An epic, breathtaking story of self-discovery, love, and adventure from New York Times bestselling author Joshua Davis and his son Kal Kini-Davis, perfect for fans of Nina LaCour and John Green. Seventeen-year-old Mia is stranded in the middle of the Caribbean. After a mortifying incident in the school cafeteria, her parents decide there is only one way to deal with her meltdown: move onto a battered sailboat and leave everything behind. Her mom and dad think it’s the best decision they’ve ever made. Mia feels like she’s been kidnapped and imprisoned in paradise with no internet and no destination. Her only hope is to hack together a solar-powered satellite phone so she can call her best friend and fix everything. To do it, she’ll have to build a mobile laboratory on the boat and ignore her neurotic mother, who thinks Mia is falling apart. The problem is, Mia is falling apart. By day, she scours deserted islands, looking for anything she can use to build the phone. At night, she squeezes into a narrow bunk and talks to an imaginary friend. She knows, with absolute certainty, that she needs to abandon her family to save her sanity. And then two teenagers sail into her world, promising friendship, and maybe even romance. Thoughtful, soulful Alby was raised in Australia but now his family calls the sea their home. The only thing missing is his soulmate. Bold, beautiful Nisha is simply vacationing on her dad’s megayacht when a chance encounter upends her life. Now—with everything hanging in the balance—Mia must decide who she is and what she wants. And with this decision comes the revelation that her past and future are more uncertain than she thought. A 2026 Rainbow List Young Adult Pick "Mia’s story tenderly explores themes of sexuality and neurodivergence with sailing and science details accompanying her often-painful introspection as she learns to navigate uncertainty. Emotional and broad-ranging." — Kirkus Reviews "A wonderful tale of self-discovery." — School Library Journal "Teen readers will find familiar awkwardness as Mia navigates the Caribbean and her life." — Booklist Joshua Davis (he/him) is the New York Times bestselling author of Spare Parts , The Underdog , and Entrenched . He has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award in feature writing and produced the Sundance Audience Award–winning film Radical . He is the co-founder of Epic Magazine . Kal Kini-Davis (he/him) is a sailor and writer. He recently graduated high school in San Francisco and is now studying wooden boatbuilding in the Pacific Northwest. He believes that boats have souls, just as people do. Chapter 1 A sharp whip of salt water lashes the bow of the dinghy and smacks Mia hard in the face. With her free hand, she wipes the water from her eyes, blinking furiously to see through the warm rain. She knows she shouldn’t be out here, certainly not on a battered ten-​foot inflatable dinghy. The storm is quickly transforming the blue Caribbean into angry, darkened waves. She needs to turn back now, head for the safety of the French West Indies behind her. Instead, she twists the throttle and accelerates into the storm. Up ahead, she sees nothing but sheets of gray­black rain and waves that rise like terrible, shape​­shifting creatures. Her dinghy, with its puny six-​horsepower outboard motor, is like a puppy lost in the wilderness. She is already half sunk, with the pummeling rain and the boat’s floorboards sloshing with seawater. The only upside: The water on board adds weight, holding the boat down so the violent gusts don’t flip her like a pancake. Sheets of mist streak off the tops of the waves, giving her only brief glimpses of what’s ahead. With each rise of the swell, Mia unconsciously holds her breath, hoping to spot her. But then the dinghy drops into a trough and Mia’s heart falls. I’ve lost her , she thinks, the tears welling up. Six months ago if someone had said she’d end up racing into a tropical storm on a rescue mission, she would have laughed. She thought high school in Duluth would just grind on forever, an endless succession of awkward days. She could never have imagined this, battling through nine​­foot waves on a small rubber boat in the Caribbean. The salt water pours down her ­sun-​­streaked brown hair and stings her eyes, turning them bloodshot, and she laughs through the tears. She must look truly insane: red-­eyed, hair blowing wildly, bouncing across the surface like a skipping stone. If kids from school saw her, they’d probably think she’d lost her mind. Which isn’t far from the truth. Ahead, a wave sweeps toward her, getting bigger until it looms like a mountain and begins to wobble. The wave must be at least fifteen feet. She tenses as the white crest crumbles and turns into an avalanche of water. A jolt of panic courses through her—​if the wave hits her, she’ll be crushed. She instinctively jams the engine hard over to dodge the onslaught and eyes the angle of t