9780062689535
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Like Water audiobook

  • By: Rebecca Podos
  • Narrator: Kyla Garcia
  • Length: 7 hours 53 minutes
  • Publisher: Balzer + Bray
  • Publish date: October 17, 2017
  • Language: English
  • (979 ratings)
(979 ratings)
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Like Water Audiobook 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.

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Like Water Audiobook Narrator

Kyla Garcia is the narrator of Like Water audiobook that was written by Rebecca Podos

Rebecca Podos is the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of YA novels, including The Mystery of Hollow Places, Like Water, and The Wise and the Wicked, and co-editor of the YA anthology Fools in Love. Find her online at www.rebeccapodos.com.

About the Author(s) of Like Water

Rebecca Podos is the author of Like Water

Like Water Full Details

Narrator Kyla Garcia
Length 7 hours 53 minutes
Author Rebecca Podos
Publisher Balzer + Bray
Release date October 17, 2017
ISBN 9780062689535

Additional info

The publisher of the Like Water is Balzer + Bray. The imprint is Balzer + Bray. It is supplied by Balzer + Bray. The ISBN-13 is 9780062689535.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

Elle

September 08, 2020

This book made me feel very… raw. It’s a book that strips bare the outer machinations of a novel and heads straight for the emotional core of the protagonist. And it’s a book I absolutely loved.I actually totally get why a lot of people didn’t like this book; Like Water has a fairly small amount of action and relies primarily off your connection to the characters. If you’re not one for character-driven reads, this is not going to be a book you enjoy. I promise.Maybe my favorite part of this book is the protagonist, Vanni. She is a girl trapped in a small town and working as a mermaid and coming of age. But she's primarily dealing with fear of the future and struggling to repress that fear. Vanni’s dad has Huntington’s, and she is so scared of that future. She's also bisexual and hasn't figured it out yet. I found her such an easy narrator to connect to and I loved her.Leigh, her love interest, is also a remarkably developed character. Leigh’s arc is both around figuring herself out and also figuring out she’s genderqueer and I love it so much, I love it so much and I’m so happy for her. I'm thinking that I just want one thing to be good and right, because one good, right thing can be enough. And, oh, I love the main relationship. Vanni and Leigh are two very flawed people, and their relationship is too good for this world and too pure.This is a super character-driven, gritty, and emotionally raw story about finding love, and finding hope for a future when it seems as if there's none. I binged it in about two hours and I am so glad I did, even though it was… a year later than I planned. Lol. Blog | Goodreads | Twitter | Youtube

kate

July 07, 2018

4.5* Like Water is the kind of book that’s equally as heartbreaking as it is heartwarming. It’s a gorgeous story of grief, identity, growing up, falling in love, family, friendships and discovering who you are amongst all these things. I’d not heard anything about this going into it but I adored it. I loved the easy, comfortable writing style and found myself flying through it within two sittings. I warmed to diverse and complex characters instantly and thought the layered relationships and plot were superb. I loved how inclusive the cast of characters was, with the main character being a Latina girl, who although never totally confirms her label, discusses the possibility being bi and a love interest who identifies as genderqueer and a lesbian. I adored Savannah’s body positivity and her sarcastic sense of humour and thought her narrative of discovering herself, whilst also feeling lost within herself and her life was incredibly powerful and I’m sure relatable to a lot of people in many ways. Like Water is something I would without a doubt recommend if you’re looking for a book with depth, love, drama, complex characters and relationships, humour and diversity in terms of sexuality, gender, body and ethnicity. And if after all of this you’re still not convinced, the protagonist works as a mermaid. Yeah, there’s the icing on the wonderful bookish cake we all deserve. TW: homophobia, biphobia, ableism (challenged on page)

Jasmine

October 11, 2017

About: Like Water is a young adult fiction written by Rebecca Podos. It will be published on 10/17/17 by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins, 320 pages. The genres are young adult, GLBT, contemporary, queer, and fiction. This book is intended for readers ages 14 and up, grades 9 and up. My Experience: I started reading Like Water on 10/9/17 and finished it on 10/11/17. I like diving into this book blindly and discovering the surprises within the pages. I love the cover of this book! The humor is great! It’s not the usual banter/bickering I’m used to, but the general conversational and narrative humor. I like that the characters aren’t perfect. They have problems they deal with that can be relatable to readers. This book has swear words in English and in Spanish because the main character is bilingual. This book is not sad despite the health problems, romance troubles, and limited future plans opportunities. It’s not very depressing either because when teens are bored, they dare each other to do crazy things.This book is told in the first person point of view following Savannah (aka Vanni) Espinoza, a recent graduate at El Trampero High School. This story takes place in El Trampero (The Trapper) but everyone calls it La Trampa (The Trap), a small town in New Mexico where Vanni works at her family restaurant called Sylvia’s. The norms of growing up in a small town is wanting to get out and Vanni has plans to go away to college. Her plan was cut short when her father suddenly was diagnosed with Huntington’s, a no-cure disease that turns off what he was able to do for himself into having others to take care of him. Additionally, it’s also a disease that’s genetically passed down from one generation to the next and Vanni feels like her future is slipping away. She’s numb on what to do with her life, whether take the test to know if she inherits the disease or continue to live in a haze waiting for the disease to come. She takes reckless paths with different guys to fix the numbness. All that is changed when she gotten to know Leigh Clemente. Vanni has only been with guys, but somehow Vanni started to notice the little things in Leigh. Leigh becomes one good thing in Vanni’s life but Leigh has her own troubles and Vanni’s wants might be out of reach again.This book is well written. I like the Spanish vocabularies embedded into the story. With my two years of Spanish lessons way back in the days, I was able to understand a few words here and there but it would’ve been great if there were more translation within the story. I haven’t read a book that talks about mermaids performing at water parks and it’s refreshing to read something new for a change. I like Lucas’ love for his sister Leigh by finding her a friend and taking her to see the meteor shower. I like the bluntness of this book. Vanni speaks bluntly about how she feels and what goes on around her. This book is a good read and I do recommend everyone to read it.Pro: cover, humor, diversity, hereditary disease, family, friendship, fast paced, discovering oneselfCon: lack of translation for Spanish sentencesI rate it 4 stars!***Disclaimer: Many thanks to the author Rebecca Podos, publisher Balzer + Bray, and Edelweiss for the opportunity to read and review. Please be assured that my opinions are honest.xoxo, Jasmine

anna

August 21, 2020

rep: bi latina mc, genderqueer lesbian li, latino side character with the huntington's disease, latinx side charactersso maybe im in love with this book & the wonderfully intense sapphic romance btwn two flawed, beautiful characters, so what

Lea (drumsofautumn)

June 20, 2019

♦ Video Review ♦4.5 stars. This was so, so beautiful. I didn't know much about this story going into it but I knew the main character, Vanni, would fall in love with a girl for the first time. Do I need more to want to read a book? Hell no. Did I get way more from this book than just that? Hell yeah.The story is so wonderful. While it's short-ish, Podos was able to pack so many things into this novel. The romance is really just a small part. It's more so about self-discovery, not just when it comes to sexual orientation, but so many other aspects.It deals with different friendship dynamics (strangers-to-friends but also falling out of a friendship and finding your way back into it) and also a lot of family dynamics and how her Dad's disease influences him and the relationship he has with his daughter and wife and what a genetic disease means for Vanni's future.Lots of other issues get discussed in this novel, even gender identity and Vanni's love interest comes out as genderqueer later in the novel, so this actually features a f/gq romance!The romance is a strangers-to-friends-to-lovers romance that was lovely to see develop. It felt very natural and is not over the top at all.I think one of my favourite parts of this story was when Vanni realizes she wants to be with Leigh, there's no big fuss about it. She's not spending half the book being like “omg what now, am I gay”. Obviously there's a little bit of confusion going on and Vanni talks about it with Leigh, regarding labels etc, but I'm just sick of stories making this such a big thing. For me most of the thoughts Vanni is going through felt more like “oh god, do I LIKE my friend” rather than “oh god, do I LIKE a girl” and that felt so refreshing.The tone of the story is very mellow and simple and it's easy to get into the story but there's also a lot of beautiful writing in it. The story feels like this amazing whirlpool that you can slowly sink into and really don't wanna get out of (I mean, if you're into that, otherwise you need to find another metaphor lol). Somehow this books feels melancholic and nostalgic in parts but it's not sad. It's emotional, hopeful and funny.I have definitely, clearly, fallen in love with this book. It's one that won't let me go for a long time.If you like Run by Kody Keplinger, I think this is the book for you. It felt very similar in tone but also some of the storyline, except it's more about a f/gq romance than a friendship. The tone also reminded me a lot of Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy and while the topic is different, it still fits into a similar category for me. If you like either (or both) of these books, I'd highly suggest you give Like Water a try!♦ Booktube Channel ♦ Twitter ♦ Instagram ♦I received an ARC of this through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review!

Ashley

May 28, 2017

I had the great privilege of reading an early version of this book, and wow is it gorgeous. Messy, complex characters and motivations, beautiful prose, a diverse cast, and QUEER. I have so many thoughts, and I'll add to this later, but yes, yes, you want this on your 2017 TBR.

Laura

July 01, 2017

I loved this book a lot. Review to come.

ellie

March 19, 2018

"What are you doing tonight?""I hate everything but you. What do you think I'm doing?"edit: so im changing my fave fxf contemporary to The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza because even though that one's a bit wild, i like it better than this. so yeps! this is a solid 4, though.So, this is it. This is my favorite fxf contemporary book! It's a huge deal for me. The thing is that with all the fxf books I've loved before, like We Are Okay or Jane, Unlimited or Girls Made of Snow and Glass, the relationship isn't the important part. Like, it was about grief or time-travelling in alternative universes or it was one perspective in a book. But this book is solely focused on Savannah discovering her sexuality, and most importantly, herself. And the relationship is so fucking good and I love them so much, okay??"I think this is what I need to get un-stuck. Do you think that's a good reason?""It's your reason, right? It's what you need. Good enough for me."The thing that makes this book work so well is how real it is. The teenagers are all somewhat destructive, and I related to that a lot. Vanni struggling with her father having Huntington's disease was so heartbreaking and I swear I wanted to cry for her so many times. She deals with this the way most teenagers do - which is not healthy at all, by the way - by repressing her feelings. I found that really relatable, too. It's not like she wants to not care but she just can't bear the thought of caring because it would break her. So she sits in the middle. I understood that. I'm thinking that I just want one thing to be good and right, because one good, right thing can be enough.Something else I really love is that they both come to terms with their sexuality together, you know? She doesn't immediately go like "I'm gay?" She has a conversation, googles the shit out of her sexuality and it's all very natural and something that would actually happen and i LOVE THAT. i love that she actually says "i'm bi." i love that she's insecure, a bit awful at times, knows exactly what she wants at all times, even if she doesn't pursue it. i want to be her friend honestly??Bodies so perfect they were beneath their notice; like the ticking of a clock you never pay attention to until the day it stops, and then it's not the sound you hear, but the silence.the ending was really soft and wow i love soft girls loving each other and im so proud of them bc they've been through so much and they've grown so much and helped each other grow. tbh this book is more of a 4 or 4.5 because the beginning is a little slow and the ending is a little rushed but the characters and the fact that i loved how natural the relationship was and how much they made me smile was worth the rounding up. im looove.P.S. i wanted to give vanni a hug a lot of the time and OMG THE COVER IS SO FREAKIN COOL i didn't mention but i loved the diversity and how she embraced her culture as latinax, bless

Addie Dehart

March 28, 2020

I picked up this book because I had heard that it was about a family with Huntington's Disease. My stepfather had Huntington's and for that reason I always feel drawn to any novel that deals with that topic. I feel as if the story covered that topic very accurately and with a lot of respect towards the topic. But unbeknownst to me this story dealt with a lot more than just HD. It also covered sexuality and gender, figuring who you are, and how to navigate adolescence and life in general. I feel like this story was excellently written and the characters were rich and fully fleshed out. It was a very good read.

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