Try Not to Breathe in Sophomore Reading Challenge

May 24, 2011 Princess Bookie rated it really liked it

Shelves: read2011

My Thoughts: When I started this novel, I wasn't sure what I was in for? I don't normally like reading books based on a males perspective, as I've said time and time before. I have a problem connecting for some reason.

Try Not To Breathe was a sensible beautiful novel. I really felt like I understood exactly what Ryan was going through. He made it all so clear. He made me feel what he felt.

He tried to kill himself by locking himself in a garage and turning the car on. He had to go to a mental hos My Thoughts: When I started this novel, I wasn't sure what I was in for? I don't normally like reading books based on a males perspective, as I've said time and time before. I have a problem connecting for some reason.

Try Not To Breathe was a sensible beautiful novel. I really felt like I understood exactly what Ryan was going through. He made it all so clear. He made me feel what he felt.

He tried to kill himself by locking himself in a garage and turning the car on. He had to go to a mental hospital to get better. While, he was there he met Val and Jake who also have their own problems.

He finally gets out and goes back home to his parents. One day he's down at the waterfall swimming and he runs into a guy's sister he knows. He can't even remember her name. He does eventually find it out and her name is Nicki. Nicki has a lot of questions, she wants to know why her father killed himself. She wants to know what he felt and what made him do it, what lead up to that point, and she believes that Ryan can help her.

Nicki and Ryan become friends, and they share experiences with each other, including visiting psychs.
I really liked Nicki as a character. She is younger than Ryan but she wasn't really immature. She understood him, she never made fun of him, or thought of him as crazy just because of what he has been through or what he's done.

Try Not To Breathe was a really good book. It is short, a little under 300 pages but it’s a remarkable novel. I felt like I really knew Ryan. I felt like I could be friends with him and try to help him get better and want to live.

Overall: I really enjoyed this one. Characters were great. Even the Male POV was great. I also liked Nicki's personality, she just fit with Ryan. She never cared what anyone else thought about her, and she believed in herself. She wanted answers, and she wanted them bad enough to go to someone she didn't really know.
And Ryan, was a pretty brave realistic character. All in all, Try Not To Breathe was a breath taking and lovable novel. It had depth and it made you want Ryan to live forever and ever. I wanted him to get better and I liked seeing him on his journey to improving his mind and health.

Cover: Love it! I've actually seen both covers, and I like them both. Both are emotional in their own way.

What I'd Give It: 4/5 Cupcakes
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Review Based On Hardcover Edition

Taken From Princess Bookie
www.princessbookie.com ...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Jessi rated it really liked it

It was dangerous to stand under the waterfall, but some kids did it anyway, and I was one of them. The water pounded my mind blankc, stung my skin. It hit my naked back, chest, and shoulders so hard I couldn't think. That water could knock me over, pound me into hypothermia, force the breath out of me, pin me to the rock, and I knew it.

-p1, ARC

This paragraph had me literally from page one. The opening paragraph (above) pulled me right in to the story and held tight throughout. I felt a strong It was dangerous to stand under the waterfall, but some kids did it anyway, and I was one of them. The water pounded my mind blankc, stung my skin. It hit my naked back, chest, and shoulders so hard I couldn't think. That water could knock me over, pound me into hypothermia, force the breath out of me, pin me to the rock, and I knew it.

-p1, ARC

This paragraph had me literally from page one. The opening paragraph (above) pulled me right in to the story and held tight throughout. I felt a strong connection with the characters and their stories that kept me engaged the entire time I was reading. The characters in Ms. Hubbard's sophomore novel were easy to relate to and their well-established personalities completely drew me into the story. I found it easy to imagine them as a part of my life. The story itself, for me, was truly secondary to getting to know the characters and watching them develop.

Because sometimes "living your life" was the whole problem.

-p79, ARC

Ryan, I think, is a character that would be hard not to like and sympathize with. He is truly struggling to re-establish his own life after attempting to commit suicide and ending up hospitalized for depression. He seems to walk a fine line between incredibly fragile and remarkably strong. I got the sense that he wants to regain some semblance of normalcy in his life but he has a very "outsider" mentality that keeps him from really re-connecting. From the beginning, Ryan also really intrigued me. There was an air of mystery surrounding his character, and I really liked the way that Ms. Hubbard slowly revealed his past throughout the novel.

Nicki was Ryan's perfect counterpart. She has a tough "f* the world" kind of exterior that hides the much more fragile girl inside. She comes across as super confident when we first meet her but she's slowly revealed to have some major insecurities and faults. I genuinely liked getting to know her throughout and she seemed like the person Ryan needed in that moment. Their romance isn't forced or overly fast-paced but it progresses at a quick enough pace as to demonstrate the longing that I think they both felt to be with/accepted/loved by someone else.

Try Not to Breathe brings a refreshing male voice to a predominantly female driven YA contemporary market. The subject of suicide and depression is one that spans both sexes and it was refreshing as a reader to hear from a male point of view. However, I think that the topic and the writing style lends itself to being read and enjoyed by girls and boys. The narration isn't overly masculine and it has a very gender neutral feeling to it. The one thing I will say is that the cover doesn't necessarily lend itself to a male audience. It's hard to imagine a boy checking it out from the library (and my husband agrees).

If you enjoy books such as If I Stay and Thirteen Reasons Why, I think that this will be a must read for you for 2012. It's a beautifully written look at the after-effects of attempted suicide--the struggle to return to a "normal" life, to find acceptance, and to move on. ...more

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