Girl Out Of Water by Nat Luurtsema
May. 30th, 2016 11:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
I am Lou Brown: social outcast, precocious failure.
5’11” and still growing.
I was on the fast track to Olympic super-stardom.
Now I’m training boys too cool to talk to me.
In a sport I’ve just made up.
In a fish tank.
My life has gone weird very quickly.
15-year-old Lou Brown had her future all mapped out: qualify for the British swim team in the individual medley and head for Olympic swimming glory. Unfortunately, she flunks the race to join the High Performance Training Camp (which determines who then goes into Team GB) by finishing last. Worse, her best friend Hannah qualifies for the Camp in the butterfly, which means that Lou has to return to school with her dreams shattered and without her only mate. Shunned by her swim coach Debs and her former teammates and with her older sister Lavender adamant that she won’t be seen with her, Lou ends up spending her lunchtimes hiding in the library and trying not to cement her reputation as a total weirdo loser.
Help comes when Gabriel, Roman and Pete ask her to help them develop an underwater dance routine to help them get on Britain’s Hidden Talent in return for £100 per week and their agreeing to say hello to her at school. All Lou has to do is work out how to choreograph a routine for a sport that doesn’t actually exist …
Nat Luurtsema’s debut YA is a laugh-out-loud read about family, friendship and getting over crushed dreams. Although the plot is paper-thin that actually didn’t bother me as Luurtsema does such a good job with the comedic pay-off to each scene and because Lou has such a great first person voice. I also enjoyed the unconventional relationship between Lou’s parents, who live in the same house despite splitting up while Lou’s dad tries to find a new job and the complete lack of indulgence both they and Lavender (who’s a bit of a self-consciously cool and gossipy elder sister) show to Lou’s pain – similarly I found Debs to be a hoot as she callously drops Lou for being a failure. Unfortunately I did find the boys thinly characterised, particularly Gabe (whose ME doesn’t really serve as anything other than a plot point and who lacks chemistry as a love interest) and I wished that there had been more between Lou and Hannah than text messages because it undermined the nature of their friendship and downplayed Lou’s real emotional turmoil. That said, there isn’t enough humorous YA out there and I did find this a fun read that kept me turning the pages – as such, I’ll definitely check out Luurstema’s next book.
The Verdict:
Nat Luurtsema’s debut YA is a laugh-out-loud read about family, friendship and getting over crushed dreams. Although the plot is paper-thin that actually didn’t bother me as Luurtsema does such a good job with the comedic pay-off to each scene and because Lou has such a great first person voice. I also enjoyed the unconventional relationship between Lou’s parents, who live in the same house despite splitting up while Lou’s dad tries to find a new job and the complete lack of indulgence both they and Lavender (who’s a bit of a self-consciously cool and gossipy elder sister) show to Lou’s pain – similarly I found Debs to be a hoot as she callously drops Lou for being a failure. Unfortunately I did find the boys thinly characterised, particularly Gabe (whose ME doesn’t really serve as anything other than a plot point and who lacks chemistry as a love interest) and I wished that there had been more between Lou and Hannah than text messages because it undermined the nature of their friendship and downplayed Lou’s real emotional turmoil. That said, there isn’t enough humorous YA out there and I did find this a fun read that kept me turning the pages – as such, I’ll definitely check out Luurstema’s next book.
GIRL OUT OF WATER will be released in the United Kingdom on 2nd June 2016. Thanks to Walker Books for the review copy of this book.
I am Lou Brown: social outcast, precocious failure.
5’11” and still growing.
I was on the fast track to Olympic super-stardom.
Now I’m training boys too cool to talk to me.
In a sport I’ve just made up.
In a fish tank.
My life has gone weird very quickly.
15-year-old Lou Brown had her future all mapped out: qualify for the British swim team in the individual medley and head for Olympic swimming glory. Unfortunately, she flunks the race to join the High Performance Training Camp (which determines who then goes into Team GB) by finishing last. Worse, her best friend Hannah qualifies for the Camp in the butterfly, which means that Lou has to return to school with her dreams shattered and without her only mate. Shunned by her swim coach Debs and her former teammates and with her older sister Lavender adamant that she won’t be seen with her, Lou ends up spending her lunchtimes hiding in the library and trying not to cement her reputation as a total weirdo loser.
Help comes when Gabriel, Roman and Pete ask her to help them develop an underwater dance routine to help them get on Britain’s Hidden Talent in return for £100 per week and their agreeing to say hello to her at school. All Lou has to do is work out how to choreograph a routine for a sport that doesn’t actually exist …
Nat Luurtsema’s debut YA is a laugh-out-loud read about family, friendship and getting over crushed dreams. Although the plot is paper-thin that actually didn’t bother me as Luurtsema does such a good job with the comedic pay-off to each scene and because Lou has such a great first person voice. I also enjoyed the unconventional relationship between Lou’s parents, who live in the same house despite splitting up while Lou’s dad tries to find a new job and the complete lack of indulgence both they and Lavender (who’s a bit of a self-consciously cool and gossipy elder sister) show to Lou’s pain – similarly I found Debs to be a hoot as she callously drops Lou for being a failure. Unfortunately I did find the boys thinly characterised, particularly Gabe (whose ME doesn’t really serve as anything other than a plot point and who lacks chemistry as a love interest) and I wished that there had been more between Lou and Hannah than text messages because it undermined the nature of their friendship and downplayed Lou’s real emotional turmoil. That said, there isn’t enough humorous YA out there and I did find this a fun read that kept me turning the pages – as such, I’ll definitely check out Luurstema’s next book.
The Verdict:
Nat Luurtsema’s debut YA is a laugh-out-loud read about family, friendship and getting over crushed dreams. Although the plot is paper-thin that actually didn’t bother me as Luurtsema does such a good job with the comedic pay-off to each scene and because Lou has such a great first person voice. I also enjoyed the unconventional relationship between Lou’s parents, who live in the same house despite splitting up while Lou’s dad tries to find a new job and the complete lack of indulgence both they and Lavender (who’s a bit of a self-consciously cool and gossipy elder sister) show to Lou’s pain – similarly I found Debs to be a hoot as she callously drops Lou for being a failure. Unfortunately I did find the boys thinly characterised, particularly Gabe (whose ME doesn’t really serve as anything other than a plot point and who lacks chemistry as a love interest) and I wished that there had been more between Lou and Hannah than text messages because it undermined the nature of their friendship and downplayed Lou’s real emotional turmoil. That said, there isn’t enough humorous YA out there and I did find this a fun read that kept me turning the pages – as such, I’ll definitely check out Luurstema’s next book.
GIRL OUT OF WATER will be released in the United Kingdom on 2nd June 2016. Thanks to Walker Books for the review copy of this book.
