💬:“I’ve been trying to breathe underwater too long. It’s time to get some fresh air into my lungs."
Flinn, Alex. Breathing Underwater (p. 189). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
📖Genres: fiction, teens, young adult, abuse, romance
📚Page Count: 229
🎧Audiobook Length: 5hrs 09mins
👩🏾🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5
Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn is a young adult novel about an abusive relationship that two high schoolers are in, this book is from the perspective of the abuser. This book was first published in 2001, I read this in 2002 at the age of 12. I don't think 12 years old is old enough for this book, I definitely think this book is for older teens/young adults. I will say that I did learn a lot from this book as a pre-teen, I learned what an abusive relationship could possibly look like and that helped me in the long run.
This book would be really helpful for young males in particular, because this story is from the point of view of a young male teen. Some of the readers might see themselves in the main character Nick, or even in his girlfriend Caitlin. It's possible that they might see themselves in Nick's best friend, Tom. There are so many possibilities for how this story could connect to older teens/adult readers.
*MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW*
My only issue with this story is that Nick learns that HE was abusive through journaling, counseling, but mostly the murder/suicide of his friend Leo and Leo's girlfriend, Neysa (two Latine characters). I don't like how Neysa was killed off just for Nick to learn his lesson. Nick even says after he finds out that they're dead that he can't even remember what Neysa looked like, she was just a stand in for Caitlin.
"Neysa. What did she look like, even? But I see Caitlin’s face, Caitlin’s blue eyes, staring."
Flinn, Alex. Breathing Underwater (p. 177). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Overall, I think the story was solid in it's depiction of abusive relationships, abusive behaviors, and child abuse. I'm going to give this 4 out of 5 stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I listened to this audiobook for free on [Libbyapp.com]
