The Line Tender by Kate Allen is a coming-of-age novel set in a coastal town in Massachusetts. The story revolves around Lucy Everhart, a 12-year-old girl who struggles to cope with the deaths of her mother and best friend. The novel intertwines Lucy’s journey through grief and healing with her deepening interest in sharks; her mother, who was a marine biologist, conducted research on sharks, and Lucy takes comfort in her work. With time, Lucy forms a community that helps her through her struggles. The novel was published in 2019 and was a national bestseller. It was named a Best Book of 2019 by Kirkus, School Library Journal, and Publisher’s Weekly.

This guide references the Dutton Children’s Books 2019 hardcover edition.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide refer to the death of a parent and depict the death of a child.

Plot Summary

On a hot July day in Rockport, Massachusetts, in 1996, 12-year-old Lucy Everhart and her best friend, Fred Kelly, are buying candy from a local shop. Two tourists come in the store, excitedly discussing a great white shark that a local fisherman just caught. Lucy and Fred race down to the wharf and see that the fisherman is Sookie, an old friend of Lucy’s family. Sookie hasn’t spent much time around Lucy in the past five years, ever since her mother died. The shark immediately reminds Lucy of her late mother, Helen, a brilliant marine biologist who studied sharks off the coast of Massachusetts. Lucy’s father, Tom, who is a rescue diver and police detective, arrives on the beach soon after Lucy and Fred, and he’s clearly affected by the shark and memories of his wife as well. 

That evening, Tom goes scuba diving to clear his head, leaving Lucy alone at the house to manage dinner for herself. She turns on the TV, and a reporter is talking about the shark. Lucy calls Fred, who lives next door, and tells him to watch TV. The reporter runs an old interview with Lucy’s mother, and Lucy is triggered by seeing and hearing her mother. Lucy asks Fred if he wants to go see the shark again so she can sketch it for a field guide they are working on for school. Fred agrees, and they spend more time with the shark while it’s being stored at the wharf. A big storm comes through, and a local police officer gives them a ride home.

Tom is called in for a scuba rescue that night, so Lucy spends the evening alone. The next day, Lucy’s widowed neighbor, Mr. Patterson, tells her that Sookie’s shark has gone missing, likely washed away in the storm. To lift Fred’s spirits after the shark’s loss, Fred’s sister Fiona takes Fred and Lucy into the city to go shopping. Fred, a budding musician, looks at new records and picks up a jazz fusion album by Miles Davis. Fiona and Lucy shop for sunglasses, and Fiona picks out a pair for Lucy. When she puts them on, Fred does a double take, complimenting her appearance. That night, Lucy watches Fred through his window while he dances to his new album, and she has the urge to kiss him. 

Now that the shark has washed away, Fred suggests that he and Lucy use her mother’s old textbooks to complete their field guide. Fred comes over to Lucy’s house, and they read Helen’s books and research proposals. The most recent one is from about a month before Helen died of a sudden brain aneurysm. Lucy lets Fred borrow it. 

That weekend, Fiona and Bridget, Fred’s sisters, are going to a house party, and Maggie, their mother, makes them take Fred and Lucy with them. Once they are in the car, Fiona reveals that they are actually going to a party at the quarry instead. At the party, Fred and Lucy drink for the first time and have their first kiss. After the kiss, they jump into the quarry water, but Fred doesn’t resurface. Scuba rescuers arrive, including Tom, but despite their best efforts, Fred dies. 

Reeling from Fred’s death, Lucy asks Fiona if she can have the field guide and her mother’s research proposal from Fred’s backpack. Fiona lets Lucy take the bag, and Lucy finds a beautiful mermaid pendant in it. She’s not sure if the pendant was supposed to be a gift for her, but she decides to wear it anyway. She begins to write postcards to Fred as a way to process her loss; she writes him a postcard asking for another shark sighting as a sign that he’s listening.

Lucy reads through her mother’s proposal and sees the name of a second researcher: Vern Divine. Lucy finds Vern’s number and calls him, but Marion, Vern’s at-home nurse, answers the phone and reveals that Vern has a short-term memory illness. Nevertheless, Vern invites Lucy to come visit him in Maine to discuss her mother. Lucy asks Sookie to drive her there. They are accompanied by Tom and Mr. Patterson.

At Vern’s house, Lucy sees pictures of her mother and learns more about her research with Vern. While they are in Maine, Mr. Patterson asks Sookie to take him out to an island close to where Vern lives so that Mr. Patterson can finally scatter his wife’s ashes, 30 years after her death. Lucy comforts him as he does this.

When they arrive back home, Lucy reaches out to another colleague of her mother’s, Dr. Robin Walker. Dr. Robin is planning to revive Lucy’s mother’s research into the resurgence of great white shark sightings and wants Sookie to pilot the research boat. Lucy agrees to try to convince Sookie to rejoin the project. Lucy also meets with Mr. Scanlon, the school counselor, who encourages Lucy to keep writing the postcards to Fred and talking with people about both her mother’s and Fred’s deaths. Later, Maggie reveals to Lucy that she has been receiving the postcards and reading them, and she returns them to Lucy. Lucy also learns from Mr. Patterson that he gave the mermaid pendant to Fred since Fred wanted to give Lucy a present as a declaration of his feelings; Lucy has been struggling to understand what she and Fred meant to each other, and this gives her some comfort.

Later, Dr. Robin calls Lucy to tell her that another shark has washed up on the beach, and she invites Lucy to be part of the necropsy. Dr. Robin explains all the parts of the shark and lets Lucy take detailed sketches and notes. Lucy uses the notes to finish the field guide and give it to her science teacher. The novel concludes with Lucy and the scientists aboard the research boat tagging two sharks, named Fred and Helen, and Lucy hearing the soft ping of their sonar tags in the ocean.