Girl Out of Water, Nat Luurtsema

Pages: 315

Publisher: Walker

Release Date: 2^nd June 2016

Edition: UK proof, review copy

I am Lou Brown:

Social outcast,

Precocious failure,

5’10” and still growing.

I was on the fast track to Olympic super-stardom. Now I'm training boys too cool to talk to me. In a sport I've just made up. In a fish tank.

My life has gone weird very quickly.

Girl Out of Water is hands down one of the funniest books I've read this year and it thoroughly brightened up a gloomy Saturday afternoon.

Not only is Lou brilliantly funny, but her family is also completely bonkers. Things in the Brown household are a little unconventional at the moment, but the I loved the weirdness, the awkwardness and the jumble of personalities it brought. Because I’m a child, I especially liked that the sisters are called Lou and Lav (Louise and Laverne)…

When Lou teams up with Pete, Roman and Gabe it only gets better. I was a huge fan of the friendship between these four. I love that there was platonic friendships between a boy and a girl – it happens, ya know! The banter and the teasing and the genuine affection between them all was adorable.

When Lou doesn’t make it through an Olympic swim training camp, she’s devastated. Swimming has been her life for years and her days revolved around it. She’s lost, hurt, disappointed and completely baffled at how much free time she now has. I loved that Girl Out of Water showed that you can have more than one passion, one skill or talent, and that you really can find friends in the most unlikely of places. It made my heart smile.

I’m so excited to have another funny UKYA author on the shelves and I’m so looking forward to seeing what comes next for Nat Luurtsema.

Thanks to Walker for the review copy.

Sophie