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Type of bind: Hardcover
EAN num: 9781595140944
ISBN number: 1595140948
Label: Razorbill
Manufacturer: Razorbill
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: November 08, 2007
Publishing house: Razorbill
Age index: Young Adult
Sale Popularity Level: 142310
Studio: Razorbill
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
I need to see you.
Please come right away.
We have to finish.
Frances Robinson is in high school now. She lives a quiet, suburban life, far from her horrifying past. When she was a child, her birthmother smothered her three sisters. Through pure luck, Frances survived. Now her mother has just been released from prison . . . and she wants to see Frances.
A new boy at school called Nix charms Frances. Together, Nix and Frances embark on a clandestine journey to visit Frances’ mother: to confront the monster in its lair. This trip will help Frances at last find peace—or die trying. But no matter what, Frances will discover just what it means to finish.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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This book is great! The only thing I would have changed about it is the title. It should have been called SMOTHER. Not only because of Frances' mother, but because of her new parents. If you have ever experienced smother-love you can relate to this book. I loved the mystery, the romance and the humour too. The author knows what it's like to want to grow up only to find out you can't because people want to keep you safe. I couldn't put it down until I finished.
Rated by buyers 
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The premise of this book was fine: the mother whose lost touch with reality, the children who pay along with her fantasy, the teenage girl who is trying to understand what happened to her. The reality of it all was predictable; but then the story comes to a ridiculous head at the end of the book, which turned the entire thing into a disappointment.
Rated by buyers -
"Breathe My Name" may just well get readers with the half creepy half intriguing cover - the name written into a sort of fog/steam. It's pretty cool, but also has a creepy vibe to it.
That's a good way to describe the book itself. "Breathe My Name" has a really intriguing setting. The chilling concept of killing one's own children through insanity is disturbing but also very real. Nelson handles this difficult topic almost easily, creating a well-written book with a series of realistic and different characters whose interactions with each other are vivid and accurate to reality.
"Breathe My Name" is the kind of book that is impossible to put down. So clear your afternoon. It's a book that makes you think, makes your brain itch, and makes your eyes hurt from straining them late in the night. It's suspenseful and at times frightening, not with gross deeds, but rather with psychological ones.
I liked Frances' emotional development. I liked that she wasn't always ready for things and didn't just deal with everything handily as it came. I liked how each character was so individual and special, all balancing the others out. France's voice is clear and believable, the love story is not overdone, and the plot is well-spaced.
The only part that I perhaps liked least of all was the ending. I felt that compared to such a strong book, it was somewhat weak. Nelson certainly could have strengthened the ending with just a bit more writing, just a bit more discussion, just a bit more emotion, but ultimately, the reader is left with very strong positive feelings.
This is an interesting book about mental illnesses and dealing with traumatic pasts. Nelson's writing is really great, the plot never stops, and the characters are all well-made. It's an excellent book, until the ending, where it becomes simply a very good book. It's not for those with weak stomachs, and expect to cry (or want to cry) several times throughout the read.
On the whole, recommended.
Rated by buyers 
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Much of the current YA fiction seems to be depressing and morbid and while this book certainly fits both those descriptions, it is also well-written and hopeful.
I enjoyed the subtlety in which Frances releases herself from her emotional prison; smothering is an underlying topic not only because of the past she shares with her mother and dead sisters, but because of her smothering adoptive family and the way she smothers her own emotions. It's very easy for the reader to feel Frances' growth as she breaks free of her past, her present and herself.
The trip she takes to confront her mother, her father, her memories, is poignant and memorable and while some of the scenes between her and her hero/savior/love-interest are a bit contrived, they are not unbelievable. The thee main teens are interesting and play well off each other. For much of the novel, Frances doesn't display much personality, nor does she seem very self-aware. Her best friend is the opposite and serves to show strength and confidence, as does the mysterious new boy who helps her save herself.
I was really taken with the book up until the end. Once Frances makes it to the safe-house where her mother is being kept, it seemed that the book becomes the screenplay for an episode of Scooby-Doo; the appearance of a nefarious villain, who wouldn't have been out of place in saying, "And it would have worked, too, had it not been for you meddling child!", bordered on the ridiculous. The book could have ended in the mental ward and that would have made sense to end on a note of hope, love and redemption, but it seems the author wanted Frances to have a little more closure. I found that closure to be not only super-quick, but also unbelievable; people just don't get to tie up deep emotional problems that neatly or with the support of the volunteer fire department. I was horribly disappointed in the end and felt that I had been let down and that Frances had been created as a real-feeling persona only to have that taken away so she could become a caricature for all abused children who have succesfully healed themselves and entered healthy adulthood.
Regardless, the book is still worth reading. Not only does it satisfy the horrified voyeur of the tragic and senseless, but it offers hope that even the worst cases can have healthy outcomes.
Rated by buyers -
Frances Robinson's story has a lot in common with several news stories in recent years. Eleven years ago, her biological mother smothered her three younger sisters, and if it hadn't been for the arrival of a total stranger, Frances might have been next.
BREATHE MY NAME picks up when Frances is eighteen and a junior in high school. She lives with her loving adoptive parents in a nice home in a nice town. She is relatively happy, but things are about to change.
First, Frances meets Nix, a new student who just moved from New Orleans. He's a bit different but strangely fascinating. As lab partners, they begin to get to know each other and share stories. But there's a story Frances can't seem to share - the story of her mother and her sisters. How do you tell someone you care about something like that?
The other change for Frances comes in the form of a letter delivered by a special messenger. It appears to be from her mother, who has been locked up for the past eleven years. She is about to be released to a group home and seems to be requesting to meet with Frances.
R. A. Nelson's BREATHE MY NAME tells the amazing story of a young girl trying to come to grips with her past and decide how to move on with the future. Readers will find themselves pulled into the lives on the pages and carried along the sometimes frightening and bumpy ride as Frances takes control of her own destiny. This book is well worth reading.
Reviewed Author name: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"
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