In the Shallows, by Tanya Byrne - Kelly
I have never read a book that’s impacted me quite like this one. It’s beautiful, it’s raw emotion, and it’s true love rolled into a paperback.
In The Shallows follows Mara, an anxious young girl who has lofty dreams of the perfect sapphic romance and has read enough books to back it up - but real life isn’t so easy. Her (sort of) girlfriend Nico, for example, is a lot harder to read. There’s for sure something between them, but Nico always seems to withdraw when Mara comes too close to unearthing her true self.
When Nico ghosts Mara on New Year’s Eve, a news report breaks that Nico has been in a terrible accident, resulting in head trauma and amnesia.
What should Mara do? Should she tell the girl she’s sure she loves that they were together? Or will getting those memories back cause more pain?
The more she dives into her girlfriend’s past, the more Mara suspects something else is lurking behind Nico’s new, bubbly personality, and it doesn’t want Mara interfering. Can she help unearth the real Nico in time, and is the spark of romance still there?
This book is all heart, weaving family and friendships, showing you don’t have to be related to feel like family. The characters are in turn hilarious and fierce, unflinching but anxious at the same time. I’m not ashamed to admit I was tearing up by the end. It was a rollercoaster of emotion.
At its heart, In the Shadows is a reminder that you don’t have to be perfect, you don’t have to be what someone else expects - you just have to be who you are, right here and now.
If you love a sweet, unflinching LGBT love story, you’ll definitely want to see how Nico and Mara’s story ends… and unravel the mystery that lies in wait.
Kelly
