That Crazy Perfect Someday by Michael Mazza
The year is 2024. Climate change has altered the world’s wave patterns. Drones crisscross the sky, cars drive themselves, and surfing is a new Olympic sport. Mafuri Long, UCSD marine biology grad, champion surfer, and only female to dominate a record eighty-foot wave, still has something to prove. Having achieved Internet fame, along with sponsorship from Google and Nike, she’s intent on winning Olympic gold. But when her father, a clinically depressed former Navy captain and widower, learns that his beloved supercarrier, the USS Hillary Rodham Clinton, is to be sunk, he draws Mafuri into a powerful undertow. Conflicts compound as Mafuri’s personal life comes undone via social media, and a vicious Aussie competitor levels bogus doping charges against her. Mafuri forms an unlikely friendship with an awkward teen, a Ferrari-driving professional gamer who will prove to be her support and ballast. Authentic, brutal, and at times funny, Mafuri lays it all out in a sprightly, hot-wired voice. From San Diego to Sydney, Key West, and Manila, That Crazy Perfect Someday goes beyond the sports/surf cliché to explore the depths of sorrow and hope, yearning and family bonds, and the bootstrap power of a bold young woman climbing back into the light.
Michael Mazza is a San Francisco-area fiction writer whose stories have appeared in Other Voices, WORDS, Blue Mesa Review, TINGE, and ZYZZYVA. He is also an internationally acclaimed art and creative director working in the advertising industry. That Crazy Perfect Someday is his first novel.–from goodreads
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’m usually not much for books that are set in the future, but this one was different. First of all, it was believable and there wasn’t a tremendous amount of boring tech descriptions so that worked for me and second, I loved the big wave surfing descriptions.
The characters in this novel are unique and kept me interested throughout the story, particularly what was going on with the main character’s father. I liked the plot and pacing of this story and thought the author did a really good job of coming up with interesting new ideas. This book made me wonder what’s in the future and if things will be like he described them–thought provoking.
The way he combined the future and the past as well as the way the characters reacted to the situations they found themselves in made this an exciting read from the first page to the last. You should give this book a try, it was worth the time to read. What I liked most, was the level of creativity the author used. This book makes you dream.
This review based on a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
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