Adrift [Movie tie-in]

A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea

By: Tami Oldham Ashcraft

Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard

The heart-stopping memoir, soon to be a major motion picture starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin, and directed by Baltasar Kormákur (Everest).

Young and in love, their lives ahead of them, Tami Oldham and her fiancé Richard Sharp set sail from Tahiti under brilliant blue skies, with Tami’s hometown of San Diego as their ultimate destination. But the two free spirits and avid sailors couldn’t anticipate that less than two weeks into their voyage, they would sail directly into one of the most catastrophic hurricanes in recorded history. They found themselves battling pounding rain, waves the size of skyscrapers, and 140 knot winds. Richard tethered himself to the boat and sent Tami below to safety, and then all went eerily quiet. Hours later, Tami awakened to find the boat in ruins, and Richard nowhere in sight.

Adrift is the story of Tami’s miraculous forty-one-day journey to safety on a ravaged boat with no motor and no masts, and with little hope for rescue. It’s a tale of love and survival on the high seas-- an unforgettable story about resilience of the human spirit, and the transcendent power of love.

Amazing!

I watched the movie last night and it stuck with me all day. At lunch I looked up the book and Audible did not disappoint! I was so moved by this story, and I listened all the way through non-stop!

Touching Story

What a tribute to the human spirit! Enjoyed hearing the background story of Tami and Richard. Did not enjoy the narrator’s horrible British accent. It sounded more like an Australian pirate.

A compelling real story poorly written and weakly narrated.

The reality of the story is compelling. The book comes across a childish and trite. It contains way too many sappy and tritely written flashbacks describing overly romanticized island days with her list lover. Here is a woman who survives for 41 days alone at sea under the very worst conditions. However there is very little in the book about the mental and physical toughness underlying this persons skill and determination to survive the ordeal. No background about how she learned the skills she had which resulted in her ability to get a destroyed sail boat 1,500 miles to Hawaii. There was no background in the book about when and how she learned, prior to the event, to read a chart, set a course, use a sexton or understand celestial navigation. There was no development in the book of what she actually encountered physically dealing with the elements etc. The voice of the narrator has no strength of what this woman had have had to endure this event. She sounds like a spoiled girl hanging out on a boat that she sort of, kinda gets around to saving herself. I found this book to be horribly disappointing. A compelling story told in a very weak way.

Don’t let this turn you off of watching the movie

This is tooo long and tooo much detailed. Having watched and enjoyed the movie, i am glad the screenplay of it did not use very much from the book at all. I kept listening for something…better. Mostly, for a less little-girl tone and sing-song delivery, even at the saddest of times.

Interesting story but not compelling

The idea of this book was good because a survival at sea story is super interesting. However, I can’t say that it kept my attention. There were a lot of nautical terms I didn’t know and that knowledge might have made the story better. Overall, I hate to say it, but I was bored.