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Title: Breathe

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Anne-Sophie Brasme

Narrator: Cynthia Hopkins

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-29-15

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Beautifully written, with an astonishing maturity, Anne-Sophie Brasme's Breathe is the haunting confession of 19-year-old Charlene Boher. From her prison cell, Charlene recounts her troubled childhood and lonely adolescence - that is until she meets the confident and charismatic Sarah, the new girl at school with a magnetic presence. To Charlene's disbelief and delight, they become the best of friends. But as their seemingly idyllic relationship sours and friendship veers toward obsession, Charlene's blind devotion spirals into hatred. Is Sarah really as manipulative and malicious as Charlene thinks? Or has Charlene become unhinged and poisoned by jealousy? Unfolding slowly and eerily toward its conclusion, Breathe is a psychologically rich and convincing portrait of the dangerous intensity of friendship.

Members Reviews:

That rare instance where the movie is better than the book.

I requested this book through library loan after seeing the movie, which I enjoyed. I may have said this one other time in my life, but the movie was better than the book - and I mean a LOT better. I'm frankly amazed that someone read this and decided it would make a good movie. Although to be completely accurate, that didn't happen since the film bears little resemblance to the book. This is a good thing. While the two actresses who play Charlie and Sarah in the film bring the story to life, there's not much story to be found here. Rather than showing us a dysfunctional relationship between an unhappy teen and the charismatic new girl who slowly destroys her, as the film does, the book consists of a plodding narrative that essentially consists of "and then this happened and this happened and this happened." Very little dialogue and zero character development. The book Sarah has none of the charm of the movie Sarah, only the nastiness, so we're at a loss as to why Charlie allows her to control her. The book Charlie is just bland and emotionless, placidly accepting Sarah's abuse without seeming to harbor any ill will towards her for it, which makes the ending come out of nowhere. The movie did a much better job of portraying Charlie's hurt and anger, and the "big event" was born of an explosion of these feelings.

This is a short book, just over one hundred pages, and yet it took me more than a week to slog through it. I'm glad I saw the movie first, since I wouldn't have gone near it after suffering through this dull book.

terrific insightful tale

Nineteen year old Charlene Boher has been in prison for two years now for murder. Everyone seems to need to know whether she feels any remorse for killing, but Charlene feels nothing inside except the loneliness that has eaten at her for most of her life. With so much time, she decides to write an autobiography to explain why she feels no regret and there for must be inhuman.

Reflecting back to her lonely preadolescence Charlene remembers her room was her sunny castle until school when she met Vanessa, but that friendship ended when Vanessa's family moved; her room once again became the castle of Charlene the hermit. The fights between her parents when she was seven consequently led to the destruction of her family. Charlene feels all alone until as a teen she met Sarah, who shockingly befriended her.