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Monday, January 31, 2022

The Girl WHo Could Breathe Under Water

 

The Girl Who Could Breathe Under Water
by Erin Bartels
4 star Read.  Thanks to Revell, division of Baker Publishing group, for sending me this book to review. I love this author’s story telling style. I previously read “We Hope For Better Things” by this author and recommend it. 

I was taken into the story very quickly. I wanted to keep reading to figure out what was going to happen.

The protagonist is 26 year old Kendra who is an author and has pressure to meet her 2nd novel’s publishing deadline. Her debut novel was a huge success. Although it was fiction those that knew her knew it was based on real life place, people and that led to assuming the experience was real too. The debut unearthed years of secrets. Those secrets unearthed, although therapeutic for her- the author,  had negative affects  and repercussions for others.

Favorite lines from the book:
Pg 112 “Human societies may change here and there. But human nature? Nah. People are always people. And people are broken.”

Pg 222 “all fiction is based in reality. That’s why we read it. That’s why we write it. To process reality. To deal with all the crap that happens to us.”

I will say that the Title and cover for this book initially made me question whether I was going to like it.  It made me wonder is this fantasy- mermaids- a girl breathing under water?  However, once you get into the story the title does make sense.  I wonder if there was any discussion about the use of this title and cover art by publisher and author before it went to final print.