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Breathless Jessica Warman Books

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Breathless Jessica Warman Books

Grade: B

Champion swimmer Katie is sent to boarding school after her older brother's latest schizophrenic episode. For the first time she's popular and has a boyfriend, Drew, though she's closest to roommate Mazzie.

Katie first person narration seemed authentic and I could read for hours at a time without a break. I like Jessica Warman's writing style. She mixes great dialogue, description and plot and BREATHLESS has great voice.

Katie was perfectly imperfect, with a good heart but not always the best judgment. She's kind, most of the time, and honest some of the time. I loved her complicated relationship with her brother as his mental health deteriorates. I adored Mazzie, my favorite character, secretive, sardonic and and loyal. The only character I truly loathed was Drew, a holy roller who thought Katie and Mazzie were going to hell for being agnostic and Buddhist respectively. He was subtly possessive and controlling, but that was never addressed. On the surface he treated Katie quite well. I kept hoping she'd kick him to the curb or he'd fall in love with another holy roller.

The entire book alluded to Mazzie's mother dying under either traumatic or mysterious circumstances, and I didn't like the way that was resolved. Aside from that, the book had closure and an epilogue, though they were somewhat weak.

An added bonus, there is some crossover of characters between BREATHLESS and Warman's WHERE THE TRUTH LIES, which takes place in another boarding school.

Themes: boarding school, mental illness, friendship, dating, partying, swimming, family

A fun read, but I doubt a memorable one.


Tags : Amazon.com: Breathless (9780802798497): Jessica Warman: Books,Jessica Warman,Breathless,Walker Childrens,0802798497,Social Themes - Depression,Boarding schools,Brothers and sisters,Mental illness,Mental illness;Fiction.,Peer pressure,Schizophrenia,Schizophrenia;Fiction.,Schools,Secrets;Fiction.,Swimming,Children: Young Adult (Gr. 10-12),Fiction,Juvenile Fiction Social Themes Depression & Mental Illness,Juvenile FictionSports & Recreation - Water Sports,Personal & social issues: disability & special needs (Children's Teenage),Secrets,Social Themes - Depression & Mental Illness,Sports & Recreation - Water Sports,Sports & Recreation Water Sports,Young Adult Fiction,Young Adult Fiction Social Themes Depression,Young Adult Fiction Sports & Recreation Water Sports

Breathless Jessica Warman Books Reviews

Great book... lacks ending... nonetheless I'd read it again. Characters are easy to fall in love with. Would have loo liked to see her and Madeline get together in the end
Breathless is a story about friendship through adversity, boarding school, and the dangers of trying to cover up your past. An easy read, it is primarily set in a WV boarding school in the early-mid 90s where the protagonist, Katie, has been sent by her parents in the hopes that she can use her swimming talent make something of her future, free from the influence of her schizophrenic brother.

Things don't always work out exactly as planned, but Katie's travails make her a stronger person.

This book is not for all audiences--it has frequent and blatant use of marijuana and alcohol and (mostly off-screen) sexual activity.
This is my favorite of Jessica Warman's books so far, despite the fact that I wasn't crazy about the ambiguous ending. Katie is not an unlikeable narrator; she's flawed, for sure, but the reader empathizes with her family life and her struggles to fit in at a school where she feels like swimming is one of the only things she has in common with her classmates, at least initially. Several reviewers have commented on disliking the smoking, drinking, and sexual content in the book, but in my experience as a high school teacher, it's realistic. Even good kids aren't perfect, and I liked that Katie wasn't painted as being beyond repair despite engaging in those activities. (I did find it a little unrealistic that a chain smoker would be such a phenomenal swimmer, but that's a minor criticism.)

I felt like there were some unanswered questions in the book; I wasn't crazy about the ambiguous epilogue and would have liked to know more about how their lives turned out after high school. I also felt like there were unexplained things in Katie's relationship with her roommate, Mazzie, and would have liked to know more about the two of them after high school - the epilogue suggests that they keep in touch, but given their exceptional closeness throughout the book, I would have been interested to see how that friendship was maintained over distance and time. Overall, though, this was a great book and definitely one I'll recommend to students in search of a good read.
This was an quite interesting book. A pretty good read. But I did wish there was more to this book somehow. It seemed a bit too simple for me. It's like there's this great topic, but it's always touch and go. This happens, she leaves the same day. it doesn't drag out or get into it much deeper. So much avoidance. A bit too much in my opinion.

And where's her happy ending? I mean she sounds happy 10 years later, but I'm quite curious if she's actually the marrying kind of girl or not for sure. I would like to see a sequel to show how she ends up regarding her love life. I can imagine whoever she ends up with would be amazing to be able to turn her head and rock her world.

Great book, but could've been better.
I'm conflicted about this book. It was well written and covered a tough subject very well. But I still feel let down by it. There wasn't anything necessarily wrong with it, it just wasn't right.

The characters are well written and you can see the growth in most of them throughout the novel. They are realistic and I can see myself coming across people just like them in real life. I didn't really fall in love with Drew, but that's more due to personal reasons than the writing of him. He was a great character to have in the sea of crazy teenage behavior.

I think my main problems with this book are that it covers such a long time period and there is never really a major conflict and resolution in the novel. I always think a book should start as close to the end as possible, which is why I can typically forgive the "love at first sight" plots of young adult novels. However, this book covers 3 years of Katie's life, and during those years, yes, things happen, but there isn't one main event. I kept waiting for something to happen that would have me on the edge of my seat and nothing ever did. I wasn't blown away by the plot and it felt a little ho-hum for my tastes.

Overall, this was a good book, but it just left something to be desired. It felt more like a story instead of a novel, in that things happened, but at the same time, nothing really happened. There was so much potential, and I feel like it just didn't quite reach the level it could have.
Grade B

Champion swimmer Katie is sent to boarding school after her older brother's latest schizophrenic episode. For the first time she's popular and has a boyfriend, Drew, though she's closest to roommate Mazzie.

Katie first person narration seemed authentic and I could read for hours at a time without a break. I like Jessica Warman's writing style. She mixes great dialogue, description and plot and BREATHLESS has great voice.

Katie was perfectly imperfect, with a good heart but not always the best judgment. She's kind, most of the time, and honest some of the time. I loved her complicated relationship with her brother as his mental health deteriorates. I adored Mazzie, my favorite character, secretive, sardonic and and loyal. The only character I truly loathed was Drew, a holy roller who thought Katie and Mazzie were going to hell for being agnostic and Buddhist respectively. He was subtly possessive and controlling, but that was never addressed. On the surface he treated Katie quite well. I kept hoping she'd kick him to the curb or he'd fall in love with another holy roller.

The entire book alluded to Mazzie's mother dying under either traumatic or mysterious circumstances, and I didn't like the way that was resolved. Aside from that, the book had closure and an epilogue, though they were somewhat weak.

An added bonus, there is some crossover of characters between BREATHLESS and Warman's WHERE THE TRUTH LIES, which takes place in another boarding school.

Themes boarding school, mental illness, friendship, dating, partying, swimming, family

A fun read, but I doubt a memorable one.