Breathing Underwater by Abbey Lee Nash

Breathing Underwater by Abbey Lee Nash. Holiday House, 2024. 9780823453863

Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 4

Format: Hardcover

Genre: Realistic sports fiction

What did you like about the book? Tess is a swimmer. She is banking on a scholarship to a highly prestigious college for her swimming abilities.  She is training for Nationals.  She even has dreams of the Olympics.  Then tragedy strikes: she has an epileptic seizure while swimming in a friend’s pool.  Is it a one-time occurrence? Hospital tests hint otherwise.  During this very traumatic time, she meets Charlie, a new boy in town who is her replacement as a lifeguard at the community pool.  They have an immediate mutual attraction.

Tess feels she is living a nightmare with her life dream possibly being taken away from her.  All characters are presumed white in this very real look at a teen struggling against an enemy she never suspected.

Anything you did not like about the book? No.

To whom would you recommend this book? Teens who appreciate stories about sports, particularly swimming, with a wrench like epilepsy thrown into the works will be drawn into Tess’s story. Those who have recently read The Moth Girl (the sport here is track) by Heather Kamins might well enjoy this one.

Who should buy this book? Public and high school libraries.

Where would you shelve it? YA fiction

Should we (librarians) put this on the top of our “to read” piles? Not necessarily.

Reviewer’s Name, Library (or school), City: Katrina Yurenka, Retired Librarian, Contributor, Youth Services Book Review

Date of Review:  April 27, 2024