Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

Katie is sent away to boarding school after her older brother slips into violent mental illness. An accomplished swimmer, Katie uses her athletic ability to leverage friendships and a new identity. Filled with honest portraits of flawed teenagers, Warman's story (semiautobiographical) explores from different angles the idea that love conquers all.

Kirkus Reviews

Katie Kitrell, ambivalent toward her ever-absent psychiatrist father and alcoholic, artist mother, has a fierce bond with her older brother, Will, even after a drug-induced schizophrenia takes over his personality. When his escalating violence threatens the family, their parents whisk competitive swimmer Katie from their small, blue-collar Pennsylvania town (which she blames for Will's downfall) to a boarding school. Although she finds instant popularity and intellectual stimulation, the setting only leads to new problems: how to pretend her brother is dead; a hypocritical, fundamentalist boyfriend; backstabbing cliques; a roommate with family secrets of her own; questioning her own sexuality and worth. The only place Katie can breathe easily in this debut, semi-autobiographical novel is the swimming pool. As she defines her friendships and her love-hate relationships with Will and herself, she begins to feel more at ease on land, too. Warman draws out Katie's emotions and her complex life and family with immediacy. Readers who dive in will surface with more awareness of the devastating effects of mental illness. (Fiction. YA)

Starred Review ALA Booklist (Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

Starred Review Says 15-year-old Katie, "The only thing I really love is swimming. Sometimes I feel like I don't really exist outside of the water." When her parents send her to boarding school after her schizophrenic brother, Will, attempts suicide, Katie loves the escape that Woodsdale offers from her family: institutionalized and increasingly violent Will, her emotionally distant dad, and her alcoholic mom. She also loves the intensity of the school's swim team, with its motto that "practice isn't over until someone pukes," and she begins a tender relationship with a gorgeous fellow swimmer, Drew, a devout Christian who, unlike most of their classmates, is still a virgin. After a misunderstanding leads to a lie, Katie tells her new friends that Will is dead. Only Katie's roommate, Mazzie, knows the truth, and that shared secret begins the deep friendship at the core of this heartbreaking debut. Stretched over three years, the episodic novel, narrated in Katie's raw voice, meanders occasionally in its focus. But Warman's achingly realistic scenes and characters transcend cliché, and with rare, refreshing honesty and flashes of wry humor, she writes about the intimacy of boarding school, the anguish of family illness, finding a sense of self in sports and in life, and the small, mysterious, imperfect moments that add up to love in all its forms.

School Library Journal Starred Review (Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

Gr 8 Up-Katie, 15, is most herself when she is in the water, swimming faster and better all the time. Things were so much simpler when the Kitrells were poorher family seemed closer. Now that they are financially comfortable, their relationships have deteriorated. Katie's parents become more and more wrapped up in one another, and Katie feels excluded. She is still close to her older brother, Will, who is schizophrenic, and when his behavior becomes more erratic and extreme, she becomes concerned and frightened. Their father, now successful in his psychiatric practice, seems unable to maintain any warm relationships with his children, and sends Katie away to boarding school. There she is accepted by the most popular girls and attracts the attention of gorgeous Drew, captain of the swim team. Katie is also intrigued by her strangely withdrawn roommate and works on building her trust. Eventually, too much drinking, smoking, and worrying about her family take their toll on her swimming performance. When her brother's illness spirals out of control again, Katie faces serious personal losses and challenges that have no simple solutions. Warman treats Will's schizophrenia with stark honesty as seen through his sister's eyes. Similar to Jessica Lee Anderson's Border Crossing (Milkweed, 2009), this novel provides an important look at an extremely difficult illness and its effects on a family. Roxanne Myers Spencer, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green