with an inventor streak. It sounds like the setup for a Studio Ghibli film, but the execution leans more like your slightly distracted aunt trying to tell you a bedtime story she only half remembers.
Here’s What Slapped:
The premise. Surviving a tsunami, losing family, and rebuilding your life in an unfamiliar world? That is heavy, real, and could have been beautifully devastating.
The ending actually landed. I know, it is shocking after so many whiplash inducing plot pivots, but Chayes managed to tie a bow on this thing in a way that gave me enough closure to add an extra star.
Omano’s grief journey is relatable. Even when the plot zigzags, her emotional arc, the exhaustion, confusion, and eventual sparks of hope, does pull through.
What Could’ve Been Better:
Consistency. Events happen with zero explanation. Characters appear, vanish, and reappear like we are in a game of literary peekaboo. Whole chunks of connective tissue seem to be missing.
Believability. Yes, it is fiction. Yes, there is magical realism. But when you are sitting there muttering, “Wait, what just happened?” every other chapter, it is not magic. It is poor scaffolding.
Depth. This book needed at least ten to twenty more pages spread across key sections to flesh out people, places, and events. Instead, it feels like half the important stuff was redacted during editing.
Perfect for Readers Who Love:
Studio Ghibli vibes but do not mind them getting interrupted by commercial breaks
Stories about grief and resilience with a pinch of strange magic
Filling in narrative gaps with your own imagination (because trust me, you will need to)
Reviewed by Robin for Robin’s Review
Displaying 1 of 1 review