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A review by tamaraniac
Goldfish by Nat Luurtsema
2.0
Read this review on my blog: http://tamaraniac.com/2016/05/goldfish-nat-luurtsema/
I am a synchronized swimmer. I love the sport. But synchronized swimming doesn't get into media very much. Sure there are old 50s movies with that people say have synchronized swimming in them and are referenced every once in a while... But that's not really synchro in the first place, and it is definitely not what it looks like today.
(here's a video with some great clips if you have no idea what I'm talking about)
So of course I was super excited when MC sent me this book and said it was about synchronized swimming! Overall, I found Goldfish to be an entertaining and sometimes hilarious book with a pretty good story. Only... The swimming that was included wasn't at all actual synchro.
For starters, I do want to say that the book does acknowledge that what the main characters are doing is not synchronized swimming. They talk about how they're really just making up their own thing as they go along. They do keep using the term "synchronized swimming" though which I kind of had a problem with because... No. If anything I'd call what the characters practice more "water acrobatics" than anything else.
I knew going into Goldfish that the main character was a former speed swimmer, so I did expect a certain level of derision at the beginning. You have no idea how many people I've met who look down on synchro because they have no idea what it actually is. What I didn't expect that this attitude would go on throughout the book, even while she was supposedly researching the sport.
"I spend every lunchtime and evening googling synchronized swimming but it all looks so boring" (88, ARC)
When I google "synchronized swimming" the first page contains the official USA website, the wikipedia page, a bunch of pictures of perfectly synchronized splits and arms, and a video of one of North Korea's team routines. I don't know about anyone else but it looks pretty impressive to me.
And then, in the last couple chapters...
"[A team] are doing proper synchronized swimming. It looks good, really pro, perfectly in unison. Maybe I'm biased but I think it's a bit boring" (218, ARC)
After the whole book I honestly would have thought she'd have learned.
There were also a couple perpetuated stereotypes (flowery rubber swim caps, slow movements) that really bugged me. Okay, maybe it shouldn't be the biggest deal because, yeah, this is a lot of what people in the world think of the sport. But for a book with synchronized swimming in the summary I really thought it would do better.
"... Surprisingly helpful if you're trying to teach yourself synchronized swimming and Wikipedia doesn't offer much" (103, ARC)
There are so many resources online to learn about synchro moves and doing it in general that this line honestly made me roll my eyes. This was a good enough book but any research that might have been done is seriously questionable.
-
22.05.16: I enjoyed it, but as a synchronized swimmer myself I had some problems with a good deal of inaccuracies. More details/a review to come.
I am a synchronized swimmer. I love the sport. But synchronized swimming doesn't get into media very much. Sure there are old 50s movies with that people say have synchronized swimming in them and are referenced every once in a while... But that's not really synchro in the first place, and it is definitely not what it looks like today.
(here's a video with some great clips if you have no idea what I'm talking about)
So of course I was super excited when MC sent me this book and said it was about synchronized swimming! Overall, I found Goldfish to be an entertaining and sometimes hilarious book with a pretty good story. Only... The swimming that was included wasn't at all actual synchro.
For starters, I do want to say that the book does acknowledge that what the main characters are doing is not synchronized swimming. They talk about how they're really just making up their own thing as they go along. They do keep using the term "synchronized swimming" though which I kind of had a problem with because... No. If anything I'd call what the characters practice more "water acrobatics" than anything else.
I knew going into Goldfish that the main character was a former speed swimmer, so I did expect a certain level of derision at the beginning. You have no idea how many people I've met who look down on synchro because they have no idea what it actually is. What I didn't expect that this attitude would go on throughout the book, even while she was supposedly researching the sport.
"I spend every lunchtime and evening googling synchronized swimming but it all looks so boring" (88, ARC)
When I google "synchronized swimming" the first page contains the official USA website, the wikipedia page, a bunch of pictures of perfectly synchronized splits and arms, and a video of one of North Korea's team routines. I don't know about anyone else but it looks pretty impressive to me.
And then, in the last couple chapters...
"[A team] are doing proper synchronized swimming. It looks good, really pro, perfectly in unison. Maybe I'm biased but I think it's a bit boring" (218, ARC)
After the whole book I honestly would have thought she'd have learned.
There were also a couple perpetuated stereotypes (flowery rubber swim caps, slow movements) that really bugged me. Okay, maybe it shouldn't be the biggest deal because, yeah, this is a lot of what people in the world think of the sport. But for a book with synchronized swimming in the summary I really thought it would do better.
"... Surprisingly helpful if you're trying to teach yourself synchronized swimming and Wikipedia doesn't offer much" (103, ARC)
There are so many resources online to learn about synchro moves and doing it in general that this line honestly made me roll my eyes. This was a good enough book but any research that might have been done is seriously questionable.
-
22.05.16: I enjoyed it, but as a synchronized swimmer myself I had some problems with a good deal of inaccuracies. More details/a review to come.