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A review by leer_amor
The Art of Not Breathing by Sarah Alexander
2.0
How do I start this. I feel like half the time the characters acted like 12 year olds and the other half they were smoking and talking about/having sex. I would have liked some sort of trigger warning for Dillons eating disorder. I have a couple friends who have e.d.'s and some parts of this book were pretty hard and hit a little close to home. I completely hated that there were several times when Elsie chose Tay over Dillon. She chose a boy she had known for a matter of months over her own brother. That made me really mad. Family shouldn't do that. Especially since she knew her brother was struggling. And when she did leave him to go f*ck around with Tay in the boathouse, when she came back she had to call and ambulance for Dillon! She definitely had a hand in that. I was yelling at her to stay with him.
And the bullying scenes were overkill and unrealistic. If anything those instances were middle school aged, not highschool. The hair pulling, putting gum in hair, destroying tech projects. It was just so immature. I know highschool teens can be immature but this was too much. Also, Elsie skipping school? This took place in 2016. There are electronic attendence sheets. The school would have her parents numbers. She wouldn't be able to get away with skipping without her parents knowing.
And the flashbacks! That was borderline Bella Swan from Twilight having hallucinations of Edward when putting herself in danger. And there's no way Elsie trained herself to hold her breath for long periods of time that fast. As someone who has done competitive swimming for a number of years let me say, increasing your lung capacity isn't an easy and quick thing to do. I think there might have been a time skip but I'm not sure because it wasn't clear.
This book focused way too much on weight as well. If Elsie was supposed to be overweight, then how do you explain the cover art of the book. The girl on the cover is not overweight. So I don't know if they were trying to say that that's what she looked like after she lost weight when training for diving or if they're trying to say that the girl on the cover is overweight but I just felt like this was another example of unrealistic beauty standards for women. The one thing I will say I liked in relation to this is that when Elsie did start working out and losing weight, it wasn't because of the bully's at school making fun of her. She didn't seem too terribly bothered by their comments about her weight. When she started working out it was because she wanted to get better at freediving, not to purposefully lose weight to fit the standard.
I feel like this book tried too hard to jam too many things in. Between Eddie and his disabilities, Dillons eating disorder, the mom's affair, Tay the mysterious delinquent hot boy, Elsie being bullied, freediving, sex, smoking, and that whole thing surrounding Eddie's death at the end (which was completely overdone, over dramatic, and unnecessary), it was all just too much. And how Elsie could like ~feel~ Eddie inside her. I don't feel like that was ever fully addressed. I did appreciate that they all went to therapy separately and together at the end. I think they really needed that. And I'm glad that Dillon's struggles and health (mental and physical) were being recognized and that he was getting help.
I stuck through with this book till the end because it was on my list for a few years and it was a pretty quick read. But I would not suggest it.
And the bullying scenes were overkill and unrealistic. If anything those instances were middle school aged, not highschool. The hair pulling, putting gum in hair, destroying tech projects. It was just so immature. I know highschool teens can be immature but this was too much. Also, Elsie skipping school? This took place in 2016. There are electronic attendence sheets. The school would have her parents numbers. She wouldn't be able to get away with skipping without her parents knowing.
And the flashbacks! That was borderline Bella Swan from Twilight having hallucinations of Edward when putting herself in danger. And there's no way Elsie trained herself to hold her breath for long periods of time that fast. As someone who has done competitive swimming for a number of years let me say, increasing your lung capacity isn't an easy and quick thing to do. I think there might have been a time skip but I'm not sure because it wasn't clear.
This book focused way too much on weight as well. If Elsie was supposed to be overweight, then how do you explain the cover art of the book. The girl on the cover is not overweight. So I don't know if they were trying to say that that's what she looked like after she lost weight when training for diving or if they're trying to say that the girl on the cover is overweight but I just felt like this was another example of unrealistic beauty standards for women. The one thing I will say I liked in relation to this is that when Elsie did start working out and losing weight, it wasn't because of the bully's at school making fun of her. She didn't seem too terribly bothered by their comments about her weight. When she started working out it was because she wanted to get better at freediving, not to purposefully lose weight to fit the standard.
I feel like this book tried too hard to jam too many things in. Between Eddie and his disabilities, Dillons eating disorder, the mom's affair, Tay the mysterious delinquent hot boy, Elsie being bullied, freediving, sex, smoking, and that whole thing surrounding Eddie's death at the end (which was completely overdone, over dramatic, and unnecessary), it was all just too much. And how Elsie could like ~feel~ Eddie inside her. I don't feel like that was ever fully addressed. I did appreciate that they all went to therapy separately and together at the end. I think they really needed that. And I'm glad that Dillon's struggles and health (mental and physical) were being recognized and that he was getting help.
I stuck through with this book till the end because it was on my list for a few years and it was a pretty quick read. But I would not suggest it.