🌊🐚📃 “The Girl Who Could Breathe Under Water” (2022) 📃🐚🌊 – Book Review

 

MY REVIEW

Paperback: 352 Pages

Publisher: Revell (January 4, 2022)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0800738373

ISBN-13: 978-0800738372

⬅️ Click Photo for Purchase Information

 

“The best fiction simply tells the truth.

But the truth is never simple.

 

When novelist Kendra Brennan moves into her grandfather's old cabin on Hidden Lake, she has a problem and a plan. The problem? An inflammatory letter from A Very Disappointed Reader. The plan? To confront Tyler, her childhood best friend's brother--and the man who inspired the antagonist in her first book. If she can prove that she told the truth about what happened during those long-ago summers, perhaps she can put the letter's claims to rest and meet the swiftly approaching deadline for her next book.

 

But what she discovers as she delves into the murky past is not what she expected. While facing Tyler isn't easy, facing the consequences of her failed friendship with his sister, Cami, may be the hardest thing she's ever had to do.

 

Plumb the depths of the human heart with this emotional exploration of how a friendship dies, how we can face the unforgivable, and how even those who have been hurt can learn to love with abandon.”

 

Thank you in advance to the publisher, Revell (a division of Baker Books), for providing an advanced review copy through Library Thing. A positive review was not required nor requested, and all words are my own.

While I had received The Words Between Us as a Christmas gift from my mother, the first Bartels novel I read was All That We Carried. As of note, none of Bartels’ books are part of a series, they are VERY much standalone reads.

 

That said …

 

I had requested All That We Carried from Interviews and Reviews and wasn’t too impressed with the book. It sounded like a book with such promise but it didn’t live up to it for me.

 

Not wanting to just give up on an author, especially a Revell one, I decided to enter the Library Thing giveaway for this book, and won it as well. Usually, Revell authors never disappoint me. I’ve read contemporary fiction, romantic suspense, historical, biblical – and, what I have read, I’ve been very impressed by. I can honestly say the publisher has authors, that for the most part, don’t disappoint. There have been a few exceptions though.

 

The premise of The Girl Who Could Breathe Under Water is interesting – a writer who has written a best-selling debut book, but is haunted by a letter from “VERY DISAPPOINTED READER”. Obviously, this is going to turn out to be someone Kendra knows. This is affecting Kendra’s work on her second book.

 

I’ve often wondered how writers deal with certain criticisms of their work. A book isn’t going to resonate with every single person, as I said, All That We Carried is one of those “meh” books for me. But, what about those who excoriate its existence? Even if it is a work of fiction. How does a writer keep going forward, and does it affect their work?

 

As a budding writer myself, it is something to consider.

 

The entire story is told to “someone” by Kendra in first person format despite the other “major” characters:

 

🔹 Robert – Cami and Tyler’s adopted father

🔹 Beth – Robert’s wife

🔹 Andreas – German translator for That Summer, Kendra’s debut book (and the source of VERY DISAPPOINTED READER’s angst)

🔹 Camilla “Cami” – Adopted daughter of Robert and Beth

🔹 Tyler – Adopted son of Robert and Beth, despite being Korean like Cami, they are not related

🔹 Jackie – Kendra’s mother

🔹 Kendra’s Grandfather

🔹 Ike – war veteran and lake resident

 

I personally enjoyed Robert and Andreas the most. There was something about Robert’s “relationship” with Kendra that is OFF right from the beginning. It wasn’t off in a creepy way, but definitely there is something readers need to look for. I LOVED how both men took a keen interest in her and her writing. Robert encourages her from the time she is 12.

 

The cover also drew me to this one – I wondered how it related to the title as well as the premise of the story. Other that having the words “girl” and “under water”, I didn’t really see that much of a connection. Though one connection is could have seems quite grim.

 

The book’s title is incidentally a book that Kendra had wrote, based LOOSELY on Cami when they were 12. Cami didn’t appreciate it and thought Kendra was making fun of her disability, and Kendra destroyed the story. This will come back around towards the end of the book.

 

There are quite a few triggers or content issues in this book that might disturb or be problematic with some readers:

 

⚠️ Sexual Assault

⚠️ References to Child Sex Trafficking

⚠️ References to Child prostitution

⚠️ Talk of Sex (reference to “screwing around”)

⚠️ Alcohol and Drug Use

⚠️ PTSD

⚠️ Potential Suicide

⚠️ Female-to-Female Kissing (there was a pillowcase between them, only once as an experiment)

⚠️ “Accusation” of one character being thought of as a lesbian (the term “lesbo” is used). [This is only in one scene in the book]

⚠️ Minor graphic depiction of a washed up, drowned body found

 

As Revell is known primarily as a Christian/faith-themed publisher, and while this isn’t labeled as “Christian Fiction”, it was a bit of shock for the content to be in this book. This isn’t nearly bad enough to be called “smut”, but it isn’t too clean compared with the majority of the publisher’s other offerings.

 

Very seldom do I have to do a MAJOR content/trigger warning for a Revell title.

 

That said …

 

As one reviewer noted … this book isn’t sure what it wants to be. And, it can certainly seem that way. It is literally all over the place, often in the same scene/setting.

 

Here’s why I found that to be an interesting and accurate summation:

 

❓ Is this about finding out who wrote the letter

❓ Is this about confronting Tyler about his part in Kendra’s past

❓ Is this about finding the missing Cami (Kendra’s childhood best friend)

❓ Is this about find out what “really” happened THAT SUMMER

❓ Is this about Kendra’s “friendship-to-something-more” with the German translator for That Summer (Andreas)

❓ Is this about Kendra’s mother’s past and who Kendra’s father is

❓ Is this about Kendra and Cami’s lost friendship

 

As you can see there is a LOT packed into this book. And, at times, it can be overwhelming. It is due to the complexities this deeply introspective novel; that is also curious and mysterious has. It delves into the true heart of human emotions and interactions.

 

I was more interested in the letter as well as Cami’s disappearance.

 

I would’ve preferred a clearer and more cohesive dual-time structure (one chapter say 1986, another current day). At times Kendra would be in the present and something send her “back” to a moment during those summers. It can, for some readers, be a bit confusing.

 

The summers with Cami begin when the girls are around 10 years old, within two (2) years, Tyler joins them.

 

After Kendra turns 18, she doesn’t return to Hidden Lake again until she receives the letter.

 

While some writers likely get tons of mail that isn’t favorable. But none have such highlights as:

 

It is the work of a selfish opportunist who was all too ready to monetize the suffering of others.

 

Did you ever consider antagonists have stories of their own? Or that in someone else’s story you’re the antagonist?

 

These questions, along with other harsher accusations have Kendra re-thinking the events she alluded to in that first book. Apparently, she didn’t change them enough – someone knows exactly what Kendra was talking about.

 

There is another reason for Kendra being at the lake – an email from Cami’s mom wondering if Kendra has seen her. She doesn’t have the heart to tell the woman it has been eight (8) years since she saw Cami. Kendra believes the clue is in recovering “them”. Kendra stays at the cabin her grandfather left her.

 

While Kendra is trying to grasp everything around her, she blitzes the fact the German translator is showing up. Not only did she invite the person, but suggested they stay there.

 

It is Andreas who shows up (not an Andrea). A man, not a woman. Kendra is already overwhelmed and finally decides to go with the arrangements.

 

Andreas is quick to catch on – Hidden Lake is Clouded Lake and Tyler is Blake, the antagonist in Kendra’s book. And, his interest in translating the book is personal.

 

Normally, when a book has a linear flow, it is easy to review. This book seems to ebb, flow, bob, and weave as Kendra relives some of her past in those summers as she navigates the current.

 

As she begins to piece everything together in the “now”, Kendra also soon begins to wonder why the letter was written. After all, “the truth works itself into any story whether the writer means to or not”.

 

It is obvious that Tyler has read the book, and yet he isn’t the author of the letter. I didn’t think so – he’d some right out with it.

 

Kendra bounces between finding out who did and finding the missing Cami. One clue is a set of bracelets in the lake. Cami got these from someone as a gift and never took them off. That was my first clue that something was amiss. Another clue there was something up – Robert kept wanting Kendra to sign a book for him.

 

Andreas learns about the letter, and already disliking Tyler from Kendra’s book – he doesn’t want her to talk to him alone. Still, she has to.

 

There are also other little parts that tend to throw up a flag in Kendra’s memory. One such memory – a book Robert gave her that he finds is his best work, despite not selling well. He signed it an edition to her when she was 12, and told her to not let her mother know she had it. It is dedicated to his inspiration and best mistake. I had a feeling where that was going.

 

Cami’s parents are not too upset with her being missing – it is something she has done before. Beth isn’t there on the lake as she’s chasing a lead in Florida. After a period of time, the police began looking into it.

 

Eventually one part is solved before the other. And, Kendra begins to learn how much of a part she played in certain events. SA is NEVER the victim’s fault. There is a part of Kendra that needed to know “why” it happened. Bartels does a great job in weaving the child trafficking and child prostitution in without directly calling it what it was. I did not expect that twist at all.

 

There is a reveal about who Kendra really is. While it was a bit of a shock, I can’t say it surprised me that much.

 

Towards the end, Kendra “surmises” who wrote the letter. I had my own feeling, but giving it away would be a HUGE spoiler. It was also interesting that the letter had a dual purpose that Kendra figured out.

 

For me, The Girl Who Could Breathe Under Water has a somewhat depressing tone to it. It isn’t an upbeat, or inspirational story at all. There are some things that are disturbing, but told from a unique perspective.

 

It was poignant in that the need for closure and truth is something Kendra sought, but at what price? In addition, I felt the letter didn’t entirely prove Kendra was guilty of most of those accusations. Yet, there was a certain level of honesty there. Though, I didn’t exactly get the point of the letter if the writer wasn’t going to see it to a conclusion.

 

In the middle of Cami’s “pursuits”, Andreas not only wants to translate one of Robert’s books, but then begins talking with Ike about the old war stories. He feels as though without eyewitnesses, history can turn into a myth. This is definitely beginning to ring true.

 

Overall – this is a fairly decent read, if only once. It wasn’t my kind of read though. It will definitely benefit the reader to read the author’s notes in the back as they are quite relevant to this book.

 

I can’t say It was a “can’t put it down” page-turner either. But, I did keep reading only to find out what was going on, what was about to happen, and to see where it was going to end up. I did take frequent breaks from it at certain times. What helped move it along was Bartels’ use of moderately short chapters, none seemingly longer than 10 pages. For a novel of this length, it can get tedious to read a long chapter and stay interested; even more when some of the content can get towards the disturbing level.

 

As I do have The Words Between Us, I am looking to read that sometime down the road. As far as future novels? That does remain to be seen. I am sure hardcore fans of the author are sure to be interested in this one.

 

For me, this was a 3.8 star read. As some review places only do “whole” stars, I rounded up to 4.0. I also did so because I admire the author’s bravery in putting this work forward because of the content.

 

 

SIDE NOTE:

 

When Andreas mentions that he wanted a VW Jetta for a rental due to the gas mileage, I had to agree with him there. I’ve rented one twice for trips from my home in Southern Nevada to Knott’s Berry Farm – half tank there, half tank home. That is 290 miles one way (at least the way I go); 580 miles total on one tank of gas.

 

 

 

RATING:

 

 

4 (3.8) ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Goodreads

 

4 (3.8) ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Bookbub

 

4 (3.8) ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Personal Rating (see rating explanation in this blog: https://readingexcursions.blogspot.com/2020/01/rating-system-2020-changes.html)

 

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

 

ERIN BARTELS is the award-winning author of We Hope for Better Things, The Words between Us, and All That We Carried. She lives in Lansing, Michigan with her husband, Zachary, and their son. Find her online at https://erinbartels.com.   

 

 

You can also find her on the following social media accounts:

 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ErinBartelsAuthor/

 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erinbartelswrites/

 

 

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