Sara Jaffe

Julie is in high school, skimming swimming magazines for anything to do with her older brother now living in Germany, struggling in her long-standing friendship with Erika now Erika is interested in boys and she herself isn't, really. Then there's Alexis who swims and plays soccer and starts seeking Julie out. Joining the swimming team isn't really the easy slotting in place she—and the people who knew her brother—expected it to be. Outside of school, she makes an unexpected friend in Ben who was in school with her brother.
I thought this book captures how tricky it is a teenager and how things don't always go the way you want them to.… (mais)

I almost don't know what to do with this book. One of the blurbs on the cover described it as "part diary, part dream" which definitely feels right but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. The lack of punctuation for dialogue really threw me off and left me confused half the time. I both loved and hated how open-ended the book was. I wanted some better understanding of what was going on with Julie's brother, but I liked how open Julie's own future and story seemed, not tied up in a neat happy ending.

This book has been sitting in the back of my head for almost a week and I'm still not sure how to sum it up or what all to say. Definitely a unique reading experience for me, though.… (mais)

I've seen this described as a YA coming-of-age story, which I think is a misnomer all around. It feels very much like it was written for adults, not teens, and it's a piece of the main character's coming of age, surely, but it definitely doesn't feel like Julie has demonstrably "grown up" by the end. None of which is a criticism. I liked much about this short novel--the early 90s Seattle setting was nicely evoked, the details about swimming competitively (especially the actual in-the-water stuff) was lovely and familiar, and the exploration of Julie's understanding of her sexuality and of her place in her family and the world was compelling. In the end though I didn't love the book, mostly because the style--though it felt appropriate for the subject matter and the "feel" of the book--rubbed me the wrong way. Some of the details about Julie's absent brother also felt unusefully murky for too long. As the only real reason this wasn't a four-plus-star read for me was my subjective unhappiness with the style, reservedly recommended if the book sounds interesting to you.… (mais)