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A review by tsukikomew
Breathe by Abbi Glines
1.0
This review was posted at Tsuki’s Book Blog on August 30, 2013.
I picked this up because I've been seeing it around for months online and I just had to see what all the fuss was about. Well...it got a DNF rating for me so that's the general thought behind this book. I'll give a brief summary of the book and my reasons for a DNF rating.
The story follows a seventeen year old girl named Sadie with a useless, pregnant mother who takes over her mother's job for the summer. Naturally she's working at the house of a teen music star. Because she's awesome the teen music star, Jax, is instantly in love with her and obsessed with her. She's his breath of fresh air.
I stopped reading the book right around the time they were starting to deal with issues in their relationship. He was trying to protect her from the media as well as keep her to himself. While she understood the demands of his work and the trouble she would face as his girlfriend, she was willing to be there for him. I respected all that and that wasn't my issue with the book.
I had a few issues which I'll break down by bulleted list.
2. I couldn't believe the romance. I know I only got about 45% into the story but by that point I was struggling to pick the book up. I couldn't really be okay with a relationship that seemed sinister and disturbing. Sadie was seventeen and Jax was...nineteen. He was already pushing the boundaries of dating a minor but then his behavior was absolutely insane. He was obsessive, stalkerish, jealous, and incredibly controlling. Sure he prettied it up with closed early movies but he was pretty disturbing.
Sadie had a friend, whose name escapes me, who was the normal guy in the psuedo-triangle relationship. He seemed a tad creepy but in the end he seemed to be a genuinely nice guy. Problematically Jax was so freakishly jealous of a ride or a conversation so he quickly monopolized her time. Jax slowly began further isolating her from friends and family under the guise of being in love with her. I just had difficulty with it because he deemed it as necessary so he could 'breathe'.
3. I had a great deal of difficulty with Sadie's mother. Clearly these types of stories work better with one to two parents who are absolute failures as parents. Not only was her mother useless but she was pregnant. She just laid around and bitched all day and apparently had done that for years. How could no one notice Sadie was supporting her mother at 17? How could no one (school included) notice she'd been caring for her mother for most of her life? It was unbelievable how their dynamic was skewed so disturbingly.
4. Finally the whole time I was reading this I kept thinking about the Twilight series. There was a normal girl with a mother who was incredibly childish. She met a guy larger than life who was obsessed with her and then pushed her away when his life began to intrude in their relationship. There was also a genuinely nice guy who would have been perfect for her. He even had a pack of friends. Seriously I'm fed up with the Twilight similarities in books nowadays. Everything is set up the same way with the same general issues in different settings. It's unbelievable. There doesn't always have to be a stalker boyfriend and a love triangle.
So, as you can see I was not thrilled with this book. I finally called it quits after staring at the book for a few days and being unable to pick it up. I got mad at some of the plot points and at a certain point decided I couldn't take any of the characters seriously so why bother continuing.
I would not recommend this book at all but I know it has a large online following. I don't fault anyone their likes when it comes to reading books but I've discovered this series is not something that floats my boat.
DNF
Published by Simon Pulse
May 16, 2011
333 Pages
Provided by--the library
I picked this up because I've been seeing it around for months online and I just had to see what all the fuss was about. Well...it got a DNF rating for me so that's the general thought behind this book. I'll give a brief summary of the book and my reasons for a DNF rating.
The story follows a seventeen year old girl named Sadie with a useless, pregnant mother who takes over her mother's job for the summer. Naturally she's working at the house of a teen music star. Because she's awesome the teen music star, Jax, is instantly in love with her and obsessed with her. She's his breath of fresh air.
I stopped reading the book right around the time they were starting to deal with issues in their relationship. He was trying to protect her from the media as well as keep her to himself. While she understood the demands of his work and the trouble she would face as his girlfriend, she was willing to be there for him. I respected all that and that wasn't my issue with the book.
I had a few issues which I'll break down by bulleted list.
Spoiler
1. The writing was a bit...sloppy. I've read some very amateurish books since I started reviewing books on here but I was amazed at the simplistic language. I've had this issue with a variety of YA titles and I'm always amazed at the child-like quality employed. So many older adults read YA now and it seems nearly insulting to get the most basic language imaginable. I understand making the story accessible to younger readers but I, personally, could do with a little more depth.2. I couldn't believe the romance. I know I only got about 45% into the story but by that point I was struggling to pick the book up. I couldn't really be okay with a relationship that seemed sinister and disturbing. Sadie was seventeen and Jax was...nineteen. He was already pushing the boundaries of dating a minor but then his behavior was absolutely insane. He was obsessive, stalkerish, jealous, and incredibly controlling. Sure he prettied it up with closed early movies but he was pretty disturbing.
Sadie had a friend, whose name escapes me, who was the normal guy in the psuedo-triangle relationship. He seemed a tad creepy but in the end he seemed to be a genuinely nice guy. Problematically Jax was so freakishly jealous of a ride or a conversation so he quickly monopolized her time. Jax slowly began further isolating her from friends and family under the guise of being in love with her. I just had difficulty with it because he deemed it as necessary so he could 'breathe'.
3. I had a great deal of difficulty with Sadie's mother. Clearly these types of stories work better with one to two parents who are absolute failures as parents. Not only was her mother useless but she was pregnant. She just laid around and bitched all day and apparently had done that for years. How could no one notice Sadie was supporting her mother at 17? How could no one (school included) notice she'd been caring for her mother for most of her life? It was unbelievable how their dynamic was skewed so disturbingly.
4. Finally the whole time I was reading this I kept thinking about the Twilight series. There was a normal girl with a mother who was incredibly childish. She met a guy larger than life who was obsessed with her and then pushed her away when his life began to intrude in their relationship. There was also a genuinely nice guy who would have been perfect for her. He even had a pack of friends. Seriously I'm fed up with the Twilight similarities in books nowadays. Everything is set up the same way with the same general issues in different settings. It's unbelievable. There doesn't always have to be a stalker boyfriend and a love triangle.
So, as you can see I was not thrilled with this book. I finally called it quits after staring at the book for a few days and being unable to pick it up. I got mad at some of the plot points and at a certain point decided I couldn't take any of the characters seriously so why bother continuing.
I would not recommend this book at all but I know it has a large online following. I don't fault anyone their likes when it comes to reading books but I've discovered this series is not something that floats my boat.
DNF
Published by Simon Pulse
May 16, 2011
333 Pages
Provided by--the library