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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
See this review and others on my blog: The Library Princess
**This review is based on an ARC from Netgalley, release date 1/12/16.
Summary from Goodreads:
Morgan didn’t mean to do anything wrong that day. Actually, she meant to do something right. But her kind act inadvertently played a role in a deadly tragedy. In order to move on, Morgan must learn to forgive—first someone who did something that might be unforgivable, and then, herself.
But Morgan can’t move on. She can’t even move beyond the front door of the apartment she shares with her mother and little brother. Morgan feels like she’s underwater, unable to surface. Unable to see her friends. Unable to go to school.
When it seems Morgan can’t hold her breath any longer, a new boy moves in next door. Evan reminds her of the salty ocean air and the rush she used to get from swimming. He might be just what she needs to help her reconnect with the world outside.
Underwater is a powerful, hopeful debut novel about redemption, recovery, and finding the strength it takes to face your past and move on.
My thoughts:
This is the second book I’ve read in 2 weeks about a school shooting…disturbing, much? Yet, somehow, it is still fascinating. This one is not based solely around the events of the school shooting like my earlier post this month, but more on Morgan’s recovery after the fact.
I found this book very interesting and could I really liked the realness of the characters. Morgan is dealing with a tragedy in the best way she knows how, yet she realizes there could be a different, better way to move on. Evan is extremely understanding and a genuinely good person, definitely a likeable character. I enjoyed the author’s writing style and the flow of the story. It was interesting finding out in little bits what really happened to Morgan on that terrible day.
Overall, I would highly recommend this book and will be purchasing for my high school library. I have some students who will really enjoy it.
My rating: 4/5
**This review is based on an ARC from Netgalley, release date 1/12/16.
Summary from Goodreads:
Morgan didn’t mean to do anything wrong that day. Actually, she meant to do something right. But her kind act inadvertently played a role in a deadly tragedy. In order to move on, Morgan must learn to forgive—first someone who did something that might be unforgivable, and then, herself.
But Morgan can’t move on. She can’t even move beyond the front door of the apartment she shares with her mother and little brother. Morgan feels like she’s underwater, unable to surface. Unable to see her friends. Unable to go to school.
When it seems Morgan can’t hold her breath any longer, a new boy moves in next door. Evan reminds her of the salty ocean air and the rush she used to get from swimming. He might be just what she needs to help her reconnect with the world outside.
Underwater is a powerful, hopeful debut novel about redemption, recovery, and finding the strength it takes to face your past and move on.
My thoughts:
This is the second book I’ve read in 2 weeks about a school shooting…disturbing, much? Yet, somehow, it is still fascinating. This one is not based solely around the events of the school shooting like my earlier post this month, but more on Morgan’s recovery after the fact.
I found this book very interesting and could I really liked the realness of the characters. Morgan is dealing with a tragedy in the best way she knows how, yet she realizes there could be a different, better way to move on. Evan is extremely understanding and a genuinely good person, definitely a likeable character. I enjoyed the author’s writing style and the flow of the story. It was interesting finding out in little bits what really happened to Morgan on that terrible day.
Overall, I would highly recommend this book and will be purchasing for my high school library. I have some students who will really enjoy it.
My rating: 4/5
I really appreciated that this explores the aftermath of a school shooting, and how people grieve, cope, and forgive in different ways. There’s so much in this book that would make it a great book club choice for kids.
Marisa Reichardt’s debut novel Underwater is a compelling account of a teenage girl’s struggles with agoraphobia caused by a traumatic shooting taking place in her high school. The book intended for a young adult audience follows Morgan as as she tries to cope with several adversities in her life, primarily the fear of leaving her apartment. Morgan was content with wearing the same pajamas everyday while she did her schoolwork online and ate grilled cheese for lunch until a boy her age named Evan moved in next door. Evan showed up on Morgan’s door step smelling like the ocean, reminding her of summer and everything she missed outdoors. With help from Evan, her psychiatrist, her mom, and her little brother Ben, Morgan is able to finally confront her fears and take necessary steps toward recovery.
I found myself connecting to Morgan more than any other character within the book, and that connection began early on in her description of the day her younger brother was born.
"I think of Ben on the day he was born, all chubby and pink and bald. … I think
of the newborn Ben next to my mom’s hospital bed and rocking him under dim
lights while he slept in my arms. I fall asleep to the feeling of a love I never
knew until my brother got here."
Being the youngest in my family and having no experience with anyone I knew having children, I was especially excited when my only sister got pregnant with her first child. I sat in an uncomfortable chair across the room from my sister’s hospital bed for thirteen hours while she was in labor. When she was finally ready to push, I stood at her side giving words of encouragement, and she even gave me the honor of cutting my nephew’s umbilical cord. I remember the warmth of my tears as I heard my nephew cry out, sucking in his first breaths of air. I left the hospital shortly after his delivery, allowing my sister to get some rest. I returned a few hours later and held my tiny nephew in my arms for the first time. I love plenty of people in my life, but it wasn’t until I watched my newborn nephew as he slept swaddled in the hospital-issued blanket that I fully understood the depths of the love I was capable of producing. The astonishment I felt holding my precious nephew can be compared to the feelings Morgan had toward her brother the day he was born.
What I found to be most fascinating about this book is the way the author tackles the problem of school shootings in a way that humanizes the shooter and his victims. Instead of making the shooter out to be a merciless attacker, he was demonstrated as a victim of neglect among his peers who deserves forgiveness for his mistakes. There have been one hundred and seventy-four school shootings in America since the year 2003. School shootings are a recurring issue in our society.
"Before Aaron’s Facebook was disabled, news outlets released photographs from
his profile. They found the worst ones. The ones that painted the picture of a kid
who was angry and alone. They interviewed neighbors who said Aaron spent
weekends tinkering in the garage. His mom revealed Aaron had been in therapy
since middle school. His dad revealed he kept guns in the house. For protection.
From the world. Not from his son. Those were guns Aaron brought to school on
October fifteenth. … And the only person who could give us answers, who could
tell us why, was gone."
The media is quick to make the shooter out to be a monster instead of acknowledging the idea that people make drastic decisions, like one of shooting up a school, because they have no one to turn to.
Other personal accounts of shootings have been written, but there is nothing like this fictional demonstration of the aftereffects of such occurrences. Misty Bernell, the mother of a student killed in the Columbine High School shooting taking place in 1999, wrote the book She Said Yes: The Unlikely Martydom of Cassie Bernall as a way of commemorating her daughter and spreading awareness of the lives lost in the tragic massacre. Reichardt manages to establish a point of view that allows readers to show empathy toward a victim in the shooting the same way Bernell does without downplaying the internal struggles Aaron, the shooter in the novel, may have been experiencing.
The successful manner in which Reichardt explores a real-time societal issue from a unique perspective provides enough grounds for me to recommend the book. However, I was also able to find many characteristics that made me feel invested in the well-being of the each of the characters within the novel. Morgan works especially hard to go outside in order to see her brother perform in his kindergarten play, the psychiatrist meets with Morgan for free because the psychiatrist wanted Morgan to know she was being heard, Evan offering his old prepaid cell phone to Morgan so they could send text messages to communicate the problems Morgan was too afraid to talk about out loud, and the way Morgan’s mother compromises with Morgan and attempts to understand her feelings. Each character demonstrates selflessness and unconditional love while maneuvering through a situation where love and support are crucial to the mental health of everyone involved. Reading about people who truly care about each other and work to build each other up in a difficult time instead of worrying only of themselves is refreshing.
I found myself connecting to Morgan more than any other character within the book, and that connection began early on in her description of the day her younger brother was born.
"I think of Ben on the day he was born, all chubby and pink and bald. … I think
of the newborn Ben next to my mom’s hospital bed and rocking him under dim
lights while he slept in my arms. I fall asleep to the feeling of a love I never
knew until my brother got here."
Being the youngest in my family and having no experience with anyone I knew having children, I was especially excited when my only sister got pregnant with her first child. I sat in an uncomfortable chair across the room from my sister’s hospital bed for thirteen hours while she was in labor. When she was finally ready to push, I stood at her side giving words of encouragement, and she even gave me the honor of cutting my nephew’s umbilical cord. I remember the warmth of my tears as I heard my nephew cry out, sucking in his first breaths of air. I left the hospital shortly after his delivery, allowing my sister to get some rest. I returned a few hours later and held my tiny nephew in my arms for the first time. I love plenty of people in my life, but it wasn’t until I watched my newborn nephew as he slept swaddled in the hospital-issued blanket that I fully understood the depths of the love I was capable of producing. The astonishment I felt holding my precious nephew can be compared to the feelings Morgan had toward her brother the day he was born.
What I found to be most fascinating about this book is the way the author tackles the problem of school shootings in a way that humanizes the shooter and his victims. Instead of making the shooter out to be a merciless attacker, he was demonstrated as a victim of neglect among his peers who deserves forgiveness for his mistakes. There have been one hundred and seventy-four school shootings in America since the year 2003. School shootings are a recurring issue in our society.
"Before Aaron’s Facebook was disabled, news outlets released photographs from
his profile. They found the worst ones. The ones that painted the picture of a kid
who was angry and alone. They interviewed neighbors who said Aaron spent
weekends tinkering in the garage. His mom revealed Aaron had been in therapy
since middle school. His dad revealed he kept guns in the house. For protection.
From the world. Not from his son. Those were guns Aaron brought to school on
October fifteenth. … And the only person who could give us answers, who could
tell us why, was gone."
The media is quick to make the shooter out to be a monster instead of acknowledging the idea that people make drastic decisions, like one of shooting up a school, because they have no one to turn to.
Other personal accounts of shootings have been written, but there is nothing like this fictional demonstration of the aftereffects of such occurrences. Misty Bernell, the mother of a student killed in the Columbine High School shooting taking place in 1999, wrote the book She Said Yes: The Unlikely Martydom of Cassie Bernall as a way of commemorating her daughter and spreading awareness of the lives lost in the tragic massacre. Reichardt manages to establish a point of view that allows readers to show empathy toward a victim in the shooting the same way Bernell does without downplaying the internal struggles Aaron, the shooter in the novel, may have been experiencing.
The successful manner in which Reichardt explores a real-time societal issue from a unique perspective provides enough grounds for me to recommend the book. However, I was also able to find many characteristics that made me feel invested in the well-being of the each of the characters within the novel. Morgan works especially hard to go outside in order to see her brother perform in his kindergarten play, the psychiatrist meets with Morgan for free because the psychiatrist wanted Morgan to know she was being heard, Evan offering his old prepaid cell phone to Morgan so they could send text messages to communicate the problems Morgan was too afraid to talk about out loud, and the way Morgan’s mother compromises with Morgan and attempts to understand her feelings. Each character demonstrates selflessness and unconditional love while maneuvering through a situation where love and support are crucial to the mental health of everyone involved. Reading about people who truly care about each other and work to build each other up in a difficult time instead of worrying only of themselves is refreshing.
It was so heart breaking what happened to Morgan but I wish we got more detail on the accident. Finished in one sitting.
When I first discovered Underwater by Marisa Reichardt, I knew this was a book I would have to read. I purposely avoided any reviews of the book before I started it, as I wanted to go into the book with a completely clear mind. I'm glad I did. I had an inkling of what happened throughout the story, but the mystery as of what happened kept me turning the pages. I really enjoyed this book.
When we first meet Morgan in the story, she is confined to her house, not on purpose, but by her choice alone. After the horrible events that took place on October 15th, she finds that she can no longer safely be outside her house, and chooses to stay in her apartment at all times, where she knows she can be safe. From there she attends online school and generally avoids the world. Until Evan moves in next door, and reminds her of the life she used to have.
It was really easy to relate to Morgan throughout the story, and to be honest, I probably would have reacted the same way to the events that she experienced. I think a lot of people would. But eventually, you would miss being in the world, and would want to get back to it. In order for Morgan to do that, she not only needed to learn to forgive, not only herself, but others as well. And doing this was not an easy experience for her.
There were so many great secondary characters in the story, all of them great supporters of Morgan's. Her mom, while she was having a rough time of it as well, was always there when Morgan needed her. Also, her therapist, Brenda, was pretty awesome. Her brother, Ben, completely stole my heart, and had to be the best little brother of all time. And then there's Evan, who shows up and changes Morgan's world forever. So many great characters.
I'm not going to go into many details about the storyline for the book, because it would totally give the story away, but the event that happened that made Morgan the way she was, was completely horrific, and unfortunately, all to realistic. That being said, while this event took place, it doesn't overwhelm the novel. The novel is more about what happens after. It was really interesting to read it all through Morgan's eyes.
Overall; I do believe Marisa Reichardt has a winner on her hands with this debut novel! I enjoyed reading Morgan's story, and I'm really, really looking forward to reading more by this author in the future! Add this to your TBR today!
Happy Reading!
2.5 ⭐️ | This kind of book just isn’t my thing. It was cute and touching and sad, but I would not read this again.
What a beautiful book. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to read an ARC and I'm excited for the day that I can share it with others. Stunning. Lovely and lyrical.
Morgan is living life with a great amount of guilt for what she perceives to be her role in a life changing event. As a junior in high school, she begins taking online classes because her guilt and fear keep her from being able to leave her family's apartment. When Evan moves in next door and they see they both have a connection to the terrible event, Morgan learns Evan is her key to letting go of the past.
I loved this book. Truly. It had just the right amount of everything. I like that the characters are so realistic. Like, you'd imagine Evan as an angel or something (you'd think by the summary. I did...) but he has his own problems and he has a temper too.
Oh, and Ben is adorable.
Oh, and Ben is adorable.