Breathless by Jessica Warman was a good story to read over my holiday vacation. Warman does a great job of telling the story of a girl who is trying to find herself in a life where her family doesn’t understand her, she’s constantly loosing her brother mentally and physically, and she’s being forced to deal with all of it by herself. It is only in the solace of swimming that she finds peace.
When Katie Kitrell’s life suddenly spins out of control she has no idea how to truly grasp what is happening. Her brother, the only person in the house who she really connected with has started displaying some types of mental illness, which her parents don’t want to talk about. Her dad, a psychiatrist, and her mother, a house wife and an alcoholic try to pretend that everything is okay. It’s when her brother is pushed over the edge, sneaks out of the house, runs to a neighbors, and tries to kill himself that their parents decide to do something. Only what they do does not help Katie other than try to hide her from what is really happening. They ship her off to boarding school. It is there she decides to claim her brother is dead and try to make true friends, but that lie sticks with her.
Katie joins the swim team and an already amazing swimmer becomes better and finds her first true love. As Katie continues to go through high school, she finds love, friendship,but the horrors of her past continue to stick with her.
Keep turning the pages,
90s Born Reader
Life is a Page Turner 