First of all a big thank you to the author, publishers and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book to read and review.

This book was heartbreaking. This book was a lot darker than I was expecting but in a good way. I love how it raises awareness for mental health, suicide, peer pressure and grief.

Interesting read. Struggled with getting into the book but overall thought it would peak the interest of my middle schoolers who struggle to connect to literature

Sixteen-year-old Gus Bennett lives in the shadow of his older brother, Danny, a former Olympic swimming hopeful who recently died by suicide.

Gus does not have an easy home life: He has a strained relationship with his mother, a single parent who’s still struggling after Danny’s death; and his older sister, Darien, has a drug addiction and abandoned her now 18-month-old child to the care of their mother. But Gus hopes to train with Coach Marks, the renowned trainer who worked with his brother. He even sneaks into the country club to get access to the pool, willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. He has his eye on qualifying for the national team and seems poised for success, but he soon experiences a downward spiral and engages in reckless behavior. Although the side characters are underdeveloped, Gus’ first-person narration carries the story along smoothly. Conceptualized by the late Academy Award–winning basketball player Bryant and written by Clark, this emotional novel contains lyrical prose that beautifully captures the energy of swimming and short chapters that will keep readers engaged. Physical descriptions are limited, suggesting a white default, but naming conventions suggest some diversity among the swim team members.

For ¾ of the book, I thought Gus, our speaker, was an irredeemable jerk, though I understood where his anger and resentment originated. Gus starts the book like a modern-day athletic Holden Caulfield with the immediate profanity and attitude. While the early profanity may make the book a tough sell to parents, teachers and librarians, remember that Catcher is no different.

Gus is a teenager who has been wronged in life. His older sister abandoned her child with them, the father is deceased, mom is depressed, and older brother committed suicide knowing Gus would find him. Everyone loved Danny, but they did not see his mean streak quite like his sibling. Gus is rightfully angry. This is coupled with the fact that Danny, his brother, was a stellar swimmer on track to compete at the Olympic Trials. Gus is every bit as talented, but was never given the same respect or opportunity, and with Danny’s death, Gus wants to claim his own fame in the swimming world: “All those years and all those pools, and not once did anyone ever ask why I wasn’t in the water. No one cared if I had dreams of my own because caring about me meant taking something away from Danny” (29).

Gus is grappling with his own mental health struggles. He shows that it gets worse before it gets better, and that it may take several tries to find the therapies and techniques that will work. I appreciated that the book showed the multipronged approach needed to address mental health struggles, and I was relieved that he decided to share his story with the larger swimming community.

I am a teacher and librarian, but also the mother to a competitive swimmer who has faced his own struggles. The text accurately shows the expectations placed on some of these athletes by coaches and parents, the struggle between competing ideas of recovery/rest and active recovery, the unique relationship between coaches and athletes, and the massive gatekeeping measures athletes face in even qualifying for Olympic Trials. I didn’t like Gus at the beginning, but I understood him and wished him health and happiness at the conclusion of the story.

Not only will swimmers like an inside look at the world of another swimmer (“’Free is my best stroke’ says every swimmer.”), but kids interested in sports stories will like it too. I also feel it would be beneficial to parents of elite athletes (coupled with the nonfiction What Made Maddy Run). Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of GEESE ARE NEVER SWANS by Eva Clark in exchange for my honest review.***

After Gus’s brother commits suicide, he puts his energy into making the Olympic trials in swimming, a goal Danny pursued. Filled with anger, Gus pushes away his coach and those who try to help him as he spirals into depression.

GEESE ARE NEVER SWANS takes readers in places books rarely do. Rather than making Danny a benevolent victim of depression, Eva Clark wrote Gus’s brother as a bully. Though traumatized by finding the body, Gus is filled with hate for his brother, who took all their mother’s love an attention. The mom is a piece of work, doting on Danny, emotionally absent and abusive to Gus. Clark didn’t answer many of my questions about Danny’s suicide letters, his childhood issues, the sister’s drug use or the mom’s problems. One short conversation didn’t do it for me.

GEESE ARE NEVER SWANS is an important book on the strength in seeking support and asking for help, particularly for male athletes and how therapy and medication can improve life.

Geese Are Never Swans is a sports YA novel told in a strong male voice. An angry, younger brother is living in the shadow of his older brother's suicide; trying to come to terms with his life purpose while pursuing his dream of making the Olympic swim team --the exact dream that his brother just threw away. This is a tale of sibling rivalry and the different ways of love within a family; of loss and victory; mental health and perseverance.

The story is mostly made up of inner dialogue the main character struggles through, making the story a bit slow. If teen readers hang on, by the half-way mark the story picks up speed and readers will be rewarded for sticking it out.

Extra Note: I read the e-book, but when I saw the "Artist Biographies" listed at the end describing why they selected their work to go along with the story, I felt shortchanged since I had no images on my Kindle...