This was a brutally honest but beautiful memoir about trauma and survival. At times it was painful to read but that just made the ending more satisfying. I was rooting for Antonia the entire time and the book was just so inspiring and gave me hope that I can heal from the things I have gone through. Thank you for the chance to read and review this book.

TRIGGER WARNING OF ABUSE. This is a difficult painful read. I can not help but to think about all the untold stories of trauma that never gets revealed. The author told this in such a captivating way. In that context it was so well done.

This is not for the faint of heart, but it is an amazing read.

It is raw, and honest, while showing how complex our feelings and the processing of experiences can be.

- thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc to review!

- a visceral exploration of trauma and healing, and the journey through the life of a survivor of assault and trauma. Deignan explores her pain and journey through a fantastical lens, which draws the reader into her story like a musician would when telling a story through their music. a story all should read.

Deignan's story is written to pull you under, into the waters of her life, starting with a childhood fraught with risk and shame and then moving along through cities, through traumas and triumphs, through the years.

It's a lot of story—enough so that Deignan could have opted to write it into multiple separate books, had she chosen. But thematically: trauma in body and trauma in mind; unexpected healings; being, through the thick and the thin of it, her mother's daughter to the end. Its scope is sweeping, spanning decades, sometimes diving in deep and sometimes skimming the surface. Dance and body image and sexual violence and career-changing injuries and death, building a spider's web of connections.

"'I'm sorry,' she never said to me. And out loud in return I never said, 'I forgive you.' But I did. I forgave her. Fuck. I never told her. Fuck. She never said it." (loc. 504*)

Deignan writes with the sensibilities of someone who has taken a lot of writing classes—this would have fit right in at my MFA program, and at times I wondered whether certain sections had started out as essays and been submitted to lit journals before being folded into "Underwater Daughter." It's a style that can be polarizing, I think—this is for readers who like literary fiction, and stories that are not all told at once but rather fragment and twist and circle back to themselves, and a lot of questions without answers to match.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*I read an ARC, and quotes may not be final.

A very powerful and gripping story that is difficult to read in some parts but worth sticking with. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words some text written has been typed in red and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

This book captivates and moves you with the authors detailed trauma. It is written in a combination of poetry and prose. Some chapters were hard to get through with the detachment that her mother has for her daughters abuse at the hands of her husband. To bear witness yet remain silent is unimaginable. I felt physically ill and so much anger at what was ignored.

This book is a memoir that covers abuse that the author has faced throughout her life starting at just age 4 from her father. The narrative isn't linear and jumps to the present day. It's not an uneventful story but the writing just wasn't gripping enough for me.