4.5*
I kind of adored this book. See, Otis is a swimmer. So it won me over from the start with Otis and Dara and their swimming shenanigans. To sum it up for you:
"Like an Olympic swimmer, Otis Mueller didn't take days off. Unlike an Olympic swimmer, Otis Mueller would never make it to the Olympics."
Gah, where to even begin? This book was so good and I kind of want to mostly flail. So how about I do just that?
- I am going to start again with the swimming, but I loved it. And it was really, really well done. Like some of the things Otis thought about swimming are things I have absolutely thought about swimming. Like:
"Swimming kept me from drowning."
(Meant in the not-literal sense, but the emotional one);"'You smell like chlorine. How is that possible?' I shrugged. 'It's in my pores."
Dara wanted Otis to be an Olympian because she no longer could be. Otis just wanted to do the best he could do. It was such an amazing dynamic between these two. Which brings me to my next point... - The friendships. Goodness, I loved how loyal Otis was to Dara. Sometimes to a fault, even, but he was. He was her safe place, and I loved him so much for it. Dara had to deal with so much pain (physically and mentally) and her having Otis was so important. Yeah, he was sometimes too enabling, but the whole point was that they had to work this dynamic out! It felt so realistic, like an actual friendship where shit gets so messy, but you deal with it.
- The family was so, so important. Since Otis's little brother died, he and his family have basically been in hell, as you can imagine. And yeah, sometimes Otis would get annoyed because he is a teenager and a human, but he was so incredibly loving to his family and always thought about their needs- even when he kind of didn't want to. And they loved him (and his brother) so fiercely.
- The feels were powerful. I am crying just writing this review, and I finished this book like, a month ago. It was beautiful, and so incredibly difficult to read. As a mom, I had to stop reading a few times during some of of Otis's scenes with his own mom. It was absolutely gut wrenching, but in a beautifully done way. And it was really honest, the way the families dealt with their grief, and how everyone processes these things in their own ways, and that it is okay.
- I did ship the romance even if I didn't always agree with it. Otis has it bad for Meg. She's been gone since Mason's death, and now she's popped back into his life. He was so hurt by her sudden absence, but he still loves her anyway- maybe too much. Like, that is one thing I had a little trouble with (well fine, that and Otis being way too obsessed with his penis, but I guess that is probably pretty honest too, so I can't really hold that against the book). He is willing to fight for Meg no matter how much she puts him through, and he has already been through a lot. But Meg is a sweet girl too, and has a lot of her own demons to overcome. And it's clear that they have love for each other, despite the years that have passed.
- Otis's character growth, along with all the characters' growth, is really awesome to watch. It isn't immediate, nor is it complete, but it was really authentic. I won't spoil anything, but each of these characters learned something about themselves, often from the people around them and how they all related to each other.
Bottom Line: Beautifully written with characters I cared about deeply, this was such a fabulous debut! I laughed, I cried, I swooned, and I got a hefty dose of swimming, so an absolute win for me.
*Copy provided by publisher for review
**Quotes taken from uncorrected proof, subject to change