Sarah AlexanderBesprekingen

This book had much more mystery and depth to it than the blurb initially hinted at, but I found it hard to connect to the story.

I loved seeing Elsie learn how to dive, and seeing how she gradually learned to go deeper and explore further. The mechanics were interesting to hear, although I didn't really understand what was happening half the time. I loved that Elsie was so unique and individualistic, and how she really had her own personality.

I was less impressed by how a male lead seemed to take over a lot of the story. I will always appreciate a good romantic undertone to a story and this one definitely contributed to the plot development; however, I thought that since there was so much emphasis put on Elsie's relationship with said boy it in a way detracted from the problems she was working.

The eventual conclusion wasn't really satisfying to me in regards to Elsie's family. I felt like though the mysteries were solved and the secrets came out, they didn't really have any conclusive moment of moving forward. I had thought that Elsie might have had a few more psychological things going on, what with seeming to talk to Scott all the time, but none of this was really acknowledged.

This was a solid read, but I felt like there was something missing. Though I enjoyed Elsie, I couldn't get involved, and if not reading this to review, I probably would have put it down after a few chapters.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CW: MC wants to learn free diving because she is wracked with guilt over the drowning of her brother when she was looking after him. Whilst not directly stated it seems like she wants to get lost in the depths of the ocean herself (she feels she deserves to die)

The Main family, living in Fortrose on the Black Isle of Scotland, is a troubled family. Five years ago, Eddie Main drowned during a visit to the beach, and the family has been not dealing with it ever since.

Elsie, now sixteen, was Eddie's twin. Eddie, born second, was developmentally challenged due to difficulties during his birth. Elsie always felt responsible for him, and now feels responsible for his death.

Dillon, two years older, is the smart one, the one who aces everything at school--and also blames himself.

As for their parents, Celia and Collin, they're not in great shape, either, each in their different, troubled, and not very communicative ways.

They all have secrets.

But the art of not breathing is the art of free diving, and Elsie, whose twin drowned, who is forbidden to ever go in the water, meets a boy who will teach her to free dive. And long-buried memories start coming back, piece by painful piece.

This is a thoroughly engrossing book. We see the story through Elsie's eyes, and Elsie is a girl struggling to survive, discovering a new and joyful skill, and coping with emerging, terrifying memories. It's all beautifully handled, and along the way we learn with Elsie more and more about the full and complicated inner lives of her brother Dillon, their parents, and her new friend Tay and his cousin Danny, as well as the awful convergence of normal human errors and failures that led to a tragedy out of proportion to those individual failures.

A very readable and compelling book. Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

I liked this book. I have had a review copy of this book for about a year and a half and put it off after I started seeing mixed reviews. That was a mistake because this book worked really well for me. It is a rather short book but I think it moved fast for me because of how the story flowed. I just didn't want to quit turning pages once I reached a certain point in the story.

I was curious about the characters and their histories from the start of the book. The more that I read the more that I hooked. These characters have a lot of issues to deal with and I really wanted to see things work out for them. I am kind of surprised by how many tough topics found their way into this story but it worked.

This story follows Elsie. Elsie's twin brother, Eddie, died in a drowning accident 5 years earlier. Elsie and the rest of her family are just trying to keep moving forward but in many ways they are failing. Elsie's dad leaves for long periods of time and nobody knows where he is. Her mom drinks more than she should. Elsie isn't doing well in school and has no friends. Dillon seems to doing the best in the group but that's not really the case.

Elsie doesn't remember exactly what happened the day that Eddie died but she wants to remember. When she meets Tay and the other diving boys, she ends up learning to dive and finds that she feels closer to her lost brother under the water. She is remembering things and hopes to learn what happened just as her family is falling apart.

There were a few times in the story that I wanted to shake the characters for some of their actions but I always felt that what they did felt authentic. People don't always do what they should and as teenagers it can be even harder. While I didn't always like what the characters were doing, I understood why they made the choices that they did.

I would recommend this book to others. It was a book that had a really strong finish that made me feel for the characters. I am really a bit upset that I put this one off for as long as I did. I would definitely read more from Sarah Alexander in the future.

I received an advance reader copy of this book from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group - HMH Books for Young Readers via NetGalley.

A coming of age and coming to terms with circumstances in life novel. Witty at times, heart wrenching at others, Alexander delivers a full bodied story with interesting elements that drives it along. The aspects of an sport and a mystery come together to tie up loose ends and give you a feeling of hope. Well done.
*I received an arc from NetGalley for an honest review

The crux of this young adult novel is a young girl (Elsie) trying to reconstruct the drowning of her twin brother years before. She befriends a crowd of young boys who are involved in a sport called freediving which consists of spending longer and longer times underwater. The book is supposed to take place in Scotland but there is no hint that it does in the characters' accents, culture or the geographical locations mentioned. The early relationship building is pretty slow but things do speed up as she gets closer to learning all the events surrounding the death of her brother start to become clear. Hold your breathe on this one (freediving).

THE ART OF NOT BREATHING by Sarah Alexander is a work of realistic fiction exploring a five year old drowning incident.

It’s been years since Elsie’s twin brother Eddie drowned in the ocean near their home. Elsie is having a difficult time remembering the circumstances of his death and is determined to find out what really happened. This vividly described story explores the long-term effects of death on family and friends.

Librarians will find that fans of We Were Liars and I’ll Give You the Sun will be drawn to this authentic adventure. The novel will also appeal to teens who enjoy a touch of romance and mystery.

To learn more about the author, go to http://www.sarahalexanderwrites.com/.

Published by HMH for Young Readers on April 26, 2016. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

3.5 stars Liked it a lot
Source: earc from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via edelweiss
Disclaimer: I received this book as an ARC (advanced review copy). I am not paid for this review, and my opinions in this review are mine, and are not effected by the book being free.
Review by Brandi Breathes Books

I wanted to read this because I like stories that deal with grief and also the ones that have a new person to come into their lives and help them realize a new way to live.

The characters
the family is definitely present but there's a rough dynamic between Elsie and her parents. She also had a very rocky relationship with her brother but they do have moments of bonding, mostly through memories shared of their brother Eddie who drowned since their parents are silent.

The grief
Elsie dealt with her grief in some pretty bug ways she steals some stuff, overeats, and she smoke cigarettes and she keeps tho herself a lot.
She feels invisible at home, especially on her birthday, they go silently to eddies grave and her mom promises they will celebrate later but never do. She feels like getting attention involves her stealing or when she.ways tho much, even if they are negative attention.
She has really low self esteem and doesn't do her homework or do well in school.
Her brother's grief is touched upon with his eating disorder.

The new guy
They first meet at Elsie's hideout, and again when she is having tea and talking with his father about free diving, and he then asks her to come with him.

The mystery
Okay, one part is figuring out what exactly happened to Eddie when he drowned. Elsie doesn't remember, it's all foggy, but things start to come back to her as she is in water.
Another part is whether or not Elsie has mental issues, since she says she feels Eddie inside her and talks to her. Or if it's a bit supernatural or just some part of her grieving process.

What I didn't like
The abrupt flashbacks are annoying. They should have a section break or chapter break or something to alert you its not in the present anymore.

The ending
Didn't really see some of the things coming, but glad about wrap-up overall.

Bottom Line: Look at grief and loss and how it effects a family.½

COPIED FROM GOODREADS

I'm giving this book a 1.5 rating. This is more of a poorly constructed rant about the main character than a review.

"I'm so relieved he's not running away that I kiss him, on the lips, and I have to rein myself back in before I literally eat him."

I wasn't aware eating people was part of being far too attached to a boy you just met.

In all honesty, 1.5 stars might be generous. Like most readers, I generally want to love the book I'm reading. I like to give books and their authors every chance they deserve because I believe everyone has a right to have their work read without bias. Well, I started reading without bias and I still ended up hating this book with a passion.

I did my best to take this book seriously. I did my best to respect the characters who were not so much flawed in a natural human way but kind of unbearably stupid and also assholes. The main character, Elsie, is kind of what you would expect a 16 year old girl to be like. She's stupid, falls in love with every boy who is even a little nice to her, thinks the world revolves around her, and apparently gets drunk after drinking half a beer. That last one might be the most concerning as I even took the time to calculate possible BAC and even making her as small as 80lbs she shouldn't be feeling a damn thing. I started to question if the author had indeed done all the things the "About the Author" section claims she has as it seems she may never have left her home. This is not a personal attack, I'm just wondering if any of this was researched and if it was how it went so wrong.

Anyway, Elsie's twin brother, Eddie, drowns when they are about 11. They had been swimming at the beach and he just sort of vanished. Elsie starts having random flashbacks containing information she doesn't remember being there. As the story goes on we're supposed to be getting sucked into this mystery of what actually happened that day but you know what I was concerned about? Her other brother. While Elsie, the winner of about 17 stupidest teen awards, goes to hang out with her boyfriend (this is the guy she met maybe a few months ago who has taken off out of town without warning or explanation and probably also had something to do with this Eddie conspiracy) her brother has a serious eating disorder. Our beloved heroine, Elsie, is fully aware of this illness and instead of taking the time to even talk to her brother she lurks pro-ana forums learning absolutely nothing useful and sleeps with her boyfriend in a boathouse. She keeps saying things like "just hang on a few more days" so that she can sort out her own trivial problems because yes, people suffering eating disorders just experience organ failure on your schedule.

"I wonder if part of me wants her to go through this so someone understands how I feel"

My next favourite thing about Elsie is that she gets some satisfaction out of watching her mother mourn the loss of her husband of roughly 20 years and compares this pain to her boyfriend of maybe 3 week breaking up with her. It's kind of brilliant how angry one character can make me.

I could go on about Elsie and how much I dislike her for at least 20 pages but I think you get the point here. She takes stupid teenager to a new level. Before I end this rant I'd also like to make brief comment regarding this drowning conspiracy and the ending of the book. It's highly disappointing even when you aren't expecting much.

I do not recommend this book. I thank God that this was free and in digital format because this is one book I would be leaving at a bus stop on purpose if it were in print.