My Rating ~ Four stars

4-gold-stars copy

RELEASED: 23 April 2019

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia

Format: Paperback

Pages: 384

RRP: AU$17.99

Blurb

Biz knows how to float. She has her people, her posse, her mom and the twins. She has Grace. And she has her dad, who tells her about the little kid she was, who loves her so hard, and who shouldn’t be here but is. So Biz doesn’t tell anyone anything. Not about her dark, runaway thoughts, not about kissing Grace or noticing Jasper, the new boy. And she doesn’t tell anyone about her dad. Because her dad died when she was six. And Biz knows how to float, right there on the surface–normal okay regular fine.

But after what happens on the beach–first in the ocean, and then in the sand–the tethers that hold Biz steady come undone. Dad disappears, and with him, all comfort. It might be easier, better, sweeter to float all the way away? Or maybe stay a little longer, find her father, bring him back to her. Or maybe–maybe maybe maybe–there’s a third way Biz just can’t see yet.

Review

Thankyou to Pan Macmillan Australia for providing me with a copy of How it Feels to Float, in exchange for an honest review.

How it Feels to Float wasn’t really like any book I’ve read before. The writing style was really different and it did take me a while to get into the swing of it, but once I did it suited the story so well. This is a book about grief and a book about mental health. It’s a book about bullying and a book about the affect all those things have on both the person experiencing them, and the people around them. It’s not really a book about overcoming these things though. I know for some people they may not enjoy that aspect of it, but I did. I think it portrayed the reality of how these things don’t always have a happy ending, or a sad ending, they are not linear timelines where you go from not well to well or not coping to coping, on an upward slope. Often that slope is a mess of ups and downs and circles back around.

Biz is confused about her sexuality, fitting in with her friends, how to deal with the grief of losing her father and whether seeing and talking to his ghost is something she should keep a secret forever. Watching someone so young attempting to deal with all of the trials in her life was heartbreaking.

How it Feels to Float is the type of book you sit back later and realise there are so many unanswered questions, answers you wish you had, but again, I think that suited the style of the book. Everything wasn’t wrapped up neatly, because life isn’t wrapped up neatly.