Like Water

By: Rebecca Podos

Narrated by: Kyla Garcia

Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for the best LGBT YA novel of 2017

An unforgettable story of two girls navigating the unknowable waters of identity, millennial anxiety, and first love, from the acclaimed author of The Mystery of Hollow Places.

In Savannah Espinoza’s small New Mexico hometown, kids either flee after graduation or they’re trapped there forever. Vanni never planned to get stuck - but that was before her father was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease, leaving her and her mother to care for him.

Now she doesn’t have much of a plan at all: living at home, working as a performing mermaid at a second-rate water park, distracting herself with one boy after another.

That changes the day she meets Leigh. Disillusioned with small-town life and looking for something greater, Leigh is not a “nice girl”. She is unlike anyone Vanni has met, and a friend when Vanni desperately needs one. Soon enough, Leigh is much more than a friend.

But caring about another person threatens the walls Vanni has carefully constructed to protect herself and brings up the big questions she’s hidden from for so long.

©2017 Rebecca Podos (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Does she have HD or not?

I really enjoyed this audiobook. The reader did a pretty good job and the story was very interesting.

That said, Savannah learned the results of her blood test for Huntington's disease, but all she said was "I knew..." and we weren't ever told if she had it or not. :-(

Apart from that one complaint, I thought this story was great! Vanni's father has Huntington's disease, and I found this heartbreaking as his symptoms seemed similar to those my father had. (My Dad had a form of dementia. He passed away in 2014.) I didn't ever cry, but I came close once or twice.

One other thing that took me aback: I knew Vanni worked as a mermaid, but I spent the first hour and change wondering how I missed mentions of "mermaid" in the text. Then we had Chapter Six (I think) and Vanni went to a casting call for mermaids. Chapter Six was more than an hour into this book!

One other thing I'll comment on. . . I had heard from some people that they didn't like the insta-love in this book. I did not see Vanni's relationship with Leigh as an insta-love situation. Leigh's bitchiness toward Vanni could have disguised her attraction, and Vanni didn't realize she was bi. I thought their relationship was handled well and well-written.

In sum, I really liked this story. It was very good. I just wish we had been told whether or not Vanni has Huntington's disease!

Like Water (LIfe Circumstances)

Savannah, she's young, her dreams are crushed by a disease that is brutal beyond imagining! She meets someone... Lee, not confused but struggling to know who she is, angry by the circumstances of genetics. They connect amongst the dust and heat of summer time in New Mexico, they struggle, they escape, they run, they hide...from others and each other. Acceptance with no regrets comes with the end of the story. Are all the questions answered? No. Do I want to know the answers? Maybe. Did this book touch my soul? YES!!