Review of Breath Like Water

If you enjoy contemporary YA with sports themes or books that deal with mental health issues, this one’s for you. Check out my review of Breath Like Water!

Breath Like Water by Anna Jarzab. Published on May 19, 2020 by Inkyard Press. This post contains affiliate links – thanks for your support!

Synopsis: Susannah Ramos has always loved the water. A swimmer whose early talent made her a world champion, Susannah was poised for greatness in a sport that demands so much of its young. But an inexplicable slowdown has put her dream in jeopardy, and Susannah is fighting to keep her career afloat when two important people enter her life: a new coach with a revolutionary training strategy, and a charming fellow swimmer named Harry Matthews.As Susannah begins her long and painful climb back to the top, her friendship with Harry blossoms into passionate and supportive love. But Harry is facing challenges of his own, and even as their bond draws them closer together, other forces work to tear them apart. As she struggles to balance her needs with those of the people who matter most to her, Susannah will learn the cost—and the beauty—of trying to achieve something extraordinary.

Review of Breath Like Water

Breath Like Water is a bittersweet YA contemporary about women in sports, mental health, family dynamics, and balancing relationships with goals and achievement.

Susannah Ramos was a world champion swimmer as a tween, but as she grew from a girl into a woman, both her self-confidence and swimming speed began to falter. Susannah’s swimming program hires Beth, a female coach with new ideas about how Susannah might be able to embrace her changing body and improve her times. At the same time, Susannah meets Harry, a fellow swimmer who seems to have some big issues of his own out of the pool.

There was a lot to love about this book. The structure is a countdown to the Olympic trials, so that gives the book most of its plot structure, as Susannah battles physical and metal setbacks to try to make the team. I wasn’t a student athlete (I was on the swim team, but only lasted a few weeks. My sister did continue, so I used to know my way around a swim meet.)

I read YA books as an adult and as a mom, and from the get-go, I thought Harry was trouble, both for Susannah’s swimming dreams and in general. When I found out more about Harry’s struggles and saw that he was managing them responsibly, I was a little bit more sympathetic. The book does raise issues of women as caregivers and how hard it can be to balance our empathy toward others with our own dreams and ambitions. In the end, I liked the way the book handled both Susannah’s swimming ambitions and also the relationship.

I did think this book felt long at times (it was over 400 pages) and sometimes there were motivational speeches that felt a bit heavy-handed to me; I thought the messages (mostly about success and failure) were already there without being over-emphasized.

Definitely recommend this to those who love books about sports and those who are looking for books about characters tacking mental health issues. If you have no interest whatsoever in sports, this might not be the book for you. And while there is romance in the book, it’s not the main focus of the story.

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