Review: That was beautiful.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 12, 2014
A little too descriptive, overly emotional, Breathing Ghosts is a very simple story.A girl dies. A boy is left behind.But it's the simple stories that always work the best for me. I felt for River so much. I felt his loss like it was my own. I wanted to chase her ghost the same way he did and I hoped she would be wherever he followed her, even though it's illogical, hopeless. I spent a good portion of this book ugly crying.While the book isn't necessarily in the romance genre, it is most definitely a love story. You get glimpses of who Nia was and what she meant to River and you can't help falling in love a little with her.And the way she was taken from him so suddenly, you feel that with every chapter end. His life was dark and colorless and she was the rainbow in it. It really felt like his life would fall apart without her.They seemed to exist solely for each other in their perfect little bubble where they were happy, but throughout the story you get it... River was afraid of living. Nia was afraid of not living. You can see how it would cause some trouble in their relationship. The obstacles they had to face, the problems they had, they felt real.The twins, Carter and June were such a welcome addition to River's lonely existence. It's a road trip type of book (my favorite!) and I was afraid of River spending a lot of his time alone (because that gets boring really fast).The little June angle... I liked it."Because maybe the truth is we are all made of star stuff. All of us swirling out there in this incredible void. It's dark and it's cold and it's lonely and sometimes we're not even sure that we exist at all. But then we see a flash, another spark. We feel a hand slip into ours. And we don't even feel the cold anymore. We feel found."Now, the writing. Like I already said, it's a bit heavier on the description. I'm sure some people love that. For me, endless descriptions bore me to death. Not only that, but they require zero imagination while reading. Everything is right there, on the pages.And the book is really slow paced (if you're a fan of angst and intense drama, I doubt you'd like the book). I have to say the little action-y sequences were very welcome and I loved them.But the fact that the book pulled on every single one of my heartstrings says a lot, and I can't bear lowering the rating because the author likes to describe things. Seems unfair.The book is told solely from River's POV (loved that!) and it alternates between flashback and present chapters.For those who like to know these things, there are no sex scenes, although sex is implied. I liked it like that.Essentially, it's a story about grief and loss, but it's so much more than that as well. It's about the little sliver of hope that even the saddest things can be overcome if you don't let them take over your life.I think this author has great things ahead of her. I already got her third book, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed I like that one, too :).Definitely recommended