Rating: 
Summary: Breathing Underwater
Review: When I first heard about this book, I was not really interested in reading it, but once I started reading, I couldn't stop. Besides being a very well written book, it has some very valuable lessons in it. Whether you are a guy or a girl, there is a lot to learn from this story. When Nick got taken to court for hitting his girlfriend, Caitlin, he is very angry and he doesn't understand the full reality of his problem. As a high school student, I see examples of this everywhere. It is hard for some guys to realize that they have an anger problem, and when they are confronted with it, they just get angrier. In Nick's case, it took an anger management class to help him realize and overcome his problem.He had to let go of the problems in his past and make peace with his father before he could get better. All in all, this book is a very quick read, and it is very thought-provoking.
Rating: 
Summary: An Incredible Drama book
Review: I was introduced to Nick, a sixteen year old boy, through "Breathing Underwater". Nick has been abused by his father since his mother left. Soon Nick realizes that he inherited his father's violent temper after one night when he hit his girlfriend Caitlin over some stupid reason. Through out Nick and Caitlin's relationship Nick was always abusing her but after the night he hit her is when he realized it. Nick always thought that if she was late or complimented other boys that she was cheating on him. He would call her names and grab on her arm or hand tight. After that one night when Nick really hit Caitlin, Caitlin gets a restraining order and Nick was forced to keep a journal and go to group meetings for guys who hit on their girlfriends. I think that this was an incredible book. Its like your right there with Nick in the book feeling what he's feeling, and experiencing what he was experiencing. I just couldn't put it down once I got to reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Very far from the tree
Review: Nick Andreas has just been served a restraining order from the person he loves the most in the world. After beating his girlfriend, the sixteen-year-old offender finds himself attending group therapy and writing in a journal about the things he's done. He's the son of an abuser, and it looks like that abuse has surfaced within himself. The question is, can Nick recognize what he's done? More importantly, can he change?The premise is a complex one. Author Alex Flinn set out to write about an abusive relationship from the abuser's point of view. Now how do you go about doing that, exactly? How do you write a story in which the reader has to simultaneously empathize with and abhor the protagonist? The fact of the matter is, Flinn is so adept with her writing skills that she gets away with it. The result is phenomenal. The real strength of this story is the way in which the plot arcs and fools the reader. Nick is hardly a reliable narrator (a fact that becomes painfully clear by the end of the story). Yet when he writes in his journal, he feels unaccountably unable to lie about anything that happened. Flinn slowly brings the plot in the journal, and the story of how Nick lives in the aftermath of his own violence, together by the book's end. She does not compromise her position either. As a woman who served as a lawyer trying domestic violence cases and as a volunteer at the Inn Transition facility for battered women and their kids, she knows from whence she speaks. This isn't an author who is speculating on what violence does to families and friends. She knows. Better still, she can write about it. This isn't a perfect book, I suppose. Some jumps in the plot are implausible. Some characters inconsistent. But what flaws it has only serve to show how strong the story itself is. There is no book on how abusers feel that is as available and accessible to young adults as "Breathing Underwater". You will never regret having read it.
Rating:
Summary: Uncomfortable subject handled well
Review: It's hard reading a book where the main character is unlikeable, and Nick is most definitely unlikeable. Although the first person narrative makes it a little easier to accept Nick. Flinn has done a good job of not only showing what an abusive relationship is and how it fuels itself (controlling behavior from insecurities preying on someone elses insecurities, reinforced by an I'll do anything if you don't hurt me again response -- to simplify it way too much). But more impressive, she has shown how someone can grow and start to move on -- convincingly. This isn't a "it's for teens so I have to find a silver lining" type ending. Nick has a long way to go at the end of the book. Everything isn't magically better, but there is a plan. Also Flinn's details, events, background stories of the characters clearly come from her experiences working with people in similar situations. Even her wildest story -- Leo becoming a puppet abuser (i.e. his father is pulling the strings) is very believable, at least to me, because I know someone whose father made him do horrible, abusive things to his sister. Painful, yet healing book to read, about something that both teens and adults need to be aware of.
Rating:
Summary: Romance, Love, and Abuse
Review: What is romance? Is it love and happiness, or is it abuse and saddness? This book brings out all of these four things and tells you a good story.
This book is called, "Breathing Underwater." It was written by the author of Alex Flinn. Even though this book is a little dificult to follow, it really shows how well the author wrote the book. I don't know of any other books she has written, but I do know that they must be really good.
This book is mainly about this guy who gets accused of abusing his girlfriend. The judge wants him to write his side of the story in a journal that the judge will read once a week.
If you like romance novels, you will like this book. This book has really opened my mind on how abusivness takes place and what happens during and after the relationship. -bubba-
Rating:
Summary: A realistic view of teenage domestic violence
Review: Without being "preachy," this book takes a serious look into the much-ignored abusive high-school relationship.
Nic is a popular, wealthy young man who lives with his inattentive and angry father.
He hooks up with the not-so-popular (but beautiful and vulnerable) Caitlin and the obsession begins.
Nic's constant jealousy and scrutiny of Caitlin ("Who are you trying to look so good for?" "Where were you?") leads her to believe she's not good enough to be with him. However, when he loses control and hits her, she presses charges and Nic is assigned court-order group therapy for abusers. In therapy the author introduces an interesting and believable cast of characters.
Four stars for the following reasons:
The story is well-written, but I felt there were a few times that Giles repeats the same situations without adding more depth to the issue.
There is some strong language, but I think the overall message is important enough that is should be read by students starting in 7th grade.
Rating:
Summary: Breathing Underwater
Review: Breathing Underwater If one is in need of a real, sincere, hardcore book that tells the reader how life really is, not a fantasyland where everything turns out for the best, read Breathing Underwater. This book turns the mind into a cinema that plays the movie of a sixteen-year-old boy going through a crisis in his life. The book is written by Alex Flinn, an author that really lays it all down in the ink of the pages. This book holds so true to how life is in the eyes of kids growing up in this generation "X".
The main characters are a group of friends in high school, all around the age of 16. The book is told through the eyes of a sixteen year-old boy named Nicolas Andreas. He is portrayed as a boy that is irrational in his actions, but in his own mind always means well. It seems that he has troubles with his father that makes him so quick-tempered and violent. His ex-girlfriend, Caitlin, has charged him with a restraining order for beating her. Caitlin was a geeky, fat girl that made a transformation to beautiful, skinny homecoming princess. Nick's best friend is named Tom Carter, thought to be the ever cool, popular guy that can get any girl he wants. Tom tries to look out for Nick, but his tries to help him go unnoticed in the eyes of a sixteen year-old that only hears what he wants to hear.
Nick and Caitlin's relationship is driven by what is said to be love, but Nick's jealousy and imprudent behavior drives it into an accident waiting to happen. The accident finally does happen; this is what compels Caitlin to have a restraining order enforced upon Nick. After this Nick's whole life falls apart. He starts to lose all his friends, and Caitlin can't bear him. Nick has to struggle along through this hardship with an unsupportive father and only friends made through his group for family violence and controlling anger.
Rating:
Summary: Breathing Underwater
Review: Sent to counseling for hitting his girlfriend, Caitlin, and ordered to keep a journal, Nick Andres recounts his relationship with Caitlin. He shares when things were good and bad between him and Caitlin. When he falls in love Caitlin, Nick think his problems are over with his abusive father. But when things start to fall out of control, Nick must face more problems than his father ever gave him to overcome the challenging things in his life.
The main character of this novel is Nick Andreas. He is a sixteen year old who is intelligent, popular, handsome and wealthy sounds pretty perfect on the outside, at least. He has everything materialistic but he doesn't find happiness until his girlfriend comes along. When they fall in love things start to fall out of control and Nick's temper starts to show. He because abusive to Caitlin, verbally and physically. As Nick goes to counseling you see his true emotions expressed when he misses Caitlin.
One of the major themes of Breathing Underwater is the challenge to overcome mistakes. Nick and Caitlin had an abusive relationship together, which led to the loss of the most valuable things in Nick's life. As Nick takes counseling he realizes what a huge mistake it was controlling Caitlin. He has to go to classes to control his anger. It is there that he finds himself, and the answers to all his problems.
Rating:
Summary: Breathing Underwater
Review: Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn was a very interesting book. It caught my attention from the very beginning. I usually like books with mystery, horror, romance, fiction (fantasy, with other worlds and types of people), and a little bit of real life put in. But this book only held the romance, and the real life parts, but it was something I would have never expected. I followed through with the whole book till the very end not wanting to stop reading. I couldn't put it down. It was a book that could make you cry, laugh, and ponder. At times it even made wonder why the character had done that action. It had times where you thought that something had happened, but everything gets turned around in the next chapter. Alex Flinn was extraordinarily imaginative with the fact that she put herself in the place of a young teenage boy and how it felt so real. At times, you felt that you were Nick and you could feel his feelings. I would definitely recommend this book to people who like real life situations, and like to be in suspense to see what will happen next. To see if everything will work out in the end, you will have to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A fast paced novel
Review: You start the book out sort of not knowing what to expect, kinda thinking that maybe he's (the main character, Nick) not such a jerk after all. Guess what : he is. During the book, it switches to the present to the journal Nick's keeping that tells the story of him and Caitlen. When you read the current part, you symphasise with him a little, when you read the journal, you can't believe what a complete creep he is to his girlfriend. The weird thing about this book is that drew me to the point where i got mad and moody just reading it, like i was the one having anger issues, not a ficitious character. All in all, this book will have you racing to the finish; once you start reading you won't want to stop.
|
