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Underwater by Marisa Reichardt
3.0

Thank you to Pan Macmillan Australia for sending me a copy of this book!
I loved this book because I could relate so much to the main character, not the traumatic experience, but the anxiety and agoraphobia that she developed. So many things had me nodding my head in agreement. I loved the cute little romance that happened throughout and how supportive they both were and they were just so good for each other BUT he was only really supportive and good for her towards the end. It took him a while to actually understand what she was going through and how to react to certain things that she did. Sooooo I'm kind of 50/50 on the romance.
It doesn't explicitly say what Morgan went through in the synopsis, but you find out about a quarter of the way through that
Spoilerthere was a school shooting
and there was something about that day that Morgan hasn't told anybody.
There was one part of the novel that really resonated with me and it's when Morgan is with her psychologist (who is awesome, by the way) and they managed to leave the house which was a huge feat in itself and Morgan says, 'I can't do it', and Brenda says something like, 'You're already doing it'. Your brain tries to trick you, and I recently had an experience where mine tried to trick me while I was on my prac for uni, and I'd get to school and say to myself that I couldn't do it, but I just needed to remind myself that I was there. I was already doing it. I could do this. I don't know if the author has a background in psychology, but I loved how the psychologist in the book actually knew what she was talking about.
I definitely recommend this one!