October 1, 2020
Gr 9 Up-A few years ago, Hadley's mother had cancer, and now it has come back. Considering everything her family is going through, she doesn't feel like she has time for a relationship. But there is something about Braden that she cannot resist. When a swimming injury threatens Braden's college future, Hadley finds herself desperately trying to balance her family responsibilities with the stress of a sick parent and a boyfriend who seems to be spiraling out of control. The cover art and interior illustrations by artist Pedro Tapa are lovely, and they add a sense of beauty to heartbreaking moments. Chapters are divided into after, before, and during, guiding readers through a non-chronological plot; however, the heavy foreshadowing helps readers follow along. Their relationship banter is so well done that Hadley's privilege and Braden's jock stereotype are forgivable. Her close friends Tyler and Becca are genuine, her siblings Remy (very fleshed out) and Judd (not as much) are inconsistent, but the family dynamics are positive and built into the narrative well. Hadley's use of photography and the music that both Tyler and Becca love adds a needed sense of creativity to her character and the story. Becca, who is of Greek and Mexican descent, is the only character whose ethnicity is described; both Hadley and Braden have blond hair. VERDICT A sweet story about family, love, and loss. A good purchase for libraries where Jennifer Niven or Nina LaCour are popular.-Claire Covington, Broadway H.S., VA
Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
October 1, 2020
A teen romance is soured by the opioid crisis. High school junior Hadley Butler aims to complete her adolescence with as little fuss as possible. Her older sister, Remy, is the one with all the drama, seemingly on a mission to date every bad boy in town. Hadley's much more content to spend her time with her friends Ty and Becca and keep her eye on becoming an artsy photography student at a prestigious liberal arts college. But when the high school swim team's star, Braden Roberts, enters her orbit, Hadley lets her guard down as the pair embark on a seemingly standard teen love affair that slowly goes sour. After an injury, Braden starts taking painkillers instead of going through a time-consuming surgery, and this shortcut leads him down the path of opioid addiction. Tyndall lets this element of the story develop slowly, smartly laying out the pace of a relationship poisoned by substance abuse. Readers are effectively led into this conflict; they will not roll their eyes and presume to know better than Hadley what is going on. The author also skillfully and with depth develops the bond that Hadley and Braden share. This maturity is the novel's greatest asset, fully rendering a complicated relationship with empathy for both parties. Hadley and Braden are both presumably White, and there's a bit of diversity among their friends. An absorbing love story for the 21st century. (Romance. 13-17)
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Starred review from December 1, 2020
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Hadley knows how to keep her life steady. Focus on school, focus on photography, and avoid the kind of guys her sister insists on chasing. But when Braden, a passionate swimmer, drops into her life (in only a Speedo), she falls hard. When a prescription for an injury leaves Braden willing to do almost anything for a refill, Hadley is forced to decide what it means to be there for the one you love. Tyndall's debut is a powerful portrait of drug addiction and all the ways those closest to the addict can shut their eyes to reality. Hadley's desperation to get back to what she and Braden had been before the pills is devastating, and the way the novel toggles back and forth between school years allows the speed of Braden's developing addiction to feel both subtly slow and brutally fast. While the story could have easily fallen into clich�, Tyndall avoids such pitfalls, and her unique characters elevate it to something more than a cautionary tale. She is a writer who will appeal to Nina LaCour fans, as she probes painful experiences with respect and honesty but never to preach. Coming Up for Air perfectly captures the struggle to get back to a certain version of your favorite person who has become impossible to reach.
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