My Thoughts: Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn

Like father,
like son

Intelligent, popular, handsome, and wealthy, sixteen-year-old Nick Andreas is pretty much perfect — on the outside, at least. What no one knows — not even his best friend — is the terror that Nick faces every time he is alone with his father. Then he and Caitlin fall in love, and Nick thinks his problems are over. Caitlin is the one person who he can confide in. But when things start to spiral out of control, Nick must face the fact that he's gotten more from his father than green eyes and money.


Breathing Underwater was one intense read. Not as intense as Sarah Dessen's Dreamland. but whoa. It amazes me that this book was written by Alex Flinn the same woman who wrote Beastly. Breathing Underwater was about a boy who beat his girlfriend and the consequences of his actions.

What I really liked about this story was that it was written from Nick's point of view, and that it was after his abusive behaviour. Him and his girlfriend had broken up and were living separate lives. I liked that we got to see Nick realize just how terrible his actions were, and how destructive his behaviour was. I felt for Nick (he had a crap life, his dad was a jerk), and he felt like he couldn't talk about what he was struggling with anyone, not even his best friend. This was really sad. I really loved how we saw the story of what was 'Nick and Caitlin' unfold in Nick's journal, this was a part of the book that I really liked, it was during his journaling that Nick realized what happened.  His group counselling sessions I found were realistic to what a group counselling would look like. I found that Flinn wrote wonderfully, I didn't get bored and roll my eyes. I found the story captivating and hopeful.

The Characters were well written as well. I found that I disliked Nick a lot when I needed to, but I was also able to respect him and his growth as the story went on. I really liked Mario the group counselling leader, I think that there needs to be more of him in the real world, he was a great character. 

I've read a few reviews on goodreads, one in particular that said that this type of book is not something they wanted their kids to read, because she didn't feel like this was how high school really was, that sex, alcohol, peer pressure weren't part of every high school, perhaps some but not all. I beg to differ; majorly. This book was exaclty what high school is like, at least for me and most people I talk to. High school was hard, and all those issues were very real.

 I very much appreciate that Alex Flinn wrote a book like this, so that both abusers and their victims know that they are not alone and that there are people out there who are desperate to help them. Hiding the bad stuff does not make it go away, it just makes it harder to talk about when it needs to be talked about.

Happy Reading Everyone!

**I am giving away a copy of Choker

by Elizabeth Woods, check it out here.**