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Title details for How It Feels to Float by Helena Fox - Available

How It Feels to Float

by Helena Fox
Candice Moll
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best of the Year
"Profoundly moving . . . Will take your breath away." —Kathleen Glasgow, author of Girl in Pieces
A stunningly gorgeous and deeply hopeful portrayal of living with mental illness and grief, from an exceptional new voice.
Biz knows how to float. She has her people, her posse, her mom and the twins. She has Grace. And she has her dad, who tells her about the little kid she was, and who shouldn't be here but is. So Biz doesn't tell anyone anything. Not about her dark, runaway thoughts, not about kissing Grace or noticing Jasper, the new boy. And she doesn't tell anyone about her dad. Because her dad died when she was seven. And Biz knows how to float, right there on the surface—normal okay regular fine.
But after what happens on the beach—first in the ocean, and then in the sand—the tethers that hold Biz steady come undone. Dad disappears and, with him, all comfort. It might be easier, better, sweeter to float all the way away? Or maybe stay a little longer, find her father, bring him back to her. Or maybe—maybe maybe maybe—there's a third way Biz just can't see yet.
Debut author Helena Fox tells a story about love and grief, about inter-generational mental illness, and how living with it is both a bridge to someone loved and lost and, also, a chasm. She explores the hard and beautiful places loss can take us, and honors those who hold us tightly when the current wants to tug us out to sea.
"Give this to all [your] friends immediately." —Cosmopolitan.com
"I haven't been so dazzled by a YA in ages." —Jandy Nelson, author of I'll Give You the Sun (via SLJ)
"Mesmerizing and timely." —Bustle
"Nothing short of exquisite." —PopSugar
"Immensely satisfying" —Girls' Life
* "Lyrical and profoundly affecting." —Kirkus (starred review)
* "Masterful...Just beautiful." —Booklist (starred review)
* "Intimate...Unexpected." —PW (starred review)
* "Fox writes with superb understanding and tenderness." —BCCB (starred review)
* "Frank [and] beautifully crafted." —BookPage (starred review)
"Deeply moving...A story of hope." —Common Sense Media
"This book will explode you into atoms." —Margo Lanagan, author of Tender Morsels
"Helena Fox's novel delivers. Read it." —Cath Crowley, author of Words in Deep Blue
"This is not a book; it is a work of art." —Kerry Kletter, author of The First Time She Drowned
"Perfect...Readers will be deeply moved." —Books+Publishing

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 7, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781984885562
      • File size: 275665 KB
      • Duration: 09:34:18

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Lexile® Measure: 630
    • Text Difficulty: 2-3

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from April 8, 2019
      Set in Wollongong, Australia, Fox’s exquisite debut offers an intimate portrayal of a teenager navigating familial and social complexities while living with an undiagnosed mental illness. Biz, 17, blames herself for her father’s death when she was seven (“I am why he was sad”), and she doesn’t tell anyone that he remains a visible, often comforting presence in her life. Biz has her posse of friends, including her best friend Grace, whom she once kissed, and who supports Biz as she begins to explore her sexual identity. But a drunken beach party incident leads to her dramatic expulsion from the group and catapults her into suicidal depression. Biz drops out of school, begins clinical treatment, and makes unexpected new friends, including Jasper, a teen with challenges of his own. However, her ongoing hallucinations, panic attacks, and disassociations, in which she has no memory of incidents others report, leave her increasingly
      perplexed about her experiences, until she reaches a crisis point. Through lyrical first-person narration, Fox empathically conveys the hereditary nature of Biz’s illness, its disorienting manifestations, and the limitations and power of love to heal. Ages 14–up. Agent: Catherine Drayton, InkWell Management.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Candice Moll narrates this contemplative Aussie audiobook, which seems to float lazily along, mirroring its dissociative protagonist. Biz continues to spend time with her father, whom she found dead 10 years ago. At first, listeners may believe he's a ghost, but as the story progresses, it becomes increasingly apparent that Biz hallucinates. After an incident with classmates leaves Biz feeling friendless, her father disappears. She decides to travel, along with her new friend, Jasper, to the places her father once lived to try to find him again. In moments of Biz's emotional distress, Moll's voice becomes appropriately loud and urgent. She gives distinct, believable voices to other characters; for example, Biz's father sounds like a surfer dude, while her younger siblings are shrill and excitable. S.P. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
    • Books+Publishing

      April 4, 2019
      How do you find the will to live when you can’t even feel the ground anymore? Elizabeth Martin Grey—Biz—doesn’t know. All she knows is that she’s got one foot in reality and the other in a place where her dad is still alive to talk to her. When Biz finds herself cast out by her peers, abandoned by her best friend, and no longer welcome at her school, it becomes harder and harder to know what’s real and what isn’t—and to find the will to keep going. This is a perfect, surreal exploration of mental illness and grief. Fox’s writing is poetry, bringing the reader to the brink of Biz’s madness and back again as she finds new ways to make meaning, and new people to make it with. As she searches for answers and connection, Biz’s relationships with her mother, her new friend Jasper, and her elderly friend Sylvia help her to find the ground again. How it Feels to Float is a visceral reading experience that captures the way in which many teens struggle with mental illness. It is a lesson in acceptance and understanding, and readers will be deeply moved.

      Bec Kavanagh is a Melbourne-based writer, reviewer and academic

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:630
  • Text Difficulty:2-3

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