Vicky SkinnerRecensioni

This one was really cute. Super cute.

A very satisfying love story. I particularly like the secondary characters, who have plenty of flaws, but those just make then that much more real. I can imagine a fine future for Amy and Oliver.

Heartfelt and realistic, this is a tale of figuring out how to find oneself and dance to ones' own tune.

Amy knows how to be successful in school and is on her way to finish high school perfectly and slide right into college. But when the love-of-her-life boyfriend dumps her, it's more than a sour turn. Needing a distraction, she takes a part-time job at the record store. There she meets Oliver, a grumpy-ish co-worker, who is finishing off his 'break-year' before heading to college. But he's pretty sure that's not the path he wants to take. Add the problem of his alcoholic dad, and he's everything but put together like Amy. And yet, the two might just find a way toward their own form of harmony.

This is a read, which touches the heart. The decisions, disappointments and mistakes are understandable and realistic. Told from two points-of-view, the story dives deep into both Amy and Oliver. Each character gains wonderful depth, and although very different, it's easy to see life from both stand points. Teen readers will see some of themselves in these characters and easily connect with them.

Shortly after the tale starts, Amy finds herself with a broken heart thanks to the break-up with her boyfriend. It was refreshing to see that she didn't get over this relationship quickly but needed time to heal. The romance with Oliver is well-paced, allowing the friendship to form first. But here, before relationships can form, it's important to discover what each one really wants and learn to believe in themselves.

In other words, it's a lovely romance which takes on a coming-of-age twist. Not only young adult readers will enjoy this one, but older readers as well.

I received an ARC from the publisher and enjoyed accompanying these two characters during their story.

Review By: Sarah W (12th grade)
Grade Range: 7th grade and up
Genre: Young Adult
Literary Merit: Very Good
Characterization: Good

Kate is a swimmer. Her entire life revolves around the sport. She’s cocky and confident and will do anything for a win. With her dad for a coach Kate will do anything to make him proud. She’s always looked up to her dad, enough to deal with his strict training routine to the point that she has never dated and was barely allowed to go to the team’s after parties. It was all worth it, until it wasn’t. Kate’s life came crashing down one day during swim practice, causing a hurt so deep she can’t step into a swimming pool without having an anxiety attack. On top of this Kate is forced to move to a brand new school her junior year, navigating new friends and a new life. There she meets a mysterious new boy and two new friends who just might make her new life that much more bearable. That is until her life once again comes crashing down, only this time, it’s Kate’s fault. With her old best friend Harris not speaking to her, her best friend dating her crush, and her family life an emotional landmine Kate has to decide who she really is and what’s important to her, even if it means hurting those she cares about.

“Being happy is a choice. It’s not a destination as much as it is a state of mind (174-175)” This is one of my many favorite quotes from How To Breathe Underwater by Vicky Skinner. I must admit that I was hesitant to pick up this book, worried that it was going to turn into a typical YA drama where the girl chases after a boy who’s portrayed as a perfect being no one else can even touch, but I was pleasantly surprised by how unique this novel actually was. Skinner’s book was an amazing mix of being shocked so bad you gasp out loud, moments so tender you want to cry, and situations so relatable you feel as if the book is secretly about your own life. I adored Kate for more reasons than I can count. She’s a relatable character who has faults and is able to accept when she is wrong. Her character development throughout this novel is astounding, and with each progressing chapter I felt more attached. I especially liked how Skinner portrayed the relationship between Kate and her father, acknowledging that even if someone seems like a good person on the outside, sometimes it’s the little things that accumulate over time that make a character morally wrong. The way Kate treats her father after the separation is refreshing and realistic to today’s society. While I did enjoy this book, I feel there are some faults that need to be acknowledged. Firstly, I felt that there were some very predictable events that happen throughout the book. I have slightly overlooked them because I feel like the amount of shocking twists balance these events out; however, the book could have been improved had there been more creative ways to push the plot forward. The other problem I had was how some of the characters seemed a bit two dimensional. Again, this wasn’t enough for me to throw the book on the floor and proclaim it unworthy of print, but it did get slightly annoying. An example of this is Michael. Michael seems to only really have two sides to him that we explore, his relationship and grief in reference to his mother, and his blooming relationship with Kate. I never really felt a connection to his character that brought him to life. The only two facts I can really recall about him that are separate from these two things are that he knows how to dance and tends to read a lot, but both of those things are barely touched on. In fact, both of these things relate back to his mother (he reads because he can’t sleep because he’s worried about her and he dances because his mother and father taught him when he was young). Even with these faults I was keen on the novel, and think it is a quick, casual read.

Recommendations: Anyone looking for a quick story that is concluded well.

While there were small portions of this that I enjoyed, I think my favorite thing about it was that it was short enough to finish reading in a few hours on my plane ride to Washington DC. Just reading the synopsis clues you in on what the book will be like--kind of choppy, not always very well thought out, and a little repetitive.

This book had a lot going on. Kate's dad cheats on her mom, resulting in chapter one: Kate moves to Portland with her mom. In the aftermath of The Affair, we get Kate despising her dad and quitting swimming because everything good about it is now outweighed by the bad. We also see Kate alternately worrying about her mom and her mom basically not existing, Kate helping her sister leave her husband-to-be at the alter and then watching her obviously struggle with depression. We meet Michael and learn about his mom's bad health. We discover, after Kate has fallen hard in a matter of minutes for him, that Michael is dating Patrice, *gasp* one of the two girls Kate met in her first five minutes at school and almost immediately became best friends with. After this revelation, we are repeatedly treated to Kate's conflicting emotions over wanting to be friends with Patrice versus wanting to be with Michael...although if we're being real, this is more Kate lamenting the fact that Patrice is dating Michael so she can't be. Finally, throughout the book, we are witness to Kate struggling to keep her relationship with her long-time best friend alive after it immediately fell apart the second she moved. With so many big conflicts, there wasn't enough time to devote to all of it, and it left everything feeling rushed and under-developed.

Then, of course, there's Kate being the shittiest friend ever. After she meets Patrice, the reader is treated to multiple references to how unbelievably kind she is. Kate not only finds out Patrice is dating Michael, she later learns from Michael's best friend that the poor girl has been into him for basically her whole life. Then Michael dumps Patrice after she stays with him all night at the hospital and within a matter of hours declares his feelings for Kate and makes out with her in his kitchen. Later that day, Kate spends time with Patrice and sees how upset she is. She tells Michael about it, and Michael says that they can wait a bit to start dating if Kate thinks it would be better for Patrice. Kate, in true amazing friend form, is like, "nah, dude, why should I wait to spare my friend's feelings? Let's do this thing." Like.......are we supposed to feel bad for her when Patrice calls her out and everyone is being mean to her? I do feel bad for her when the swim team calls her a slut, because that's pretty much always a fucked up thing to do to someone, but beyond that...Kate was a total dick. She kinda had it coming.

Next up...Michael being described as "too nice" to break up with Patrice even though he didn't have, and had never had, feelings for her, as though this makes him some kind of fucking white knight. Ugh. Just no. It's not a nice thing to agree to go out with someone that you don't like. It's not nice to continue dating them so you can use them when you're bummed out about your mom and ignore them the rest of the time. It's not nice to not break up with someone that you don't care about to spare their feelings. Nothing about that situation made him a nice guy, and it floors me that Kate was privy to Patrice's side of their relationship and didn't have a problem with it. What's more, I think the book would have been better without the needless, forced bit of love triangle drama. Why must we constantly pit two girls against each other in a quest for the same guy? Why is this such a go-to conflict? Be more creative.

I could go on and on about the things in this book that got under my skin, but it feels like overkill. At the end of the day...I was intrigued by the premise of this book, but it squandered its potential. With so many amazing books out there, this one is lackluster. There are better options out there. Read one of those.

The characters were underdeveloped, so I never connected to them or their stories. The story needs better transitions between scenes so it flows better and you don't get lost in scene changes