Deep End

 Romance and Swimming....what could go wrong?

If I had to sum up my relationship with Ali Hazelwood's books, I would simply say "it's complicated". There are times when I think her books are brilliant, such as: Love Theoretically (2023), Love Hypothesis (2021) and Love on the Brain (2022). These are just a sample of what she can achieve. On the other hand, her novellas leave a lot to be desired. 

When I started reading Deep End, I was very worried, thinking it would be similar to Bride (2024). A book with a strong start, an intriguing setting, but a plot that is all too predictable, and characters that are not well-balanced, with one hindering the other. Although the storytelling is somewhat two-faced, it is the characters that make the problems feel far more authentic than they actually are.  

"Deep End" tells the story of the challenging relationship between two students, Scarlett Vandermeer and Lukas Blomqvist, who compete in the pool. One of them, Scarlett, strives for excellence in competitions, while Lukas doesn’t seem to place the same importance on it. However, a series of events leads them both to realize that they share much more than just a passion for the sport. As the story unfolds, they will discover that some wounds run deep and that reality can clash with the uncertainty they face.

The themes explored in “Deep End” are among the most complex I've seen Ali Hazelwood write about. That's because this story tackles important issues. One of them is overcoming physical and mental injuries. Scarlett has been struggling for months with a major psychological block that makes it hard for her to accept herself and that has led her to link her abilities as an athlete to her performance as a student and friend—which brings us to the book’s second major theme: recovery, which isn’t linear. Even with the support of a professional and her friends, sometimes she makes progress and other times she takes a step back, ultimately leading to the third major theme: accepting the past as a reality that cannot be changed or denied.

Lukas Blomqvist, on the other hand, deals with the same problems as Scarlett in a more direct and honest way. He reflects positively on the emotional struggles that both of them face, and that’s one of Lukas’s best qualities. He accepts Scarlett as she is—with her problems, doubts, and hang-ups. He takes her in his arms and shows her that it’s the small victories in life are what really matter in the end.

Another of the most important themes addressed in "Deep End"  is the lives of athletes as real people with problems just as complicated as our own. On the one hand, they’re presented to us as gods among mortals, but we’re almost never told just how difficult their athletic journeys have been. One of the things that really struck me is the grueling emotional—and, above all, physical—work that these promising young athletes are put through, and how, at times, competition kills the spirit of sportsmanship and the strong bond of brotherhood that develops among them.

This is one of the few times Ali Hazelwood has managed to surprise me, and that doesn't happen very often, since I've read several of her books and am very used to the way she portrays her characters and their conflicts. The book isn't perfect—it often feels repetitive, and I think it's unnecessarily longer than it needs to, but overall, It's an entertaining read.