Excerpt from The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"My parents got me the job." Even I could hear how spoiled that sounded.

"Ah," Orion said. "So you're summer folk." He zipped his lunch box closed and shouldered it.

"No! Well. My mom grew up here. I used to come here as a kid. I'm from the city. But I'm not like a tourist."

"Portland? Boston?"

"Er. New York City?"

"The Big Apple, huh. I've never been."

"Really? Oh my God, you'd love it. Like—if you like the ocean—at the natural history museum alone, there's the great blue whale model, and the pearl diver exhibit, and the squid and the whale... ."

"Whereas here we just have the ocean."

"No, no, that's not what I meant. Though, come on, you do have to admit," I said, gesturing at the feed bucket, the jarred specimens, and the dog-hair-covered couch. Boris lifted his head. Why was I still talking? Why couldn't I stop? The words were bubbling up, unstoppable and ugly: "This place used to be great, but it's kind of depressing now, isn't it?"

"I guess so," Orion said quietly. He gestured at the shrimp. "You can bring those down after you finish dicing, okay?"

With that, he left. Boris trailed after him, woofing in disapproval. First day, and I'd managed to offend even the dog.

Excerpted from The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake. Copyright © 2019 by Julia Drake. Excerpted by permission of Disney-Hyperion. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.