Book Review: Ocean Child by M.E. Flatow

Reviewed by Victoria Lilly

A compelling family saga exploring the many ways in which we find belonging on the restless seas of everyday life

Twenty-year-old Sidney surfer Julia Corning’s life is turned upside down when she receives an email from across the world from an unknown woman.

Miriam Worthington, a successful TV actress in the UK, tells Julia—along with a Californian businesswoman Catrina—a shocking revelation: they are sisters. Feeling trapped in a television role she’s outgrown, her mother’s sudden death shattering her foundation and pulling her toward self-sabotage, Miriam reaches out to Julia and Catrina seeking connection.

For Julia, long dissatisfied with her father’s disapproval and unconcealed disappointment, the revelation is the push she needs to start building a life of her own. Julia leans into the newfound sisterhood with Miriam, which becomes a source of strength and endurance.

For Catrina, it’s an unwelcome distraction from her focus on making a break in California’s tech sector, to say nothing of her tumultuous romantic and platonic relationships. As the sisters’ lives begin to increasingly intersect and their dreams of success encounter the complexities of everyday life, they must confront how their father’s presence or absence has shaped them, and to overcome it.

Fresh, honest, and vulnerable, Ocean Child poignantly explores the tensions between charting new courses and confronting past grievances. Deploying an ensemble cast of primary and supporting characters, moving across time and around the world, it seeks an answer to finding one’s identity and purpose between ever-shifting relationships and life-goals. It is a story about constant change and lasting questions, symbolized by the imagery of waves and unpredictable winds on one hand and the eternal summers of Australia and California on the other. A prominent theme is the meaning of success, both in terms of interpersonal relationships and career achievements, with each of the three sisters’ individual stories adding realistic yet engaging angles to the interrogation.

My only real quibble with this story is the occasionally uneven pacing, either due to an over-dependence on dialogue or events that needed more scene-setting.Thankfully, the complexities and colorfulness of each character more than compensate. Side characters—such as Gus the Greek innkeeper or Sam the charming Californian barista and Catrina’s lifelong friend—are a major highlight of the novel and ground some of its most enjoyable scenes.

Another noteworthy element is the side character Linda, the manager of the actress Miriam. Her own conflicted quest for community and success—the elusive American Dream—is an intriguing parallel to the stories of its three principal characters. Linda’s love for literature provides an intertextual conversation and comparison to the novel’s intellectual inspirations, such as the work of Horatio Alger and Hunter S. Thompson.

The story wears its heart on its sleeve and tackles questions of belonging and success with a raw honesty. The exploration of themes is realized with skill and spirit through the development of a stellar ensemble of characters and a compelling dramatic plot. The book does not shy away from confronting serious issues such as alienation, abandonment, and the challenges of everyday life at work and at home.

Ocean Child is fresh and bright without unearned sweetness, thanks to its earnest heart.

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