Underwater

Starred review from November 2, 2015
Life goes on, even after a tragedy, something 17-year-old Morgan finds difficult to accept. While her friends have returned to school after a shooting that left students and teachers dead, Morgan, once a competitive swimmer and popular straight-A student, won’t leave the small apartment she shares with her mother and brother. Morgan’s therapist is trying to get her to take baby steps into the outside world, but the big impetus comes when a handsome boy moves in next door. Debut author Reichardt doesn’t oversimplify: Morgan isn’t saved by love; rather, new neighbor Evan reminds her of life and what it’s like to have a friend. His surfer good looks don’t hurt, but what really matters is their shared love of the water and his kindness to both Morgan and her younger brother. Morgan’s ability to face her past and future ebbs and flows, making her struggles entirely believable. As Evan, who has his own connection to the shooting, tells her, what he likes about Morgan is that she’s real, and that’s exactly what readers will appreciate about this book. Ages 12–up. Agent: Kate Schafer Testerman, KT Literary.

October 15, 2015
Confined to her apartment for four months by crippling panic attacks, Morgan tries to recuperate from the school shooting she witnessed, but her fear of the world's unpredictable dangers hampers her efforts. Morgan seems to embrace the safety of her isolated apartment routine: online classes, the same lunch every single day, and TV until her mother and brother return home in the evenings. Still, when prompted by her psychologist, Brenda, to describe what summer means to her, Morgan immediately conjures an evocative list of sensations--from "crisp ocean water" to "bonfire smoke" and "cold beer and warm kisses"--illustrating how deeply she still desires the outside world. Morgan's entrapment powerfully illustrates how, left unchecked, fear and trauma can eventually dictate a person's behaviors. But Morgan's mother, brother, Brenda, and her new neighbor Evan all offer equally compelling support that helps Morgan understand how continuously embracing small positive changes--even just a few steps outside of the apartment door--will eventually lead her to a perspective in which she has been changed by her traumatic experiences but is no longer controlled by them. Subplots involving a potential romance and her father's PTSD aren't strictly necessary, but they also don't detract much from the intensely personal truths of Morgan's growing understanding of her own recovery. A moving, reflective exploration of grief, trauma, and how individuals find their paths toward resilience. (Fiction. 14-18)

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November 1, 2015

Gr 8 Up-Morgan was a carefree teenager, a talented swimmer with a nice group of friends and the occasional boyfriend, too. But Morgan was also in crisis because of her father's post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism. What's more, a mass shooting at Morgan's high school further disrupted her life, with her own memories of that day haunting her and the aftermath. The school closed down, and her friends changed schools and moved away, making her feel vulnerable and alone. Even worse, Morgan may have inadvertently helped the shooter get to school that fateful morning. At some point, Morgan realized she didn't want to leave the house anymore, and then one day she just couldn't. It isn't until Evan, whose cousin was killed in the shooting, moves into the apartment next door that the protagonist begins to want to enter the real world again. Part problem novel, part romance, Reichardt's debut never becomes melodramatic, even when there is plenty of drama. The main character's emotional growth and healing, her work with her psychologist, and even her changing role in her unusual family dynamics never feel contrived. VERDICT Readers will enjoy the emotional balance Reichardt gives to the high stakes conflicts in a teen's life.-Jennifer Miskec, Longwood University, Farmville, VA

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2015
Grades 8-11 Morgan hasn't left her apartment in months, not since the terrible thing. She takes online classes, receives house calls from her therapist, gazes at the pool in her apartment complex, and tries to avoid succumbing to crushing panic. When cute Evan moves in next door, however, Morgan starts to consider stepping outside. As she is slowly enticed out of her door by her understanding therapist, she finds not only her own resilience but also that she is not as alone as she thought. In Morgan's swirling first-person narrative, readers get a glimpse of her complex inner life, from the guilt she is hiding, to her ache for her old life, to her worry that she will turn out just like her father, a war veteran so tortured by PTSD that he can't get help. Debut author Reichardt smartly reveals the source of Morgan's agoraphobiaa school shootingvery gradually, which, along with the sweet romance with Evan, urges the plot forward. Though Morgan's inner monologue occasionally drags, her story of growth and redemption will be rewarding for readers who love character-driven novels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2017
Traumatized by a school shooting and convinced that she could have stopped it, seventeen-year-old Morgan, once a champion swimmer, finds herself unable to leave her house. Gradually, family loyalties and the realization that she is not suffering alone draw her back to the world. Secondary characters sometimes seem unrealistically understanding, but Morgan's recovery process is sensitively narrated and authentically nonlinear.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)