You can see that there is help for her, the help that she needs, if only she would embrace it. You want Emma to speak out, to tell people what is happening to her. The scenes where Emma quite literally fears walking in her front door, where she holds her breath as she attempts to get to her room without being seen/stopped/accosted/etc are tense and generate a breathlessness in the reader as well. It’s not uncommon and this book isn’t afraid to tackle the ugly side and give it to you raw. On one hand, this book is highlighting a topic I don’t often see addressed so frankly, one of systematic abuse. I think that for me, Reason To Breathe is going to be one of them. But the story itself is so infinitely readable that you can forgive a lot of errors. There are some books out there that may not be that particularly well written, technique wise, and you can find frustration with the characters. This is one of those books where the words for what I want to say about it don’t come very easily. Even if it means lying to not only the people that are making her life hell, but also one of the few people that she’s coming to really care about. But Evan changes all that – for the first time Emma finds herself wanting to take the risks involved. Emma hasn’t dated before, not willing to go into the complications that come with that: no phone privileges, no having anyone over at the house, always having to make up excuses for why she can’t go somewhere or do something or why she has this bruise or that cut.
Evan is charming and funny and very interested in Emma. But Emma’s carefully constructed life begins to fall apart when Evan Matthews moves to town and begins attending her school. She knows she doesn’t have long left, just her last two years of high school and then she can be free forever. Her best friend Sara knows, mostly through guesswork as Emma doesn’t like to speak of it. But it isn’t enough.Įmma is always very careful to guard the secret of her home life tight around her. Emma keeps herself busy – she’s got a 4.0, she’s editor of the school newspaper and she plays three sports to keep her out of the house as much as possible and away from Carol. Since then, for the last 4 years, Emma has suffered persistent mental and physical abuse at the hands of Carol who makes it absolutely clear that she considers Emma nothing but a burden. Her father died when she was young and her mother became unable to care for her so Emma was placed with her uncle, her father’s brother George and his wife Carol at the age of 12. Emma Thomas is counting down the days until she finishes high school and can leave.
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