Title: That Crazy Perfect Someday
Author: Michael Mazza
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Turtle Point Press
Publication Date: June 20, 2017
Source: Irish Banana Blog Tours/Publisher
I think that That Crazy Perfect Someday may be my second book that I have ever read that is about surfing. I'm not a surfer, I have never even tried it, so I'm not too surprised about this.
Thanks to this book though, I wouldn't mind going out into the ocean. It made it sound pretty good. Too bad I am not into the outdoors and I am too much of a chicken to try.
But anyways...
That Crazy Perfect Someday is about Mafuri Long, a surfer girl who is some where between the ages of 20 and 30 as far as I could tell. She holds fame in the world for riding a record breaking wave. She is currently training for the upcoming Olympic Games. Her father is a depressed and troubled veteran and he mother passed away some time before this book began from cancer.
In short, this book is more or less about Mafuri Longs life and the things that happen in the course of time that this book is talking about. She is trying to help her father and keep him safe from himself while training hard for the Olympics. She wants gold. Like really wants it. It would be a life defining thing for her. Not much else matters. She needs to show the world she wasn't just that wave.
So we travel through her life with her on her way to the Olympic Games. And a lot of stuff happens.
So That Crazy Perfect Someday is technically set in the future, but not a very far off future. The year for the book is 2024. The world is essentially in a predicted state from where we are now. Some advances in technology and medicine - nothing to crazy from what we currently have. Drones in the air, cars that can drive themselves, etc. And the global warming has hit which has messed with the weather patterns and what not making them totally unpredictable. Is this why surfing is such a huge deal for Mafuri's world? I don't know, but it does seem to be the end all sport of the Olympics (is it a huge sport in the Olympics now?)
And of course this book talks a lot about surfing. There were definitely times I felt like I was out in the ocean along with Mafuri. Feeling the water on my skin and the sun beating down on me.
Character development wise, I did feel like there were a few bumps. There were times when I was really feeling Mafuri, and there were other times where I just was not. I would occasionally lose a bit of that feeling where she could be real, but it would come back. Or there were cases where other characters had vindictive attitudes and I didn't really feel their actions were quite on the mark for what was going on. I also wanted to feel more connections between the characters than I got, but part of that may just have been Mafuri's character (which we do see grow thankfully).
Also, there is some language use in the book, and it did throw me. Mafuri, the narrator, tended to not swear and use words such as "effing" and other softer terms for the harsher ones. But when other characters would swear, the harsher terms were used. It isn't a huge thing, but I found myself noticing it and to me it felt a bit weird. At first I thought Mazza was trying to not use swear words, but then they were there...and it just a tiny hiccup in the flow for me.
I will say this though, probably by the time I was 25% into the book I didn't want to put it down. I wanted to be there on that beach with Mafuri. I wanted to be surfing with her. I wanted to see what was going to happen next to her. Would she kiss that guy? What was she going to do about this new situation she found herself in? What was the heck was that person thinking? I wanted to know. And when I found myself at the end, I felt like I had made the journey with Mafuri. And I enjoyed it a lot.
I look forward to reading more of Michael Mazza's work.
My Rating
4 Stars
This review is based on a copy provided by the publisher through Irish Banana Blog Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are mine and mine alone.
My apologies if this review seems a bit rambly. I wrote it much later in the night than I should have. Yay for having a toddler. Feel free to contact me on twitter or to use the comments section to discuss anything about this book further!
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6/23: Quarzfeather: Review
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