Into the Blue

It's the summer of 2000 in Gladstone, Massachusetts. AJ Graves is seventeen, and much to her chagrin, she has a new coworker at her job at the local video store: Noah Drew. Noah, four years AJ's senior, is Gladstone royalty, hailing from a "family of great actors, each generation more famous than the last." Noah has bucked the trend, however; home from West Point for the summer so he can tend to his sick mother, acting is the last thing in Noah's plans.

The pair's relationship starts off rocky, but from standoffish beginnings they gradually form a friendship. That friendship is intensified when Noah's aunt—actress Eudora Drew, famous for her role on a kitschy sci-fi cult series from 1964 called Astronauticals—compels them to train together in acting and improv. Under Eudora's direction, AJ and Noah spend the rest of the summer running lines and performing improv activities to hone their acting craft and their connection. They also spend nearly every waking moment together: if they're not training with Eudora, they're working at Reel Video. Their friendship intensifies, as does an almost mystical connection between the two, and the prospect of something more dominates AJ's thoughts.

But then Noah abruptly leaves town, and Eudora cuts off all contact. AJ is left shell-shocked, wondering what just happened.

Fast-forward seven years, and the pair are reunited on an Astronauticals prequel called Into the Blue. AJ is still smarting from Noah's unexplained departure, an event that cratered her for months. But even after years, their bond is still intact, and that intense connection plays out on screen. Eventually, AJ forces Noah to explain why he left, and why, despite their intense connection, they can't be together. It's not the end for the pair, though; it's never the end. Despite their damndest efforts, the universe continues to bring them into each other's orbit, and Into the Blue chronicles the on/off nature of their relationship.

There's a lot of theater and improv in the book, and if you have a background in either, you'll likely appreciate the way author Emma Brodie describes how two actors fully enmeshed in a scene can almost read each other's thoughts. Given the critical role of Astronauticals / Into the Blue to the story, there's also plenty of trekkie-level nerd activity that may not be for everyone, from fanfiction to the convention circuit. But the true heart of the story is AJ and Noah’s connection: a chaotic, intensely real bond that is as captivating as it is infuriating.

It's a confounding book. Parts of it are truly excellent, while others are dull, repetitive, or outright frustrating. Some additional drama added on top of the main story felt unnecessary, and there are only so many times a reader can be emotionally jerked around. Ultimately, the non-stop ping-pong between the main pair will test the patience of even the most invested reader. That endless cycle, more than anything else, makes this a polarizing read—and one I struggled to rate. In the end, I'll remember the good parts more than the bad, but its flaws keep it short of five stars.