Breathing Underwater

December 4, 2023
Focused and driven 17-year-old competitive swimmer Tess Cooper has worked hard to “construct the Jenga tower of my life with perfect precision,” and the forthcoming summer is no exception. Tess plans to lifeguard at the local pool while training for the race that will determine whether she secures a college athletic scholarship and cement her future swimming career. Instead, a seizure sidelines Tess with an unexpected diagnosis of epilepsy, and shifting dynamics at both home and the pool test her resolve. While Tess’s parents argue about what epilepsy means for her future, best friend and swim teammate Mac withdraws. Tess finds herself reluctantly confiding in Charlie, her hot new neighbor who replaces Tess on the lifeguard stand. Romance adds tension to watertight plotting in this fast-paced, compelling novel from Nash (Lifeline), but it’s the sensitive explorations of life with an invisible disability that anchor this empathetic story. With help from a support group, Tess reconciles her ambition and her diagnosis, and makes space for her emotions, surfacing with a more balanced sense of self that drives the narrative toward a hopeful, satisfying conclusion. Nash’s acknowledgments address the author’s experience with epilepsy. Main characters read as white. Ages 14–up.

February 1, 2024

Gr 9 Up-Tess is a 17-year-old with a bright future. Though her family doesn't have much money, she's almost guaranteed a swimming scholarship from her preferred school, particularly if she performs well at nationals. She has caring parents and a loving, if quirky, older sister. Tess is training for nationals when a sudden seizure and hospitalization leave her life filled with uncharacteristic uncertainty. She struggles to navigate her new situation. She must surrender her driver's license and her lifeguarding job while she undergoes testing and evaluation for epilepsy. Her parents disagree over her safety protocols, her best friend and teammate suddenly becomes distant, and she meets a possible new boyfriend at the worst possible time. Written in the first-person, this novel is a short, concentrated look at both competitive swimming and epilepsy. Tess shows the commitment and stress of being a high-level athlete-a stress intensified by her seizure. She is, by turns, frightened, angry, despondent, and determined. With the exception of the requisite high-school mean girl, all of the characters have depth and speak with dialogue that rings true and current but doesn't come off as overly trendy. VERDICT Tess's story is compelling. Her medical visits, uncertainty, and eventual epilepsy diagnosis offer a realistic look at this hidden condition that is both enigmatic and common. The added fact that one in 26 people have epilepsy should make this a must-have for school and public libraries.-Lisa Taylor

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 15, 2024
Tess has her entire life planned out, and it revolves around one thing: swimming. The water is where Tess thrives. She's a talented swimmer who never slows down; she's on track for a college sports scholarship and professional career. But when she has a seizure and receives an epilepsy diagnosis, those careful plans fall apart. Over the course of the summer, there are more surprises in store for Tess, including a romance with new neighbor Charlie and repairing her fractured relationship with her best friend, Mac. Nash allows time for Tess to adjust, exploring the uncertainty following her first seizure as well as the aftermath when her symptoms recur. Her seizures are realistically frightening and unmooring. She has a network of support in her frazzled but loving family members, and her relationships with them, Charlie, and Mac are sweet, if not as fully fleshed out as they could be. While Tess' journey is heartfelt, readers will wish that the novel explored in greater depth how she progresses beyond total denial and despair. Ultimately, the most interesting dynamic is between Tess and swimming: the dangers it now poses and the overriding passion she must regain and harness to learn once again why she loves it. Her athletic spirit drives her against the odds to find a place for herself in a sport that may no longer have one for her. Main characters read white. A sincere story of approaching a new reality with a competitive edge. (Fiction. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 15, 2024
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* It's the first night of summer vacation, and Tess Cooper is not about to jeopardize her shot at swimming nationals because her teammates want to go to a wild party. Tess agrees to race in host Rachel's pool, with the winner choosing to either stay at the sleepover or go. She's close to winning when things go wrong--she has a seizure and almost dies. Suddenly stuck on dry land, Tess flounders, caught between the need to stay safe, in case it wasn't an isolated event, and her deep yearning to be the fastest swimmer. Complicating the issue further is Tess' scholarship to a private high school and her expected athletic scholarship for college, both of which could disappear if she stops competing. Nash's characters, flawed and human, grapple with income inequality, divorce, and disability, and the sports themes are elevated with both Tess' romance with new lifeguard Charlie and the realities of her new epilepsy diagnosis, as well as the discussions surrounding accommodations in competition-level sports. Most characters are described as white. Nash's book may not be the smoothest dive into YA sports, but it should find devoted fans ready to cheer Tess and her team to victory.

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