BREATHING UNDERWATER is a truly powerful novel that convincingly depicts the twisted emotional bonds that exist between people involved in domestic violence. Rich, intelligent and handsome, 16-year-old Nick hides the secret of his father's continued verbal and physical agues. When he starts going with Caitlin at the start of their sophomore year, he hopes she is the answer to all his problems and someone he can finally confide in. Insecure and unable to trust others, Nick gradually develops a possessive attitude toward Caitlin and tries to control how she dresses, to whom she speaks and what she does. Unsure of her image in her newly slimmed body, and insecure herself, Caitlin easily succumbs to Nick' increasingly controlling behavior. It is chilling to watch as he gradually isolates her from her friend and controls her, at first with threats of leaving and eventually with his anger.

Told by Nick alternatively in the first person and in his journal entries, we watch, as he descends from a popular high school jock to an ostracized nobody with a restraining order against him. Through court ordered counseling sessions he eventually makes the connection between the abuse he receives at home and his violent behavior with Caitlin. Loose ends are tied up a bit too well at the end when Nick finally stands up to his father, redeems himself at school and gains back his best friend Tom. However, young adult readers, both avid and reluctant, will be lured in with the engaging first paragraph and hooked by this high interest story of love, obsession, violence, and redemption. The engaging cover art will attract casual browsers, so display of this title should grab potential teen readers.

"For me a good book has twists and turns and makes you keep turning pages and wanting it to be the neverending story. As I near the end of a good book, I hope that after each page is another three chapters would be waiting to be read. Breathing Underwater had twists and turns and I felt that I knew the characters. As I turned each page I did hope there were more chapters. That's why I liked Breathing Underwater." Rebekah Kaplan, student, Newark High School.