Like Water

Before her father's Huntington's disease diagnosis, ?Savannah ("Vanni") Espinoza thought her life was on track: leave her small New Mexico town, maybe swim for a Division II college. Now it's the summer after graduation, and Vanni is feeling adrift. She's working at the family restaurant, hooking up with guys, and trying not to think about the medical test she can take now that she's eighteen that can predict whether or not she has inherited her father's Huntington's genetics. At her second job as a "mermaid" at a nearby water park, she meets handsome Lucas and his prickly sister Leigh--and is surprised to find herself falling for Leigh. Their relationship is satisfyingly complex, both in times of tenderness and moments of self-destruction (both characters can be real jerks). The relationships between Vanni and each of her parents, too, are richly textured, while Leigh's brother Lucas is the best older sibling a person could ask for. Spanish words and phrases (unitalicized) are incorporated into the English conversations in a natural-seeming way. The writing style can be uneven, occasionally straining for metaphor and lyricism ("Every time I lied to my friends or let them lie to me, it felt like I was carving pieces out of myself to give to them") alongside the mundane or vulgar ("If Santa Cruz Lake was cold, Mermaid Cove at the Lost Lagoon is icy as a Viking's balls"). But readers will likely be invested in the characters' stories--and their futures. elissa gershowitz