Ship Wrecked starts with orgasms and then becomes a slow burn. Olivia Dade’s Spoiler Alert series has centered around a Game of Thrones-esque tv series called Gods of the Gates. In Spoiler Alert and All the Feels, we’ve seen Maria and Peter, two of the actors, flirt and banter in cast interviews and group chats. I try not to develop expectations about how a book is going to go, but even so, I was not expecting Peter and Maria’s journey to relationship.
There’s one particular moment in Ship Wrecked that has stuck with me since I first read it 5 months ago (I’ve reread it a few times since June). When Peter is talking with Maria about his father, he says “empathy requires imagination.” It’s not a new idea, but given the barriers between Peter and Maria, it’s important that Peter is the one who says it.
Peter is going to be a challenge for some readers, because when they meet after the initial one night stand, he is a complete skitstövel to Maria. He is a skitstövel more than once. The two are the only cast members in one plot line and film their scenes on a remote Irish island with a small crew over 6 years. Maria makes a choice to make the location a happy family unit and consciously includes Peter in that warmth even though he has been a complete jackass to her. One of the commitments of the Ethical Humanist movement is “act so as to bring out the best in others and thereby in yourself.” Maria decides to do the emotional labor necessary to bring Peter into the community she wants to build because she wants her work place to be warm and emotionally fulfilling. Her emotional well being is more important to her than professional achievement.
The book covers more than 6 years and in that time, Dade builds the friendship and trust between Maria and Peter. I love that she chose to show the slow build of their relationship. Maria believes in herself in a way that Peter does not. But as he watches her navigate the politics of the show, he becomes braver about advocating for her and on behalf of the crew. Where his imagination fails is in seeing that he deserves the same consideration from himself. I feel protective of this book’s heart. It is sweet and tender, with delicate scars from grief..
As tender as the book is, it is also riotously funny. Dade has also continued the thread of fanfiction. Peter and Maria, themselves and their characters, are the subjects of many works of horny fic, which Alex helpfully sends them.
CW: death of parents in the past, emotional abandonment by parent/caregiver, adoption, fatphobia, threats of starvation, battery by dolphin.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.