Indies Introduce

Young Adult

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  Underwater, Marisa Reichardt
  Macmillan Children's/Farrar, Straus & Giroux (BYR), 9780374368869, January 12, 2016 (Young Adult)
  

  This book, called Underwater, has actual resuscitative powers.

  Will Walton, Avid Bookshop, (Athens, GA)
  
  

  There was a shooting at Morgan’s high school last year, and she’s not handling it well. Months later, she’s attending online school and physically cannot leave her family’s apartment—but she’s working on it. Between twice-weekly house calls with her therapist and an intriguing new neighbor, Morgan starts to make progress with her PTSD. This inspiring debut novel manages to be both uplifting and realistic at the same time, avoiding a sugar-coated over-simplification of a truly complex condition. Morgan is also dealing with her estranged father’s struggle with PTSD, a souvenir from his active duty in Afghanistan, driving home the point that the struggle is real and the work is hard. But no matter how difficult it may be, the work truly is always worth doing.

  Kari Meutsch, Phoenix Books, Essex, VT
  

  A novel about the psychological aftermath of a school shooting that will change your perspective on the issue forever. Morgan has become agoraphobic after surviving a school shooting, but a new neighbor helps her to slowly re-enter the world. Thoughtfully handled and thought-provoking, Underwater is a reminder that violence touches us all, but that there is always room for hope. 

  Erin Barker, Hooray for Books!, Alexandria, VA