The Art of Not Breathing

By Sarah Alexander

One minute Eddie was there. And the next he was gone.

Five years on, and it’s Elsie who’s lost. All she knows is the pain she feels. Pain that her twin Eddie’s body has never been found after that day on the beach.

Then she meets Tay; confident, cool and addicted to free-diving. He says it’s too dangerous for her to join; it’s too dark, too scary, too deep. But what does he know?

He doesn’t know that being underwater is the only time Elsie doesn’t ache for her brother. That diving gives her flashbacks. And that uncovering the secrets of that day is the only way for Elsie to start breathing again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Apr 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781474919265

Sarah Alexander

Sarah Alexander has previously worked as a tomato picker, travel consultant and mental-health support worker. She has completed an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck College with Distinction, and now works in publishing in London.

Reviews for The Art of Not Breathing

[brandileigh2003 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5 stars Liked it a lotSource: earc from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via edelweissDisclaimer: I received this book as an ARC (advanced review copy). I am not paid for this review, and my opinions in this review are mine, and are not effected by the book being free.Review by Brandi Breathes BooksI wanted to read this because I like stories that deal with grief and also the ones that have a new person to come into their lives and help them realize a new way to live.The charactersthe family is definitely present but there's a rough dynamic between Elsie and her parents. She also had a very rocky relationship with her brother but they do have moments of bonding, mostly through memories shared of their brother Eddie who drowned since their parents are silent.The griefElsie dealt with her grief in some pretty bug ways she steals some stuff, overeats, and she smoke cigarettes and she keeps tho herself a lot.She feels invisible at home, especially on her birthday, they go silently to eddies grave and her mom promises they will celebrate later but never do. She feels like getting attention involves her stealing or when she.ways tho much, even if they are negative attention.She has really low self esteem and doesn't do her homework or do well in school.Her brother's grief is touched upon with his eating disorder.The new guyThey first meet at Elsie's hideout, and again when she is having tea and talking with his father about free diving, and he then asks her to come with him.The mysteryOkay, one part is figuring out what exactly happened to Eddie when he drowned. Elsie doesn't remember, it's all foggy, but things start to come back to her as she is in water.Another part is whether or not Elsie has mental issues, since she says she feels Eddie inside her and talks to her. Or if it's a bit supernatural or just some part of her grieving process.What I didn't likeThe abrupt flashbacks are annoying. They should have a section break or chapter break or something to alert you its not in the present anymore.The endingDidn't really see some of the things coming, but glad about wrap-up overall. Bottom Line: Look at grief and loss and how it effects a family.

[liscarey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Main family, living in Fortrose on the Black Isle of Scotland, is a troubled family. Five years ago, Eddie Main drowned during a visit to the beach, and the family has been not dealing with it ever since.

Elsie, now sixteen, was Eddie's twin. Eddie, born second, was developmentally challenged due to difficulties during his birth. Elsie always felt responsible for him, and now feels responsible for his death.

Dillon, two years older, is the smart one, the one who aces everything at school--and also blames himself.

As for their parents, Celia and Collin, they're not in great shape, either, each in their different, troubled, and not very communicative ways.

They all have secrets.

But the art of not breathing is the art of free diving, and Elsie, whose twin drowned, who is forbidden to ever go in the water, meets a boy who will teach her to free dive. And long-buried memories start coming back, piece by painful piece.

This is a thoroughly engrossing book. We see the story through Elsie's eyes, and Elsie is a girl struggling to survive, discovering a new and joyful skill, and coping with emerging, terrifying memories. It's all beautifully handled, and along the way we learn with Elsie more and more about the full and complicated inner lives of her brother Dillon, their parents, and her new friend Tay and his cousin Danny, as well as the awful convergence of normal human errors and failures that led to a tragedy out of proportion to those individual failures.

A very readable and compelling book. Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

[carolesrandomlife · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked this book. I have had a review copy of this book for about a year and a half and put it off after I started seeing mixed reviews. That was a mistake because this book worked really well for me. It is a rather short book but I think it moved fast for me because of how the story flowed. I just didn't want to quit turning pages once I reached a certain point in the story. I was curious about the characters and their histories from the start of the book. The more that I read the more that I hooked. These characters have a lot of issues to deal with and I really wanted to see things work out for them. I am kind of surprised by how many tough topics found their way into this story but it worked.This story follows Elsie. Elsie's twin brother, Eddie, died in a drowning accident 5 years earlier. Elsie and the rest of her family are just trying to keep moving forward but in many ways they are failing. Elsie's dad leaves for long periods of time and nobody knows where he is. Her mom drinks more than she should. Elsie isn't doing well in school and has no friends. Dillon seems to doing the best in the group but that's not really the case.Elsie doesn't remember exactly what happened the day that Eddie died but she wants to remember. When she meets Tay and the other diving boys, she ends up learning to dive and finds that she feels closer to her lost brother under the water. She is remembering things and hopes to learn what happened just as her family is falling apart.There were a few times in the story that I wanted to shake the characters for some of their actions but I always felt that what they did felt authentic. People don't always do what they should and as teenagers it can be even harder. While I didn't always like what the characters were doing, I understood why they made the choices that they did. I would recommend this book to others. It was a book that had a really strong finish that made me feel for the characters. I am really a bit upset that I put this one off for as long as I did. I would definitely read more from Sarah Alexander in the future.I received an advance reader copy of this book from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group - HMH Books for Young Readers via NetGalley.

[muddyboy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The crux of this young adult novel is a young girl (Elsie) trying to reconstruct the drowning of her twin brother years before. She befriends a crowd of young boys who are involved in a sport called freediving which consists of spending longer and longer times underwater. The book is supposed to take place in Scotland but there is no hint that it does in the characters' accents, culture or the geographical locations mentioned. The early relationship building is pretty slow but things do speed up as she gets closer to learning all the events surrounding the death of her brother start to become clear. Hold your breathe on this one (freediving).