Reviews

i have ~mixed~ feelings about this one. at times, the writing was beautiful and gut wrenching and at times, i felt like the author was trying too hard and it wasn’t flowing together in the way it was trying to 🫣 at times i felt like i was living inside the mind of someone in the throes of a depressive state and at times i didn’t feel anything at all

here’s an example of how beautiful the writing was at times:

“this sadness, how it falls upon you, like mist, or fog, not there, then sudden and all at once; a grayness, enveloping you, submerged underwater. this sadness in your bones, each step heavier than the last… the days pass into weeks, into months, into yers, and your flying turns into running into walking into crawling, into lying still, unable to move, for no other reason but this heaviness upon you.”

emmasreads's review against another edition

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dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

kellyhook_readsbooks's review against another edition

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2.0

While I recognize the importance of mental health representation in fiction, THE SELFLESS ACT OF BREATHING missed the mark for me. On the surface, no one would know that Michael Kabonga was in the midst of a deep depression and planning to end his life.

We spend a majority of the time in Michael's head as he contemplates the meaning of life and travels from the UK to America to have one last hurrah of reckless spending and promiscuous encounters. The focus on Michael's inner thoughts may have been deliberate to illustrate how disconnected he was from others, but it was too introspective and philosophical for my taste despite the poetic prose. Having more robust development of the secondary characters would have added an additional layer to the story that could have made it more enjoyable.

While there are brief glimpses of hope, this book is overall bleak and depressing. Reading this in the midst of my first trimester pregnancy ailments and in the dreary depths of a Midwest winter was a poor choice on my part.

RATING: 2.5/5
PUB DATE: February 15, 2022

Many thanks to Atria Books and Netgalley for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

valealle23's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

i had much higher hopes for this book but they just did not fall through with this one. it might’ve been the flowery language (it feels as if it’s been combed through with a thesaurus) or just the lack of connection to the protagonist, but i really just didn’t enjoy this novel as much as i expected. i didn’t love how the novel jumps in tenses either, for example, or how unrealistically emotional michael seems. he goes from 0 to 100 in real life with no emotional buildup, but not in a way that seems even remotely human. the ending seemed dragged out, and with the exception of the funeral and suicide, neither of which were as good of a plot twist as they could’ve been, this book just really fell flat. idk, it’s hard to verbalize exactly what went wrong with this book, but i just know that i didn’t enjoy reading it

candelibri's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

So, I had really high hopes for this one but I just never got into it. It was mid at best. Very philosophical which I'm usually into but I just couldn't become
interested in Kabongo as a character.

Listening to the audiobook, there was also a moment where he is questioning assault and r*pe and then proceeds to *repeat* the word - I kid you not, 18 times?! - extremely antagonistically. And then asks, if you repeat a word over and over does it lose all meaning?

No. No, it does not. Not that word. Especially not if you say it like that.

This was a miss for me.

delicious's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

tessperkins's review against another edition

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5.0

In the top five best books I’ve ever read ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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