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Buy Don’t Breathe A Word by Holly Cupala
Special: $8.49 (Regular price: $8.99)
Publisher: Harper Teen
Format: Paperback
Reviewer: Melissa on January 26, 2011
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Joy Delamore can’t breathe. She’s suffering from asthma, from her parent’s over protectiveness, and from her boyfriend, Asher, who is smothering the girl she is from the inside out. Everything’s okay until the night his words go too far. To escape, she runs away to the streets of Seattle to find the homeless boy, Creed, who offered her help. Introduced to a world of loyalty, new rules of survival, and love, it’s not something that she’ll let go of without a struggle. Holly Cupala‘s sophomore novel, Don’t Breathe A Word, is a powerful look at abuse, secrets, redemption, and the extraordinary lengths a young girl will go through to prove just how strong she is.
Edgy, contemporary YA books are the ones that I gravitate toward, but even I’ll admit that they aren’t created equally. Don’t Breathe A Word is one of the great ones, so if you like them, stop reading this review right now and just pick it up. Need a little more convincing or context? Then I ought to tell you that Cupala renders every moment, from the smallest detail to major scenes, beautifully. Early on, she makes allusions to games I used to play as a child, like “Light as a feather, stiff as a board,” but with a bit of a meta fiction twist that I appreciated. She also has such a firm grasp on the use of extended metaphors and their regular counterparts that you’ll find yourself in awe of her writing and completely drawn into the narrative. Don’t be surprised if you start and finish this novel in one sitting like I did. (Just don’t forget to breathe.)
As with her debut novel, Tell Me A Secret, secrets are an important theme here. Joy, of course, has secrets about her life with Asher that she keeps from her family, her street “family,” the readers, and in a way, from herself, in the sense that she doesn’t admit or believe the complete truth. Likewise the people she meets on the street have secrets about their life before they became homeless and what they do to survive. As the novel moves on, however, Cupala reveals many – not all – of these secrets in a way that is gritty, mostly realistic, and hopeful. It’s the kind of execution that makes readers want to listen even when it’s hard, or perhaps, especially then. At all times, the “truth” of her story is paramount, which is so important in this genre, and it means that, for me at least, Cupala’s become an author to watch.
One of the things that I particularly liked about this novel is that even though it ends on a hopeful note, not everything is wrapped up in a pretty bow. Joy starts at a low point, descends further in some ways, but is finally able to have some resolution. Are there additional improvements that are to be had? Definitely, but even a small improvement with a chance for further changes is important. It also means that the author doesn’t ever pretend that change will come easily for Joy or anyone in her situation.
Finally, one of the best things about Don’t Breathe A Word is the light it sheds on verbal and emotional abuse. Like many teens and even some adults, Joy believes that Asher’s controlling behavior isn’t abuse. She feels guilty when people she meets think Asher has “abused” her, and she lets them believe it. Because threatening someone isn’t abuse, right? Intimidating someone and feeling like you owe them something makes sense, doesn’t it? Through Joy’s story, readers will recognize that abuse is more than just sexual and physical violence. It’s just one more way that a novel can prove YA saves lives.
Don’t Breathe A Word is the kind of book that you won’t soon forget.
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