Girl Underwater by Claire Kells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I received this book as part of Penguin’s First to Read Program for my review. I am in love with this book. It’s about Avery Delacorte, a swimmer in her sophomore year of college in California. She goes home for Thanksgiving in Boston and her plane goes down in the Rockies. She’s with one of her teammates, Colin (a person she used to avoid). They survive and manage to rescue 3 small boys. They spend a total of 5 days in the wilderness before being rescued. When she returns home she is shamed by her actions, but neither Colin or the boys hold anything against her. She still has her family and boyfriend to deal with, but she can’t help but think of Colin throughout all of it. This is a story of survival, of Avery finding herself, forgiving herself, and being able to face her fears. Colin is almost too perfect because he isn’t demanding, he is stable, and he understands what she’s been through. The only part I had trouble with was the ending because it was too vague. She leaves Colin in a tub and the next thing I know she’s taking a plane to California. And when she’s in the airport I’m also confused about what she’s doing (ignoring her boyfriend who came to pick her up, it seems). However, the Epilogue very neatly fixes the confusion. One of the better books I’ve read in a while.
4 out of 5 stars ★★★★☆
Published by Dutton
March 31, 2015
Genre: Contemporary
Synopsis:
Nineteen-year-old Avery Delacorte loves the water. Growing up in Brookline, Massachusetts, she took swim lessons at her community pool and captained the local team; in high school, she raced across bays and sprawling North American lakes. Now a sophomore on her university’s nationally ranked team, she struggles under the weight of new expectations but life is otherwise pretty good. Perfect, really.
That all changes when Avery’s red-eye home for Thanksgiving makes a ditch landing in a mountain lake in the Colorado Rockies. She is one of only five survivors, which includes three little boys and Colin Shea, who happens to be her teammate. Colin is also the only person in Avery’s college life who challenged her to swim her own events, to be her own person—something she refused to do. Instead she’s avoided…
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Heather Allen 