Review-Breathless by Jessica Warman

Breathless by Jessica Warman


Release Date: August 18, 2009
Publisher: Walker & Company
Pages: 311
Source: Library
Series: Standalone book


Rating from A+ to F: A-


-Summary-


When Katie Kitrell is shipped off to boarding school by her distant father and overbearing mother, it doesn’t take her long to become part of the It Crowd. She’s smart, she’s cute, and she’s an Olympic-bound swimmer who has a first class ticket to any Ivy League school of her choice. But what her new friends, roommate, and boyfriend don’t know is that Katie is swimming away from her past, and from her schizophrenic older brother, Will, who won’t let her go. And when he does the unthinkable, it’s all Katie can do to keep her head above water.

-Review-

I thought this was a great book by Jessica Warman. It's always hard for me to read a book when a character has a mental disorder, it just makes me very sad. But, this was still a wonderful book by Jessica Warman, who always does a really good job at writing about an important topic in today's world--like how in this book Katie's brother, Will, has schizophrenia-- and she can really get a message across to readers. Even if the main character wasn't Will, I bet many readers still felt for him and always had a time during the book where they were worrying about what Will would do next. But...let's get on to the main character of Katie.

Katie is forced to go to a boarding school after Will's schizophrenia gets worse. When she meets the students there, she vows to keep Will's disorder a secret and not tell anyone, in fear that they will think she is "different." Katie's main passion has always been swimming and her first priority at the school is to be on the team and do well there. While at swimming practices, she meets another swimmer who she likes, and they begin dating. Katie also meets new friends there, along with her roommate, who has troubles of her own. But, Katie doesn't want anyone to find out about her brother, which starts to get difficult. This book has a few dramatic events that leave you with conflicting emotions of what is happening in the book.

My favorite parts of the book were whenever Katie was in the water, she could finally feel like herself and live a little bit, instead of hiding everything. She was able to do something she loved. In this story, we also learn about Katie's parents: a strict father and a bossy mother. I don't think I liked the parents in this book, they just rubbed me the wrong way! I felt like they didn't really care about their children, and only cared about themselves. Katie, the main character, had a hard time dealing with what was happening with her brother, and she could always count on her roommate, Maddie. Even though Maddie said she didn't care about Katie, you could definitely realize that she did. So, I basically think my favorite parts of the book were: 1) Katie in the water and 2) the characters.

This book was very good and I don't think this will be disappointing to viewers, but that is only my opinion.

RATING ANALYSIS:
1. Plot- 18 out of 20 points.
2. Characters- 14 out of 15 points.
3. Writing- 18 out of 20 points.
4. Creativity- 14 out of 15 points.
5. Originality- 8 out of 10 points.
6. Ending- 13 out of 15 points.
7. Cover- 5 out of 5 points.
Equals: 90! 90-93 is A-


PARENTAL REVIEW:
Violence- there were a few violent parts concerning Katie's brother
Mild/Excessive Cursing
Mild/Excessive Sexual Content
Drug/Alcohol Use- few parts with these items
I would recommend this to ages 14 and up.