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hallymichelle 's review for:
How to Breathe Underwater
by Julie Orringer
I really enjoyed reading this collection of short stories. They were more aimed at YA's than I expected though, especially 'When she is old and I am famous', 'The Isabel Fish' and 'Note to sixth grade self'. The last few stories were more up my street, or maybe I had just gotten used to Orringer's style. I do tend to prefer the childhood theme to the whole YA thing where a slightly contrived emphasis seems to be put on things like the act of smoking cigarettes.
All in all each story felt like a little film playing in my head with the images being really easy to conjure up. The story 'Care' reminded me of the film 'Uptown Girls' in plot, and the general tone of many of the stories felt a bit like that too. I also thought the characters all had really pretty names. Not that that is relevant. Oh and food crops up a lot, which I like. Not sure what a feminist reading would be of this...there is a lot about female relationships and experiences and I'm not sure how positive the messages were.
Overall I think the book has a quirky vibe in keeping with the cover and title. Maybe a bit darker than some might expect but you get that warning within the first story!
All in all each story felt like a little film playing in my head with the images being really easy to conjure up. The story 'Care' reminded me of the film 'Uptown Girls' in plot, and the general tone of many of the stories felt a bit like that too. I also thought the characters all had really pretty names. Not that that is relevant. Oh and food crops up a lot, which I like. Not sure what a feminist reading would be of this...there is a lot about female relationships and experiences and I'm not sure how positive the messages were.
Overall I think the book has a quirky vibe in keeping with the cover and title. Maybe a bit darker than some might expect but you get that warning within the first story!