Underwater, by Helen Vivienne Fletcher
- Reviewed by Sarah Forster
Originally published on The Sapling 31 May 2018
On its surface (see what I did there), Underwater is a simple teen holiday resort drama, like the ones I recall devouring as a ten-year-old. But deeper down, it is a very well told story of a family trying to put the pieces back together after an unimaginable loss.
Sixteen-year-old Bailey and her seven-year-old sister Tilly are at Pine Hills Resort for a summer holiday with their grandma. We meet Bailey as she is sitting at the side of the resort’s pool, wishing she could get in with the others. She is a natural swimmer, and loves the water, but something is stopping her. She meets the eye of a boy in red trunks, sitting on the other side of the pool. ‘It was strange. Everything seemed so fast here, so frenetic, but he was really still. I watched him, feeling some of the calm rub off on me.’
His name turns out to be Adam, and he has a younger brother as well, which means they see each other at the playground most days and soon become friends. But he is one of the group of teens who have been coming to the resort for a decade – you know the type, those people that go to the same place every year to holiday together. And he used to be with a girl called Clare. Clare has a few issues.
Cue teen drama, romance and the joy of new friends. Underwater is written in the first person, something Fletcher is very good at, achieving the perfect tone for her teen voices. At no point does it seem as though Bailey is anything other than a teenager, despite her family situation. The characters include Clare as the manipulative camp bitch, Amber and Jenny who are secretly together together, Freya as Bailey’s slightly nerdy but kind roommate, and some peripheral teen characters. Clare is fleshed out as a character, but needed just a little more motivation for me to understand her actions entirely.
Underwater is written in the first person, something Fletcher is very good at, achieving the perfect tone for her teen voices.
At the beginning of each chapter, in italics, Bailey talks a little of her memories of life before, and as we carry on through the book, we begin to get the story of what happened to her family, told in italics. The tension is beautifully held by Fletcher, you are pulled tightly through the novel to the point at which the event which I can’t tell you about is finally revealed. At first, the big reveal seemed too early, but this makes sense in the wider story arc and I really enjoyed the ending.
Underwater has some pithy phrases as well – this made me chuckle while sitting on a bus: ‘I’d had hard-core meat eaters get pissy about the vegetarian thing before, but Clare made it feel like she might actually turn cannibal to prove her point.’
Bailey is a relatable and sympathetic character and I really enjoyed Underwater. I’d recommend it for kids aged 11+, just be aware there are descriptions of extreme violence and PTSD.