FICTION

The Girl Who Could Breathe Under Water

by Erin Bartels
Revell. Jan. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9780800738372. pap. $16.99. CF
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Kendra’s first novel was a huge success, but now she’s on a deadline and cannot write a thing. Her attention is consumed with a letter from an anonymous reader, who seems to know exactly how much Kendra’s novel was based on past summers in Hidden Lake, MN. Cami Rainier was adopted from Korea by a famous novelist, and she and Kendra spent many magical summers imagining on the lake, until Cami’s parents adopted a teenager named Tyler with a troubled past. Tyler’s actions soon change the course of both girls’ futures and their friendship. Now Cami is missing, and Kendra returns to the lake to see if a clue lodged in her memories can unlock the past—and maybe her own future.
VERDICT Emotions leap off the page in this deeply personal book from Bartels (All That We Carried) that explores abuse, rape, suicide, and the fluidity of memory. Expertly written, this is much darker than her other books but will draw readers into the minds of her characters.
Reviewed by Christine Barth, Scott Cty. Lib. Syst., IA , Dec 01, 2021
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