Breathe, by Elena Dillon, also showed so much promise. The cover, on my nook, has a mysterious white Jasmine flower on it. It caught my eye and I was immediately intrigued. But, since I know how dangerous it is to trust a book's cover, I made sure to closely read the summary as well. The synopsis pulled me in right away too. Breathe tells the story of a girl, Jasmine, who's family was torn apart by tragedy: her older sister, Daisy, was murdered by a serial killer two years prior and he was never caught. Her family is now moving to a new town, where no one knows their sad story, to pick up the pieces and start fresh. Everything is going swimmingly for Jasmine until she starts getting messages from her sister's killer.
I know, right? Sounds good. I had to have the book immediately--I love books that creep me out. When I read Blue is for Nightmares the suspense had me on the edge of my seat--I could barely read it at night without freaking out. Unfortunately, Breathe just didn't do that for me--I was sitting fully in my seat the whole time. And, I don't know, maybe part of that's because when I read Blue is for Nightmares(another YA thriller) I was, actually a young adult. My expectations were a little lower than they are now. Perhaps now that I'm a grown-up (though that's somewhat debatable), YA fiction just can't entertain me the way it used to. Regardless, I will say that, as of right now, this book just didn't match up to my expectations or my other YA favorites.
One of the biggest problems I have with Breathe (and actually a problem I had with Abandon too) was the main character. I liked Jasmine a lot more than I liked Pierce, I'll give Dillon that much--Jasmine is a character with a lot of potential. Dillon creates a consistent, interesting character, with an interesting thought process and believable flaws. I particularly like Jasmine's penchant for lying, though I think Dillon perhaps reveals it a little too late in the book. Jasmine's talk of compartmentalizing her feelings and the parts of her life is interesting because, I think a lot of girls, and people in general, do that. We take the unpleasant things and box them away to cope, and sometimes we find ourselves lying so convincingly that even we start to believe it. In addition, through Jasmine's own opinion of her lying, and through Easton, her boyfriend's, reaction to it, we see both the positive and negative aspects--lying as both a necessity to keep it all together, and as an unhealthy, manipulative talent that introduces some moral issues.
So, for the most part, it was Jasmine's character that kept me reading. But, she is also the cause of many of the problems I had with this book. For example, throughout the whole story you'll be subjected to her irritating inability to tell that she's beautiful, despite the fact that everyone keeps commenting on how gorgeous she is. Female characters who behave this way are overused, annoying, and sometimes a little boring. In the real world, yes, there are a lot of women who are too insecure to recognize their beauty--young girls especially. But there are also a heck of a lot of girls who know how pretty they are and use it as an excuse to be mean. And there are plenty of individuals who think they're a whole lot more good-looking than they are, too. In my opinion, those characters are a lot more interesting because they haven't been done 100 million times. I mean, come one, aren't you tired of reading about (and watching movies about) these gorgeous girls who think they're plain? It's an insult to those of us who aren't actually gorgeous that all these beautiful people are portrayed as ugly. And if they are considered ugly then what hope is there for the rest of us. So authors, make up your minds! Your character's either ugly or she's not--don't keep giving girls role models with huge insecurity issues. Teach them how to live with either their beauty, or plainess in a strong, healthy way.
In defense of Jasmine, most of her annoying tendencies are brought out by her romantic interest, Easton, aka "Dream Guy," who turns her into a swooning, stereotypical teenage girl, and who's far too possessive for having just met her. I mean, I know he's southern and charming, but people don't really fall into "I'd die for you" love that quickly. Yes he might try to help her out, and yes they might like each other a heck of a lot, but he's supposed to be like 17 or 18 and he's convinced she's "the one" for him. A little unbelievable, even in the polite, southern setting. On top of that, the way he treats her, though it's played off as romantic, seemed a little overbearing to me. He's always getting involved in her business and telling her how to take care of herself. I mean I get that he's her boyfriend, but I found it a little weird--they're in high school, not married. And instead of drawing attention to the fact that Easton and Jasmine's relationship is a little off, it's portrayed as dreamy and perfect. I think my dislike of this just goes back to the role model thing--if we keep teaching young women that they should be treated like possessions, then how will they ever develop self respect? Is Easton an awful, terrible example of a man? No, of course not. He really isn't bad at all--I just happened to notice that Jasmine, while figuring herself out, is actually least sure of herself and her own strength when around Easton, and it was frustrating to see. She keeps calling him her safe place without acknowledging that she's strong enough to take care of herself.
Continuing my rant against Easton (yes, I know, I'm the crazy girl who hates knights in shining armor), Easton stunts Jasmine's development.The whole time we see her becoming a stronger, more confident character, coming into her own and, eventually, developing and executing a plan to take down the monster who took her sister away. She changes from a helpless victim, to a capable, if scared, young woman who refuses to let her sister's murderer hurt her family again. I think Jasmine's encounter with "The Monster" highlights both my favorite and least favorite aspects of Jasmine and the book as a whole. Did she make the right decision to fight him on her own? Maybe not--understand that I definitely do not encourage young women to challenge their stalkers all alone--but for the story it was perfect. Instead of living in fear she calls on her ability to lie, which, though perhaps unhealthy, gives her strength, and she does what she has to do. And then, all of a sudden, Easton comes in and ruins it! Easton is the one who ultimately saves her from the Monster--coming charging out of the forest and besting him in a manly tussle. For all her ingenuity, Jasmine still has to be saved by her big, strong, handsome prince.
Moving on from that, the main characters are not the only problem I have with the story. The other characters are an issue as well, as is the dialogue/dialect. The dialogue issue was pretty straightforward, Dillon doesn't keep up with Easton, or anyone else's accents or southern-specific vocabulary. It's kind of randomly thrown in there in a way I didn't find natural, and because it's not consistent, it just draws thw wrong kind of attention to itself. It would have been better for her to leave it out altogether and let the readers' imagination fill in the accent.
Meanwhile, there are really no minor characters of any interest. They're thrown in there because they have to be, but they're not explored at all--it almost would have been better not to add some of them in the first place. As you read, it seems like Dillon is going to make an interesting character out of Julia, Jasmine's best friend, or Lisa, the girl who resents Jasmine for dating Easton, but nothing comes of either of them. And even Trenton, Easton's little brother, who has a crush on Jasmine big enough that it caused a problem for him and his brother, yet Dillon only dedicates one short conversation to the issue. They're just loose threads leaving the reader with unanswered questions. In addition, this lack of interesting minor characters just puts a spotlight on the issues with Jasmine and Easton's relationship.
And finally, the nail in the coffin: this book still could have been saved, had it delivered the thriller-esque suspense it promised. I wanted to be scared. This was supposed to be a book about a girl with a murdered sister dealing with a psycho, serial killer. And instead it read like a YA romance novel. In other words, don't hold your breath waiting for the appearance of Daisy's killer, we barely see anything from "The Monster" until perhaps the last 150 pages of a 600 page book. Instead we're following Jasmine and Easton around, waiting for something to happen and repeatedly being disappointed. I think, perhaps, Dillon lost sight of what the book was supposed to be about. Yes, we needed to see Jasmine settling into her new hometown, and being lulled into a false sense of security, but then you have to unsettle that! If you don't then it's just a romance novel, and you should have committed to making it only a romance novel, so people like me, who wanted scary, don't pick it up and remain bored until just before the end. By focusing more of the story on the scary aspects, I think a lot of the books other problems would have been resolved. There wouldn't have been so much Easton being polite and "perfect," more time would have been spent on the plot and less on forcing the dialogue, and it would have been less obvious that other characters are left completely undeveloped.
So, I have another one for the box. This book was cheap, so I won't tell you to avoid it altogether. As I said, I was less disappointed with it than Abandon, and it's not bad. It caught and kept my attention for a reason, and I'd like to check out other titles by Dillon to see if she improves. But Breathe just wasn't anything I'd run out and buy--you're not missing anything if you skip it. And next week, I promise, I've learned my lesson and I intend to read something more appropriate for my age.
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