Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade
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Ship Wrecked
by Olivia Dade
November 15, 2022 · Avon Contemporary RomanceRomance
Recently I devoured a book, and when I mentioned it, Shana squeed right back at me. So, enjoy our absolute squee-party about this book!
Sarah : Shana, I just tore through Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade. Devoured the whole book in less than a day. Oh my gosh, there is so much to love about this book.
The Pining. Top-shelf pine forest full of pining. For six years they live on that island for months and aren’t going to bone town despite wishing to revisit asap. And the “I don’t want to ruin our otherwise excellent professional and personal relationships by going to Bonetown” made complete sense.
The unabashedly fearless and deeply self loving heroine, Maria. She’s Swedish, she’s a newer actress, she’s fat, she knows herself, and she’s not putting up with any bullshit about her appearance from the showrunners.
Also: I have watched .00000006% of Game of Thrones , and that was mostly through gifsets and a really, really terrible joke, and the GoT references in Ship Wrecked were INCREDIBLE. This was a fix it fic of the entire show’s fucked up narratives, both on screen and off. CHEF’S KISS.
I have been in a massive reading rut and reading this book made me so happy.
What were your favorite parts?
Shana : I’ve been dying to talk about this book with someone because I adored it.
I have watched only slightly more GoT than you, and I agree that Ship Wrecked offers a soothing alternative universe where we see the actors and crew doing everything they can to subvert the will of the mediocre dudes in charge. Good guys win, bad guys are not rewarded with a Netflix deal.
Peter was such a sweet cinnamon roll hero who bruises easily but always puts other people above himself. He doesn’t handle it well when Maria is initially disinterested in more than a one-night stand, but I liked seeing him hold himself accountable and learn to let people into his life on their own terms. He’s also ridiculously sexy. That book cover is not lying about his swooniness.
I loved the contrast between Peter and Maria. There’s a lot of nuance in the fat representation and the characters feel complex and real. She’s a badass theater actress who is indifferent to Hollywood expectations about thinness; he’s confident about his attractiveness, but worried about the precariousness of his career, since this show is his big break. She loves salty licorice; he keeps falling for her pranks and accidentally eats some. Watching Maria outmaneuver the show’s fatphobic producers was delightful, but seeing Peter’s protectiveness of Maria push him to stand up to the showrunners totally warmed my crone heart.
Also, I agree that this was pining on an epic scale, and thanks to well-placed time jumps, reading about it was never torturous. We only get the choicest, juiciest bits of Peter and Maria’s relationship as the couple periodically film on the same island together, building a deeper relationship and making me laugh. I often DNF books because I get stuck in a sloggy middle section, but Ship Wrecked neatly avoids this.
Sarah : YES! It’s like the book itself was a supercut of the most intense and affective moments of the six years they spent pining for each other. More than just the highlights, too, because the jumps in time provide a very satisfying experience. Which is extremely meta because there are supercuts of the characters Peter and Maria play referenced in the book, too.
Shana : Honestly it was a relief to read about a couple who committed to a slow burn, chose ethics over immediate lust, and behaved like grown ups. By the time Peter and Maria act on their attraction, I was desperate for them to get together, but also confident that they were in a good place for a relationship to really work.
Their feelings finally boil over in the same hotel room where they’ve spent the day doing press. This scorching scene is an ode to every fan who’s watched their favorite OTP actors flirt during an interview.
Sarah : Yes, they did behave like grown ups! And the book also balances the forced proximity epic pining with the aftermath, the “Well, what happens after you’re done filming and enter the real world” part. They’re forced to figure out their shit and they do so like caring, lovely adults.
Shana : This series has a strong found family vibe, and Ship Wrecked is no exception with its wacky locals, and a crew that keep sleeping together. Because the script has the characters marooned on an island for the entire show, this book carved out a little narrative nook that made it feel special and separate from the rest of the series, while also neatly wrapping up loose ends from the other books. It was such an emotionally satisfying end to the series.
