Breathe My Name

"Frances can forgive. She can even forget. But she can never escape her past .

A compelling psychological thriller from the acclaimed author of Teach Me. Frances Robinson has the perfect life: loving adoptive parents, a great best friend, and a cute new boyfriend. But Frances has a secret.

Once upon a time she wasn't Frances Robinson. She was Shine, and she lived with her three sisters and her birth mother, Afton Jelks, far out in the country. But the loneliness overtook Afton's fragile mind, and one day she smothered her daughters, one after another. Only Frances escaped.

Now Afton is out of prison. And she wants to finish what she started. . . ."

I finished Breathe My Name by R. A. Nelson last night, and though it was a good book, the writing was terrible.

Here's a list of reasons why I did not like this book:
-R. has no idea how to write girls. They do not act like that at all.
-Nix is just weird.
-I looked, and there was not a single exclamation point in the entire book. Like right here:

A blind fury rises inside me. "I--I don't want to be your little Button anymore. I don't want to be safe anymore. I want to do things. I want to go places that aren't prefab little rich person wonderland [CENSORED]."

It doesn't say that she struggles to keep her voice down, or that she reined in her anger. She said it in a flat monotone, even though she was supposedly furious. I looked so hard for an exclamation point, and I couldn't find a single one! Also, no one on Earth says "God" so much! I'm flipping open to a random age right now, which happens to be page 75. How many times is it written? Once. Okay, that page wasn't the best example, but give me a second to find one. In two half-pages, there are five times she said "God" and I distinctly remember reading a paragraph that had 5 "God"s. It was only three sentences! My friend was reading over my shoulder, and she said, "Oh my gosh, why does she say 'God' so much? It's so annoying!"

I despise the writing. The ending was weak. Frances/Francine cries and freaks out too much. The dialogue wasn't very authentic, but it was okay. The characters were unrealistic. However, the climax was exciting, and I loved the twist, as well as the plot.

All in all, the book gets 6.9 or 7 out of 10 stars.

A reader who needs a book with good writing,
Nadia