Review: Coming Up for Air

Coming Up for Air by Miranda Kenneally
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I feel like the only way for me to get my thoughts across to you without revealing spoilers is to give you my actual real-time reflections I wrote down while I was reading this book, because that way I tell you what I was thinking and hoping to get out of this book without revealing what the actual outcomes ended up being. I've also included some final thoughts afterwards. Enjoy!

Coming Up for Air is the second YA contemporary book I’ve read about a girl who competes in swimming, so I'm familiar with the intense training schedule, high level of food intake, and lack of social/love life that comes with being a high achiever in this sport. The first book I read, Surviving High School had the main character, Emily, be unhappy with all of that and too overwhelmed and too yearning for a social/love life that she quit the sport. I'd like to see this book explore Maggie being able to hopefully ballance all of her responsibilities, or else have some other outcome where swimming remains a priority. I'd like a novel that showcases "girls in sports" to not abandon that idea in favour of kissing a boy like the other book did. Where Maggie right now seems to be much more invested in swimming than Emily was, she is still a teenage girl with some hormones to figure out, so let's see where this goes.

…

Maggie is the classic teenage super-virgin that leads many YA novels across all genres: She doesn't really like partying, she's a workaholic (in this case, swim-aholic), has never had a boyfriend, never had sex, and her only kiss was with one of her friends 2 years ago during truth or dare. I know, I can hear your faceplant through the screen right now. But I think she has an extremely valid reason that she is this way, and I really like her attitude.

"I went to a bonfire last summer with my friends and stayed out past midnight. It was fun, but you know what's even more enjoyable? Winning. Which means practice comes first."

Maggie is a winner, and winners have passion and dedication, and work hard to make sure they see their ambitions through. They have goals and don't let frivolous get in the way of success. Yes being social is also important, but the degree to which that is true depends on one's other priorities, which is not a bad thing.

…

This book is surprisingly sexual! Every chapter has Maggie either fantasizing about sexy-times, or in one case (so far) actually participating in sexy-times. It made me feel awkward reading it on the train in case someone were to take a peek at my screen. This said, I don't think the sexuality is a bad thing at all. Her busy schedule has left poor Maggie very sexually deprived and she's ready to blow... *wink wink* This is a new take on the female super-virgin main character trope, where instead of feeling superior to everyone else she is actually actively trying to embrace and learn more about her sexuality.

…

Okay, what I said in my last paragraph was all positive vibes and all, but it honestly feels like I'm reading smut at this point, and this isn't what I signed up for. I thought the sexy-ness might calm down, but by God is it still going stronger than ever. This could be fine and dandy and whatever, but the thing is that if I wanted to be reading this kind of stuff God damn it I would be reading an adult romance book, okay!? But you know what, I’m not trying to read an adult romance book, I’m trying to read a young adult sports book about swimming!! (But don’t worry there’s a lot of swimming too. Sex and swimming. The double SS’s. I guess that’s all you really need, according to this book.) But actually “smut” is the wrong word to use because there hasn’t been any actual penetration (yet), despite their strongest efforts to do so. Horny f*cking kids.

…

Hahahaha I spoke too soon!!! “Smut” is the perfect word to describe this!! Penetration status: Successful. Don’t get me wrong, the sexy scenes weren’t bad or anything at all, and the romance was a slow burn that was easy to root for. It’s just that this is so not what I signed up to read and therefore it feels jarring. Also, trying to read it on the train was extremely uncomfortable. Honestly this is the perfect book for horny swimmers because it’s literally just a constant back-and-forth between swimming and getting it on. I’ll give this book that: I’m pretty sure this book has the highest actual sports content out of any sports novel I’ve read so far. We’re getting a whole load of swimming coverage, from practices to competitions, and it’s great! I wish all sports books were like this. Normally sports books push the actual sport scenes aside in favour of focusing on a romance. This book found a way to make both aspects very front and centre to the story.

…

This book feels pretty preachy and cheesy at times and makes it very obvious when it is trying to teach lessons to its readers and impart knowledge.

"A few months ago, I thought I was going to be the only college student who'd never had sex or fooled around. But that can't be true. Everyone moves at their own pace when it comes to this stuff. ... Why was I trying to force myself to move more quickly than was natural?"

BITCH CAN YOU POSSIBLY BE MORE UNSUBTLE? There have been a lot of paragraphs like this where the main character Maggie is just thinking about "lessons" like these and it always feels pretty in-your-face.

Thanks for reading that! I hope it didn’t feel too much like reading a list, because I know I hate when people just make a list of points about a book and call it a “review” instead of actually properly articulating themselves. I thought this format was a fun and different way to get my thoughts across and give a sense of how my focus changed throughout the book. I hope you don’t mind some of the unanswered questions I posed, because answering them would be giving you spoilers!


Now for some final thoughts:

I would not under any circumstances recommend this to younger teens because the characters get quite intimate quite often, with the author only rarely ever shying away from giving the, ahem, juicy details. I feel like the goal of this book was to help readers—teenage girls—feel more comfortable with their own sexuality by showing Maggie doing so with her own. It’s trying to teach girls that it’s okay if they’ve never had a boyfriend and to not feel bad about themselves or think that they have to hurry up and find someone, lest they be left forever alone. But I personally feel like this book takes the sexuality too far, to the point where I feel like the only people it would be appropriate for are those who have already had intimate experiences themselves and therefore aren’t in need of this type of message.

I think this book is better suited to be read by other super-virgins like Maggie who are 18 or older who would be mature enough to be able to handle this type of content and actually benefit from the message. If a younger version of myself read this, I know for a fact I would be traumatized. I know this because once when I was younger I actually did get traumatized by a romance novel. I picked up a book my aunt had on her bed table, and the opening scene had two characters having sex on a balcony, written in explicit throbbing detail. I didn’t read too much of it but I was literally shook to my core for a really long time after that and regretted reading it very much. Granted, I was much younger then than the target audience for Coming Up for Air, but nonetheless that is not an experience I would ever wish on any other little girl.

All that aside, since I am no longer a little girl, I definitely liked this book and had an enjoyable time reading it (if we ignore my weird train rides…). Though I can’t say I “really liked it” which is why it’s getting three stars from me.

Click to read my other Hundred Oaks Reviews:
Breathe, Annie, Breathe
Defending Taylor
Coming Up for Air*

*Current review

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Pre-Read Review:
You know how the publisher accepted me on Netgalley and gave me an e-arc for Defending Taylor? Well I guess they didn't appreciate me roasting the heck out of it in my review because they rejected my request for the next book in the series Coming Up for Air, lmao. But you know how it is, you can't stop a bitch with a library card so I'm still gonna get my review in, ayyyy.

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