Ride - Lisa Glass

With its tropical-looking cover, it would be easy to assume Ride was set somewhere more exotic than Newquay. However, this romp around the Cornish town’s surf community is a fun and insightful one. Iris Fox, a professional surfer, is our protagonist. For all her talent and success, her character comes across as being down-to-earth and humble. The narrative joins Iris immediately following a split from her boyfriend, Zeke. Upon returning home, she has to face Zeke’s family, to whom she has become like a daughter and sister, while also attempting to move on with her life.

Newquay’s rugged charm is well-described; the author’s love for the town shines through the pages. So does her love of surfing and surf culture: the language and imagery used to capture Iris and Zeke’s moments on the waves are powerful and will excite surfing dilettantes and enthusiasts alike.

For the final book of a trilogy, Ride does a good job of introducing the reader to the main characters and relationships. However, there are a huge number of secondary characters that are hard to keep track of. It’s refreshing to see that the teen characters’ parents are allowed to play a role and not be absent like many YA families. However, when they too are referred to by their first names, the narrative occasionally dissolves into a name-soup.

It is impossible to talk about this novel without addressing sex. The main characters are all sexually active, and are very vocal about it, too. Some of the conversations, especially involving Iris’s friend Kelly, are graphic and in some instances the level of detail is discomforting for the reader. It’s important for young people to feel they can discuss sex, but here it becomes almost degrading to the characters involved.

With many calling for more diverse YA books, it’s very pleasing to see a range of sexualities presented. However, a lighter touch may have been needed. Kelly’s character development, for example, is a little clumsy in parts. Her long speeches about being bisexual feel artificial, like something you would read from a textbook. The idea of polyamorous relationships are touched upon, again by Kelly, but she makes them seem like something silly and light-hearted when for some people it’s their life.

In terms of pacing, the novel has a suitably slow, chilled vibe most of the way through, which matches the surfing culture nicely. However, many of the significant moments happen in the final few pages and I was left in two minds as to the effectiveness of the conclusion. It is touching but the characters seem to move on from it unrealistically fast which detracts from its significance in the narrative and the series as a whole.

On the whole, Ride is a fun read about friendship and growing up, and about different people’s relationships with their home and with nature. It does have flaws but the strong character of Iris carries the novel past them.


*This review was originally written for Cuckoo Review (New Writing North) and is reprinted with permission*