Review: Topical and romantic ... like a teen drama should be...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 19, 2013
"Catch My Breath" is sort of for older YA...teens past 17 and adults who, for whatever reason, never grew up. (which would include me, BTW)Having followed all the online flutter about the boy band "One Direction," this book stands out in my mind as a bit of pop culture timeliness - and as a "today" variation on the classic theme of how the music industry (which could be the film industry or the television industry) controls and manipulates the lives of its talent to maximize money.Four boys are pulled from a mass audition because someone thinks they might just work as an ensemble. Add a fifth boy, who innocently attends an open-mic session at a local talent show, and you have "Static," the latest artificial popster music sensation.The good thing is that these five boys all become friends - all come to truly love each other as brothers and fellow singers. They love what they do and want to be more than just another boy band.  The more complex thing is that two of these young men, Elliott and Danny, realize that their friendship is different from that of the other three. When Danny and Elliott cross the line between friendship and love, things get messy.O'Shea makes Danny and Elliott - through whose eyes we see the story unroll - both sympathetic and believable. Teetering between childhood and adulthood, coping with feelings they've either repressed or denied, both guys struggle to adapt, to maintain some sort of personal integrity in the face of the cold-blooded manipulation of the corporate managers.What is particularly interesting to me in "Catch my Breath" is the presence of the twittersphere of fans as a sort of post-modern, millennial Greek Chorus.  The girls (and, one suspects, maybe a few boys) who latch onto Danny and Elliott's friendship and begin to "ship" it, become an echo of tween youth culture in America today. (The whole shipping phenom, putting two characters in any given TV show or cultural entity, and making them lovers, is fascinating in itself). But the core of the tale is how these two young men deal with their feelings for each other and for their three bandmates. How much of yourself do you give up to make sure those you care about don't get hurt?While love is the point, as in any romance, friendship seems to be the solution. In an era of teen hookups and friends with benefits, I am, for one, happy to read about true love.