A review by lostinthelibrary
The Selfless Act of Breathing by J.J. Bola

emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

You can tell this author is a poet. There are some beautiful passages of prose that gave a lot more insight to the motivations of the main character than anything in the plot did. These moments of introspection were the highlight of the novel and very much captured the weight of mental illness.

However, I felt that the plot did not live up to it's intriguing premise and was a mixed bag. I felt like the author did a good job at writing what he knew well (inner London) but struggled with capturing the atmosphere in the US scenes which made the book feel very uneven. A lot of characters make choices that are not fully explored and it overall left me a bit unsatisfied. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings