Swimming Lessons by Lili Reinhart Book Review (Larissa)

Lili Reinhart’s Swimming Lessons depicts her story of heartbreak, anxiety, depression, and young love through many poems. Reinhart wrote in her introduction that she began poem writing when she was depressed and used it as a sort of outlet. You can see this in her poems because they express such deep emotion and pain. The majority of her poems take you through her relationship with her ex-boyfriend. She went from wanting him to understand her, to wanting to understand him. At the beginning of the book, Reinhart wrote “I hope you look at me like you do the sky. Standing, breathless, admiring my colors.” Near the end of the book she wrote, “I stopped taking photos of sunsets a long time ago. I can never capture its colors. The same goes for you.” She connected her poems throughout the entire book, showing how her mindset and outlook changed. In the example shown, Reinhart first expresses how she wants him to look at her like he looks at the sky, and that she wants him to admire her colors. But by the end of the book, she notes that no picture can truly depict his colors. The term colors in this sense likely refer to one’s personality and the many parts of them.

As previously mentioned, Reinhart’s many poems come together to create a story, her story. The book has a focus on her romantic relationship and, at the beginning of the book, she only sees the good in this man and is attracted to his “brokenness.” Near the middle of the book, her poems convey how he is the right person for her, but it is not the right time because they were both broken when they began dating. And nearing the end of the book, Reinhart is extremely depressed and longing for love and happiness. By the end of the book, she begins her healing process. It is quite interesting to me how the author tells such detailed stories with so few lines of writing. It reminds me of The Purple Hibiscus in a way because you have to read between the lines to discover what the author is really trying to say.

The only criticism that I have is that the book could use a bit more depth because some of the poems about love get slightly repetitive. I think that if she had more poems with different meanings behind them, I would like the book more. I would still recommend this book though! Reinhart’s poems are raw and simple, yet they depict beautiful and detailed stories about depression, anxiety, and love.