It's a quick read, but I thought that the writing wasn't that great. It got confusing at times, although the plot was really interesting

Boy Underwater was a great story. I’m not usually a huge fan of middle level books, because I tend to prefer more gothic or darker themes, but Boy Underwater kept me captivated. It was a quick read, which is always a good time when end of year reading goals are looming. The characters were interesting and dealt with a lot of believable and meaningful issues.

I received this book for free from netgalley for an honest review.

I read this to my son he loved it so much so he said to give it 5 stars

I found this one difficult to relate to. While dealing with depression, in yourself or a loved one, can be a universal experience our protagonist here may be a bit too odd. The same goes for some of the plot details, especially the eerie paintings. This one may go a little too deep into emotional exploration to properly resonate with it's intended audience.

This is an odd story, told from the view point of a nine-year-old. Half of the book is a mystery of why the boy was never taught to swim, and the other half is what is going on with his mother, and why she is having a mental breakdown.

It is a bit confusing, as to where this is all going, and the second half was interesting, but putting the book all together, to me, was a disappointing mess.

The conclusion made no sense. Mostly because, if the events that lead up to the conclusion had occurred in the real world, there would have been more circumstances. Especially with the super smart friend, Veronique, who helps figure out all the other clues.

The lightheartedness of the narrator is the only thing that brings this up to a two star, rather than a one star. And the cover is quite beautiful. I would say something was lost in translation, but it is British English, that the original was written in, so that is no excuse.

Perhaps this book was just not meant for me, and that's fine.

<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>