Reviews

Důvod dýchat by Rebecca Donovan

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littybit89's review against another edition

2.0

Quick read and nothing special. Presents certain YA themes such as coping with abuse, however, not all teens have the ability to cope with a perfect boyfriend. At certain times, Emma shows independence and does not rely on her boyfriends, or even her best friend for that matter, worry about her too much. The way the school handled suspicions of abuse wasn't too accurate. The staff is portrayed as stupid for suggesting that her boyfriend is beating her up, which adds to the stigma of educators that they know nothing about their students.

vikart's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Reason to Breathe is the first book of the Breathing series. The book covers many heavy topics that can be difficult to process. From the passing of a parent, abuse, and alcoholism to friendship, love, and will.
I read the digital version of this book, and I did notice that there is some grammar being mixed like "your" and "you're" within speech once or twice, but I did not think that it was too much of a bother to the reading process to make me lower the grade.

Personally, I found this book very touching to an emotional level. I was able to understand the reasons why Emma, our protagonist, did what she did, and I also enjoyed her progress of slowly opening up to the idea of leaving. This book left off with an open ending that makes you come to a variety of conclusions. For that exact reasoning, I am looking forward to picking up the second book in the series.

Would I recommend this? Yes, I would. However, I would also advise to check all of the content warnings because it is truly a heavy read.

Content Warnings

firefelice7's review against another edition

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4.0

reminded me of a wattpad story at first. i really liked evan, and could in different ways relate to emma.

bitchie's review against another edition

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4.0

Very solid read. The only thing keeping it from 5 stars is I felt it dragged a bit in the middle. I can say I'm glad I read it with just one day to wait before the sequel, cause, man, what an ending!

More to come after sleep and deep thoughts- this was an all-nighter.

smartinez9's review against another edition

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1.0

This was absolutely nonsensical? Emma’s sole reason for putting up with acute verbal and physical abuse was so her cousins wouldn’t be taken away from their abusive parents. So instead, she’s leaving them to grow up with a clearly unbalanced, violent mother who could turn on them at any time? Her lack of self-awareness and inability to come to obvious conclusions (a 4.0 student can’t figure out that she could just move in with her wealthy friend whose father is a judge and threaten to report her aunt if she tries to stop her?) did nothing to redeem the book’s additional poor treatment of sexual assault or mental health. Brushing off attempted rape because “he was just drunk” is not a good precedent to set. No one in the novel suggests reporting the incident or holding the culprit responsible in any way. As for mental health, while there is brief mention of Emma’s aunt taking medication, her absurd behavior is otherwise unexplained and doesn’t seem to affect other areas of her life like her marriage or relationship with her children, which feels incredibly unrealistic. The rationale for the aunt’s behavior seems to be that she’s a jealous bitch and therefore crazy. Rather than getting any closure, the book ends without any sort of justice being served. I would understand if the sequel picked up right where Emma was left unconscious, but instead six months are skipped over and the reader is robbed of any resolution. Not a fan.

smiilefry's review against another edition

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5.0

This is truly one of those books that you just cannot put down because you need to know what happens next. I've read this book before when I was the same age as Emma, and at the time totally understood her reason behind not reporting Carol. However, reading it now 10 years later as an adult I just kept thinking "Tell an adult!!" "Your best friend's father is the towns judge TELL HIM! HE CAN HELP!!!" It's infuriating reading her saying that she "knows how much she can handle." because as a 16 year old CHILD she shouldn't have to HANDLE anything like this.

The romance between Emma and Evan has always been one of my favorites, I'm a sap for dynamics like this. I found myself grinning like a little school girl reading the scenes where their relationship was blooming.

Overall I truly do love this book, the abuse scenes were very hard for me but I think the book is amazing.

abbyreads2's review against another edition

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5.0

OMG!!!! WOW! That ending had me shook. I liked the little twist now and there but I think this might be one of my favorite books. I have no complaints. It was so sad and I felt like crying but damn.