Reason to Breathe is the first installment in The Breathing Series by Rebecca Donovan. This is a book about un-welcomed love, unspeakable cruelty, and a girl’s journey through fear. Emma Thomas wakes up with a new bruise or a healing wound every day. And while everyone else is concerned with what their seen wearing, she’s worried people might see her bruises. She only wanted to be invisible, invisible to those that judge and to the one that causes her this pain. But obviously being invisible is kind of hard when the new hot guy is trying to get with her. As time passes she finds love and starts to recognize her own worth- at the risk of revealing her dark secret. Who might be interested in this book? Why? In my opinion, girls would more likely read this book, unless you’re a guy that loves sappy love stories. Anyone who can connect to abuse and unexpected love will probably read this book and like it, maybe. It would probably be a struggle for some people to read if they don’t get emotional. Overall Satisfaction I gave this book 1 out of 5 stars because it just wasn’t captivating for me. It just seemed so unrealistic to me, for example, everyone lives in big 3 story houses, every teenager has a Mustang or Mercedes, they all attend dinners that should be held for the Queen of England, and they all travel to Europe and around the world practically every weekend. Also the main character plays 3 varsity sports; Soccer, Basketball, and Track. And she’s the MVP in 2 of those sports. She has a 4.0 GPA, is involved in many clubs, and her best and only friend is the most popular girl in school, how do you keep a low profile with all of that? Don’t get me wrong this book was somewhat good but it just didn’t seem logical. The first 2- 4 chapters were really good, she talked about Emma’s abusive aunt, and how hard Emma’s life has been. But then I just started losing interest. Important events started to come up out of nowhere and I started to think there was a book before this one, but there’s not. Soon in the book it stopped being about how Emma got through everyday life, and it just focused on her love with all these guys, and all the decisions she made were just straight up wrong. Literary Skills 1. Figurative language - “That’s when it hit me- the truth” pg. 165. Obviously the truth didn’t actually hit her; she was just figuratively saying that she remembered the truth. The truth that only one other person knows, besides her. 2. Analysis – “There was a crash of splintering wood as the door burst open” pg. 369. Instead of saying that the door burst open she analyzed the door, she actually specified it. 3. Theme – “Well let’s get you back to Hell before the Devil realizes that you’re not home.” Was said by Emma’s friend. Making the theme dark, and depressing
Emma Thomas wakes up with a new bruise or a healing wound every day. And while everyone else is concerned with what their seen wearing, she’s worried people might see her bruises. She only wanted to be invisible, invisible to those that judge and to the one that causes her this pain. But obviously being invisible is kind of hard when the new hot guy is trying to get with her.
As time passes she finds love and starts to recognize her own worth- at the risk of revealing her dark secret.
Who might be interested in this book? Why?
In my opinion, girls would more likely read this book, unless you’re a guy that loves sappy love stories. Anyone who can connect to abuse and unexpected love will probably read this book and like it, maybe. It would probably be a struggle for some people to read if they don’t get emotional.
Overall Satisfaction
I gave this book 1 out of 5 stars because it just wasn’t captivating for me. It just seemed so unrealistic to me, for example, everyone lives in big 3 story houses, every teenager has a Mustang or Mercedes, they all attend dinners that should be held for the Queen of England, and they all travel to Europe and around the world practically every weekend. Also the main character plays 3 varsity sports; Soccer, Basketball, and Track. And she’s the MVP in 2 of those sports. She has a 4.0 GPA, is involved in many clubs, and her best and only friend is the most popular girl in school, how do you keep a low profile with all of that? Don’t get me wrong this book was somewhat good but it just didn’t seem logical. The first 2- 4 chapters were really good, she talked about Emma’s abusive aunt, and how hard Emma’s life has been. But then I just started losing interest. Important events started to come up out of nowhere and I started to think there was a book before this one, but there’s not. Soon in the book it stopped being about how Emma got through everyday life, and it just focused on her love with all these guys, and all the decisions she made were just straight up wrong.
Literary Skills
1. Figurative language - “That’s when it hit me- the truth” pg. 165. Obviously the truth didn’t actually hit her; she was just figuratively saying that she remembered the truth. The truth that only one other person knows, besides her.
2. Analysis – “There was a crash of splintering wood as the door burst open” pg. 369. Instead of saying that the door burst open she analyzed the door, she actually specified it.
3. Theme – “Well let’s get you back to Hell before the Devil realizes that you’re not home.” Was said by Emma’s friend. Making the theme dark, and depressing