It's always a tough one when a book depics topics like this. There is a past problem of touch only the cliche points of rehab or addiction and mental illness. Its often does more damage than good!
So I went into this with careful footsteps. But it was done really well.
It really explored how pur character spiralled after the diagnosis of her friend. But how like most addicts or suffers there is soooo much more to unpack from their lives and often there has been a final event to get them over the edge but that there is more to their lives and selves that needs healing.
Along the way we meet a great cast of characters. They are sympathetically written about. There isn't a shame or mocking. It was a journey we were all watching with a great care for the characters wellbeing. And that show great writing.

Treading Water by Daniella Blue is a powerful, emotionally charged story about 18-year-old Olympic swimmer Natalie Collins, whose world unravels after her best friend’s terminal cancer diagnosis and her own public meltdown. Sent to a rehab facility in the California desert, Natalie is forced to confront her addiction and the tangled relationships in her life. The book explores themes of personal struggle, healing, and resilience, as Natalie forms unexpected bonds with fellow rehab residents. Through her emotional journey, she learns to rebuild herself and see life in a new light, making this a raw, transformative tale of self-discovery and hope.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

I very much enjoyed this book. The writing was great and the characters were well developed. I hope to read more from this author in the future.

I'm still not quite sure how I feel about this one. I flew through this book, but it felt underdeveloped and left me wanting more. This story follows Nat as she struggles with addiction, eventually landing her in a rehabilitation center out in California.

From the beginning, we know that Nat had several factors that led to her addiction: pressure from her Olympic swimming career, her best friend being diagnosed with cancer, and an abusive boyfriend who introduced her to drugs. That being said, all of those issues were touched on so lightly that I don't know why they were mentioned at all; including all of these issues but not developing them made the story feel scattered. While I understand the main focus was on Nat's recovery, I found her character underdeveloped and all of these issues simply grazed over. The letters to Annie helped provide more insight, but I think a dual timeline POV with different flashbacks with these scenarios would provide better context and character development.

The other issue I had with this was how unrealistically optimistic this story was. Yes, I understand it's YA, but if an author is going to tackle something as serious as addiction, I would hope they do it authentically. Sure, there are exceptions to the rule, but it feels incredibly unlikely that a girl who faced verbal abuse, assault, addiction, absent parents, and the terminal illness of her best friend would bounce back in a matter of months and have NO setbacks. It felt more like the author wanted to include as much shock value as possible for edge and entertainment without properly fleshing it out.

I really wanted to like this book and think it had a lot of potential, but it felt unfinished and very surface-level to me. Thank you for the ARC.

Treading Water by Daniella Blue was a very entertaining read. It is a book that I’d recommend picking up on publication day.