Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn
Review: Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn
Breathing UnderwaterBreathing Underwater by Alex Flinn is written as a series of journal entries. The journal is written by Nick as an assignment from the judge who also sends him to anger management after the girlfriend he beat up finally presses charges. The book was published in 2001, before the recent increase in dating violence novels, and it tells a story often overlooked, that of the abuser instead of the abused.
It 's a delicate subject. And it tells a hard story. Because while Nick is (obviously) not without his faults, he most certainly has his good points as well. And as I read I found myself feeling... not sympathetic, exactly, but definitely feeling something, more than I thought I would.
Initially, Nick is angry at being forced into these group anger management classes and he hates the idea of having to keep a journal. He doesn 't think he has a problem, thinks he just needs to pretend to clean up a little so he can get Caitlin back, get the courts out of his face and everything can be perfect again. Because we are reading Nick 's journal, we are privy to his thoughts, his perceptions and misconceptions. But we are also able to read between the lines and recognize that we are missing things, both because Nick is leaving them out and because Nick simply doesn 't see them. The initial entries into the journal are very sarcastic and emotionless. It 's clear that Nick doesn 't want to be bothered with a journal and that he thinks it 's stupid. But as Nick 's story progresses, more and more emotions leak onto the pages until Nick is really keeping a journal and using it as a way to organize his thoughts and face up to painful memories and truths.
This is a book with astounding character growth. We learn enough about Nick throughout the course of the story to know that his life is not as easy or golden as his school friends always believed it to be. And Caitlin knew this, which is perhaps the reason that
Breathing UnderwaterBreathing Underwater by Alex Flinn is written as a series of journal entries. The journal is written by Nick as an assignment from the judge who also sends him to anger management after the girlfriend he beat up finally presses charges. The book was published in 2001, before the recent increase in dating violence novels, and it tells a story often overlooked, that of the abuser instead of the abused.
It 's a delicate subject. And it tells a hard story. Because while Nick is (obviously) not without his faults, he most certainly has his good points as well. And as I read I found myself feeling... not sympathetic, exactly, but definitely feeling something, more than I thought I would.
Initially, Nick is angry at being forced into these group anger management classes and he hates the idea of having to keep a journal. He doesn 't think he has a problem, thinks he just needs to pretend to clean up a little so he can get Caitlin back, get the courts out of his face and everything can be perfect again. Because we are reading Nick 's journal, we are privy to his thoughts, his perceptions and misconceptions. But we are also able to read between the lines and recognize that we are missing things, both because Nick is leaving them out and because Nick simply doesn 't see them. The initial entries into the journal are very sarcastic and emotionless. It 's clear that Nick doesn 't want to be bothered with a journal and that he thinks it 's stupid. But as Nick 's story progresses, more and more emotions leak onto the pages until Nick is really keeping a journal and using it as a way to organize his thoughts and face up to painful memories and truths.
This is a book with astounding character growth. We learn enough about Nick throughout the course of the story to know that his life is not as easy or golden as his school friends always believed it to be. And Caitlin knew this, which is perhaps the reason that