Publication Date - April 26, 2016
4 stars
This collection of stories follows soldiers during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and once their deployments are over. This is not easy material to read, but it shouldn't be, considering the topic. What I liked most about these is that several characters that we meet as they struggle after they return to civilian life, are introduced again later during harrowing incidents at war. At times, the descriptions and the dialogue between soldiers is hard to follow but once I adapted to the language, it flowed easily and I found the depictions moving. I received this from a LibraryThing giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
The Art of Not Breathing by Sarah Alexander
Publication Date - April 26, 2016
3.5 stars
Five years ago, sixteen year old Elsie lost her twin brother when he drowned off the coast of the Scottish Highlands. Since then, her family has fallen apart in devastating ways. Elsie, herself, is barely hanging on as she fails academically, is bullied at school and forgotten at home. One day, she meets a group of boys and discovers the sport of free-diving which lets her forget her own life and brings her closer to that of her deceased twin. I found this book to be a bit grittier than I first thought which I liked. The setting is beautiful and fascinating and the relationships between the characters is complex and mostly realistic. I do think that too much was jammed into this book. For example, the character was repeatedly bullied in a fairly violent manner that made me assume that there was an additional story there but it wasn't explained further. I also felt the ending was a bit rushed BUT I do have to say that this was different enough from most young adult novels to make it really stand out and this is an author I will keep an eye on in the future. On a separate note,because of my random reading habits, I had actually just finished a nonfiction account of free diving so this is actually a nice follow up and I think the free diving scenes were done quiet well. I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment