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Don't Breathe a Word
Joy delamere is suffocating.
From asthma, from her parents, and from her boyfriend, Asher, who is smothering her from the inside out. She can take his cruel words, his tender words . . . until the night they go too far.
To escape, Joy sacrifices her suburban life to find the one who offered his help, a homeless boy called Creed. He introduces her to a world of fierce loyalty, to its rules of survival, and to love—a world she won’t easily let go.
Set against the backdrop of the streets of Seattle, Holly Cupala’s powerful new novel explores the subtleties of abuse, the secrets we keep, and the ways to redemption. But above all, it is an unflinching story about the extraordinary lengths one girl will go to discover her own strength.
From asthma, from her parents, and from her boyfriend, Asher, who is smothering her from the inside out. She can take his cruel words, his tender words . . . until the night they go too far.
To escape, Joy sacrifices her suburban life to find the one who offered his help, a homeless boy called Creed. He introduces her to a world of fierce loyalty, to its rules of survival, and to love—a world she won’t easily let go.
Set against the backdrop of the streets of Seattle, Holly Cupala’s powerful new novel explores the subtleties of abuse, the secrets we keep, and the ways to redemption. But above all, it is an unflinching story about the extraordinary lengths one girl will go to discover her own strength.
299 pages, Paperback
First published January 3, 2012
About the author
Holly Cupala
2 books271 followersHolly Cupala wrote teen romance novels before she ever actually experienced teen romance. When she did, it became all about tragic poetry and slightly less tragic novels. When she isn't making art and writing, she spends time with her husband and children in Seattle, Washington. These days, her writing is less about tragedy and more about hope.
Part of the author's proceeds from this book will go toward helping sexually exploited girls around the globe. TELL ME A SECRET is her first novel. Visit her at http://www.hollycupala.com.
Part of the author's proceeds from this book will go toward helping sexually exploited girls around the globe. TELL ME A SECRET is her first novel. Visit her at http://www.hollycupala.com.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 389 reviews
March 30, 2012
3.5
I did that stupid thing where I don't check what a book's about before I start reading it with Don't Breathe a Word. The synopsis on the back of the paperback I have is quite ambiguous but it looked like a relatively short, interesting read. I began to be concerned when I realised it was another tale about abuse, I would never have started it so soon after a powerful novel like Split had I known.
However, Don't Breathe a Word is actually a completely different type of novel. Split is very realistic, brutal, in-your-face and painfully honest. It is also the significantly better book of the two. This novel, on the other hand, felt somewhat dreamlike. Joy's narrative alternates between the past and the present, the reasons for her decision to run away are introduced gradually in random flashes of memory. The writing is prettier than that in Split and I liked reading it, but it wasn't as powerful or meaningful for me either.
I'm starting to lean too much towards the negative here and I don't mean to, I rounded it up to four stars for a reason. Because this book isn't just about abuse, it's about the troubles faced by the 1.6 million runaways in the United States every year. How the majority of them will be assaulted in one way or another in their first month of living on the streets, and how many end up selling sex to buy food and clothes. Several colourful and intriguing characters are present in this novel, each with a different story and a vibrant personality. May, a girl who through struggles and heartache discovers she has talents beyond what she can offer with her naked body. Santos, the boy with the secrets and a pet ferret, who sneaks away in the evening and comes back with haunted eyes. And Creed, the musician who speaks to Joy's soul with his guitar.
And my comments about the writing were not supposed to be negative, take a look:
"At home, they'd clipped my wings and then caged me so I couldn't fall. Here, they bandaged one another's broken wings, helped each other fly."
I think the factor that most let down this story and made it 3.5 stars was the ending. Split does not have a perfect ending and some opportunities are missed, but Swati Avasthi recognises that in real life things don't always go the way you want and not everyone gets a happily ever after - and that's kinda the beauty of the novel. Don't Breathe a Word feels like a rushed super-happy conclusion, everyone's problems get solved within a few pages and the only unhappy one was the bad guy. I don't want to be left heartbroken, but the too-perfectness of it took something away.
Also, I think I should stop reading afterwords. I get choked up at nearly every single one, even when I've spent an entire emotional novel not shedding a tear.
May 20, 2016
"No one would believe that words could be as damaging as fists."
Don't Breathe A Word can be easily overlooked because of the many contemporaries out there. It's a unique story that is indeed flawed in some ways but it shines in others.
It is told from the point of view of Joy Delamere. She is running away.
From her parents, that care too much.
From her asthma.
From her boyfriend that goes too far.
She turns to the streets of Seattle to find the homeless boy who offered her help when she needed it most.
"If you ever need help, you know where to find me."
While exploring a new, never imagined life for Joy, the story is intertwined with flashbacks. The flashbacks deepen the story and with every one of them you are discovering the reasons behind Joy's decision to run away.
I loved the flashbacks. They were the best parts of the story for me. The book deals with abuse but not in the usual way. It's not punches that her boyfriend caged her with. It was with his words.
I absolutely adored the side characters, though I'm not sure if adored is the right way to put it. I adored their characterization. For example Asher, Joy's abusive boyfriend my least favorite character, but in my opinion, by far the one that was the most well written. I despised him. He had a personality, which made him human enough to hate. And I love when authors don't make villains that are just a plain shells of evil. His portrayal, his power over her, send shivers down my spine from complete and utter hate.
"He was brutal about things not fitting into his aesthetic. My clothes, for instance. In the six months since we'd been dating, the colour had drained from my wardrobe. Shapes went from loose to sleek, even though I was always pulling at my hemlines- alien to me but beautiful to him."
But while I loved the characterization of him, and other side characters I couldn't connect with the main character or her love interest. The romance was another thing that nagged me. Their connection was made too quickly to feel real. I found it sweet, but I personally couldn't bring myself to care.
The very ending felt forced. It delivered justice, but made it too idealistic. Everything was solved. Situations suddenly unraveled themselves and the ending seemed rushed.
January 20, 2012
"He had reduced me to ashes.
And now I would rise." - Triste
Raw, gritty and terrifying but beautiful. Don't Breathe A Word is a kind of book that will give you a healthy dose of realism. It has the kind of characters that will make you feel their struggle, frustration, anger, pain and happiness as if it was yours. The kind of book that will make you think hard, throwing yourself questions if you were in her shoes, "what would I do if it was me"? The beautiful writing pulled me into the story from the first page right untill the end. This book is on first narrative, the story deals with an asthmatic young girl named Joy and her story was revealed bit by bit leaving you to crave for more information of what drove her to leave the safety of her home into a very dangerous world of homeless people in the street. Intense dangers and also vivid settings as a part of street life, at some point my heart skipped a beat maybe even more, or so angry I felt a little sick, terrified or just pure joy.
I know this is already overused but well, I'd use it again if needed.. unputdownable. I finished this right after I got home, no matter how exhausted I was, I just had to know what happened. So eventually Joy had to change her name from Triste, which she/I reckon fits her life that moment. I also loved how music was a part of this story, since I came from a family who loves and plays music, and I really really like a guy who plays guitar mind you! His name is Creed(loved the name!), who was also a runaway whom Triste/Joy met in the street. And from there their journey begins...
"We're words enough to count as hurting?"
Yes! "Words cuts deeper than sword." And that my friend, will play a big part in this book. Ending was the kind of ending I'd like to read over and over again. I really really enjoyed this book, I think I even loved it. And after reading this, it's made me more self-aware, about young runaways and how we could do something about by simply helping those close to you who needs a friend, or by our neighborhood donating or by volunteering in a shelter. "A portion of her(Holly Cupala) proceeds goes toward helping sexually exploited girls around the world."
loved this:
Creed took another bite of his sandwich. “There was this
horse I used to know. Callisto—named after a nymph of
Artemis.”
“Goddess of the hunt,” I supplied.
“Yes. She was so beautiful—honey colored, with deep
black eyes. She used to love to run on the beach, except
she’d always pull toward the water. Over and over again,
this would happen. I took her out to run on the beach, and
she would try to gallop straight into the ocean.”
I realized I wasn’t even eating anymore, didn’t feel the
cold—only the rhythmic gallop of a horse named Callisto.
“So what happened?”
“One day I let her.”
“You let her go into the ocean?”
“Yeah. I just held on to the reins and let her go wherever
she wanted to go.”
“And?”
“She kept going. Into the ocean, further and further until
she was all the way up to her neck, straining against the
water. She didn’t swim. She just kept trotting, trying to go
where she knew she was meant to go.”
Maybe like Creed and his music, straining against the
waves. Like me, straining against my asthma and the reins
my family and Asher put on me because of it. At some point
the horse would have to stop struggling and go back to
shore or she would die. But for now, she’d left the reins
behind.
“I always think about that, when I think about why I’m
here,” Creed said.
The sun was almost completely behind the mountains
now, except for a sliver of gold. It was so beautiful, I thought
I could cry.
How I imagined Creed <3
And now I would rise." - Triste
Raw, gritty and terrifying but beautiful. Don't Breathe A Word is a kind of book that will give you a healthy dose of realism. It has the kind of characters that will make you feel their struggle, frustration, anger, pain and happiness as if it was yours. The kind of book that will make you think hard, throwing yourself questions if you were in her shoes, "what would I do if it was me"? The beautiful writing pulled me into the story from the first page right untill the end. This book is on first narrative, the story deals with an asthmatic young girl named Joy and her story was revealed bit by bit leaving you to crave for more information of what drove her to leave the safety of her home into a very dangerous world of homeless people in the street. Intense dangers and also vivid settings as a part of street life, at some point my heart skipped a beat maybe even more, or so angry I felt a little sick, terrified or just pure joy.
I know this is already overused but well, I'd use it again if needed.. unputdownable. I finished this right after I got home, no matter how exhausted I was, I just had to know what happened. So eventually Joy had to change her name from Triste, which she/I reckon fits her life that moment. I also loved how music was a part of this story, since I came from a family who loves and plays music, and I really really like a guy who plays guitar mind you! His name is Creed(loved the name!), who was also a runaway whom Triste/Joy met in the street. And from there their journey begins...
"We're words enough to count as hurting?"
Yes! "Words cuts deeper than sword." And that my friend, will play a big part in this book. Ending was the kind of ending I'd like to read over and over again. I really really enjoyed this book, I think I even loved it. And after reading this, it's made me more self-aware, about young runaways and how we could do something about by simply helping those close to you who needs a friend, or by our neighborhood donating or by volunteering in a shelter. "A portion of her(Holly Cupala) proceeds goes toward helping sexually exploited girls around the world."
loved this:
Creed took another bite of his sandwich. “There was this
horse I used to know. Callisto—named after a nymph of
Artemis.”
“Goddess of the hunt,” I supplied.
“Yes. She was so beautiful—honey colored, with deep
black eyes. She used to love to run on the beach, except
she’d always pull toward the water. Over and over again,
this would happen. I took her out to run on the beach, and
she would try to gallop straight into the ocean.”
I realized I wasn’t even eating anymore, didn’t feel the
cold—only the rhythmic gallop of a horse named Callisto.
“So what happened?”
“One day I let her.”
“You let her go into the ocean?”
“Yeah. I just held on to the reins and let her go wherever
she wanted to go.”
“And?”
“She kept going. Into the ocean, further and further until
she was all the way up to her neck, straining against the
water. She didn’t swim. She just kept trotting, trying to go
where she knew she was meant to go.”
Maybe like Creed and his music, straining against the
waves. Like me, straining against my asthma and the reins
my family and Asher put on me because of it. At some point
the horse would have to stop struggling and go back to
shore or she would die. But for now, she’d left the reins
behind.
“I always think about that, when I think about why I’m
here,” Creed said.
The sun was almost completely behind the mountains
now, except for a sliver of gold. It was so beautiful, I thought
I could cry.
How I imagined Creed <3
September 18, 2013
I am on the roll. It seems that every book I picked up in last five days was just simply amazing. Same thing goes for Don't Breathe a Word, novel written by Holly Cupala. One thing I really hate is when great books are overshadowed by most recent trashy romance novel. Tara Kelly, K.B. Hoyle, Holly Cupala are just some of authors that, by my humble opinion, deserve more attention.
It has been two years since I read Holly Cupala's debut novel, Tell Me a Secret. That book wasn't what I expected. I wanted to read something fun and light, but I got book that left me thinking about my own life and everything I used to take for granted. This time I was prepared. I knew that Don't Breathe a Word will not be unicorns and rainbows. I wasn't comfortable reading it, to be honest with you. I had to put it down few times, lie down and close my eyes for a while.
Holly Cupala in her second novel tells story about abuse and homeless teenagers trough the eyes of sixteen years old Joy, girl who tried to solve her problems by running away from home, but doing so she discovers whole new world of troubles and problems. One thing that I liked is that we find out about street life from several different perspectives and there is no sugar coated faery tales. My heart broke over and over again for Santos and May, I thing they are the most tragic characters. Only thing that I find lacking is ending. It isn't quite realistic and I think that I would be better if author didn't feel need to make her readers happy. I don't want to spoil it for all of you who didn't read it, but you will get what I mean when you do.
Don't Breathe a Word is perfect choice for everyone who looks for good realistic young adult fiction. Definitely one of the books that someday I'll get my daughter to read.
January 22, 2012
It's been a while since I last had such an intense reading experience as the one I had while reading this book. I knew from the moment I read its synopsis that this was going to be good, but I never imagined it will touch my soul to this proportion.
I'm struggling with words right now, because no matter what I say, I won't be able to describe the strong feelings this novel evocates in me. I will just tell you, this is a story you don't want to miss.
Joy is been dealing with a very difficult sittuation for more than a year, her ashtma, her sometimes oppressive family and her abusing boyfriend have become too much to handle. So Joy decides to leave everything behind and she abandons her home to find help from an street musician who once offered her that.
But being homeless was nothing like me, you, or Joy could have ever imagined and she will need all of her strenght to survive out there. You know, I've always thought that women who let others abuse them were weak, I thought they were in that position because they let themselves get there; but Joy really opened my eyes. She was not a weak girl, she does stuff that I could never imagined I would be able to do, I mean I shudder at the thought of sharing old chewed gum.
I don't encourage women to not speak up, but I now realize it takes guts to handle all that mind-twisting games without falling apart. As it also takes courage to walk away too. I am so proud of Joy, she did was she thought was the only answer and she didn't back down. She's my new hero.
Then we get to the actual part of Joy living on the streets of Seattle. She becomes a whole new person, she cannot be Joy anymore there's nothing joyful in her, so she becomes Triste. The name makes me giggle but it's actually really fitting. My throat closes at the thought of her first days alone on the streets, it was painful to witness and I wish no one will ever have to live through something like that, yet if someone does, I don't think they would be able to handle it as well as Triste, she was such a champ.
But no girl can survive on the streets by herself. And she meets Creed, a knight in ratty clothes. I won't try to describe my love and gratefulness towards Creed. Much like Triste, I thought he was the highlight of my day life, he is a kind, protective soul that is so selfless and caring he makes you forget you're even living in the streets. He's also a fabulous musician, like set-your-heart-on-fire-and-makes-your-insides-dance kind of good. I could feel the intesity of his music through the pages, and I was left wishing for more. He's the kind of people that make me want to be a doctor, just knowing there's people like him and in his situation, makes me want to pack my med supplies and go find them.
I say them because Creed takes Triste to where his "family" is. May and Santos, the other teenage kids that hang out with Creed. At first they lived in this awful, ruined, abandoned house that had no electricy or even running water but then May and Santos (and Creed) had such a tender, sweet and loving relationship that is probably 10 times better than any family in the suburbs. I loved May and Santos, I love them so much my heart aches. They're so mature and loyal, and despite all the hell they've been through they hadn't give up. You know the world is not so screwed up when you realize people that have been through so much can still be as amazing as them.
So basically, I'm talking as if these people were real. Why?, because Holly Cupala did a marvelous job at transforming reality into art, it's difficult to take a serious problem like abusive relationships and homeless teens and convert them into a story that captures reality without going over the top drama. I also loved the job she did with her description of the setting. And really, everything about her writing was powerful and captivating.
I'm struggling with words right now, because no matter what I say, I won't be able to describe the strong feelings this novel evocates in me. I will just tell you, this is a story you don't want to miss.
Joy is been dealing with a very difficult sittuation for more than a year, her ashtma, her sometimes oppressive family and her abusing boyfriend have become too much to handle. So Joy decides to leave everything behind and she abandons her home to find help from an street musician who once offered her that.
But being homeless was nothing like me, you, or Joy could have ever imagined and she will need all of her strenght to survive out there. You know, I've always thought that women who let others abuse them were weak, I thought they were in that position because they let themselves get there; but Joy really opened my eyes. She was not a weak girl, she does stuff that I could never imagined I would be able to do, I mean I shudder at the thought of sharing old chewed gum.
I don't encourage women to not speak up, but I now realize it takes guts to handle all that mind-twisting games without falling apart. As it also takes courage to walk away too. I am so proud of Joy, she did was she thought was the only answer and she didn't back down. She's my new hero.
Then we get to the actual part of Joy living on the streets of Seattle. She becomes a whole new person, she cannot be Joy anymore there's nothing joyful in her, so she becomes Triste. The name makes me giggle but it's actually really fitting. My throat closes at the thought of her first days alone on the streets, it was painful to witness and I wish no one will ever have to live through something like that, yet if someone does, I don't think they would be able to handle it as well as Triste, she was such a champ.
But no girl can survive on the streets by herself. And she meets Creed, a knight in ratty clothes. I won't try to describe my love and gratefulness towards Creed. Much like Triste, I thought he was the highlight of my day life, he is a kind, protective soul that is so selfless and caring he makes you forget you're even living in the streets. He's also a fabulous musician, like set-your-heart-on-fire-and-makes-your-insides-dance kind of good. I could feel the intesity of his music through the pages, and I was left wishing for more. He's the kind of people that make me want to be a doctor, just knowing there's people like him and in his situation, makes me want to pack my med supplies and go find them.
I say them because Creed takes Triste to where his "family" is. May and Santos, the other teenage kids that hang out with Creed. At first they lived in this awful, ruined, abandoned house that had no electricy or even running water but then May and Santos (and Creed) had such a tender, sweet and loving relationship that is probably 10 times better than any family in the suburbs. I loved May and Santos, I love them so much my heart aches. They're so mature and loyal, and despite all the hell they've been through they hadn't give up. You know the world is not so screwed up when you realize people that have been through so much can still be as amazing as them.
So basically, I'm talking as if these people were real. Why?, because Holly Cupala did a marvelous job at transforming reality into art, it's difficult to take a serious problem like abusive relationships and homeless teens and convert them into a story that captures reality without going over the top drama. I also loved the job she did with her description of the setting. And really, everything about her writing was powerful and captivating.
September 2, 2013
Review also posted at Ja čitam, a ti?
Holly Cupala is one of the authors my girl Glass put on my list called - authors-you-must-meet and I obeyed. Of course she was right. She always is. In the world of contemporary novels where everything is pink and lovely and where all stories get the happy ending it was time for reality and to discover more of a real world.
Because of Glass' review I was prepared for that mostly, but when it hits you it also makes you realize that you emotions you cannot prepare. Homelessness is something we're all really aware of to some extend but what really happens and how that world works is sometimes a mystery. You realize that it's not just finding food and surviving but it's also fighting. We get to meet this world through Asher, a boy who is one of the people in the story. A boy who has unfortunate story. We of course wouldn't get to meet Asher if it wasn't for Joy. Her name tells you one thing but her life is another story. She is not suffocating just because of asthma, but because of her parents who don't let her breathe. She must find a way to live her life again and to be the person she wants to be. It brings some troubles and she probably doesn't pick the best way but one thing is sure it opens her eyes. You won't only fear for the two of them but also for other young people who had to survive the rough life.
From my words you can see that this story will make you think, mostly about your life and it'll show you that happiness is really in small things and that you have to be grateful even though you aim for more. You should always aim for more, but never forget it could be worse.
Holly Cupala is one of the authors my girl Glass put on my list called - authors-you-must-meet and I obeyed. Of course she was right. She always is. In the world of contemporary novels where everything is pink and lovely and where all stories get the happy ending it was time for reality and to discover more of a real world.
Because of Glass' review I was prepared for that mostly, but when it hits you it also makes you realize that you emotions you cannot prepare. Homelessness is something we're all really aware of to some extend but what really happens and how that world works is sometimes a mystery. You realize that it's not just finding food and surviving but it's also fighting. We get to meet this world through Asher, a boy who is one of the people in the story. A boy who has unfortunate story. We of course wouldn't get to meet Asher if it wasn't for Joy. Her name tells you one thing but her life is another story. She is not suffocating just because of asthma, but because of her parents who don't let her breathe. She must find a way to live her life again and to be the person she wants to be. It brings some troubles and she probably doesn't pick the best way but one thing is sure it opens her eyes. You won't only fear for the two of them but also for other young people who had to survive the rough life.
From my words you can see that this story will make you think, mostly about your life and it'll show you that happiness is really in small things and that you have to be grateful even though you aim for more. You should always aim for more, but never forget it could be worse.
January 4, 2012
Don't Breathe a Word is one of those edgy books that's raw, emotional gripping and tackles the tougher things teens deal with now a days. I normally have to be in a certain mood to read these type of books, but Holly Cupala's writing is brutally honest, powerful, and lyrically written which made it hard for me to stop reading it. I got to a point in the story that I wanted to know more. The other thing I liked, is that Holly doesn't shy away some pretty tough subjects, and she gives readers a real look inside teenage relationships, teenage abuse, family dynamics, teenage homelessness, friendships and more. As heartbreaking as it was seeing all Joy/Triste had to deal with, I really admire the empowered person she grew into.
The story follows that of Joy (who on the streets is known as Triste), a teenage girl who's looking for a way to escape. She wants out for her abusive relationship with her well to do boyfriend who hails from a prominent family in the Seattle area, an escape from her overly protective parents, and to run away from the person who's become since dating Asher. The thing I like that Holly does with Joy's character is she allowed me to see how broken she was, how and why she changed so much. In doing so, she also let me see the person she becomes. Through out the course of Joy's journey Holly does such an elegant job at revealing bits of Joy's past mixed into present tense, which allowed me to see what lead up to her decision to leave her life behind and what she's going to do now.
Joy's transition to life on the street is far from easy and in fact, it's at times down right scary. Luckily she has the help of Creed, the boy how gave her the strength to seek a different life on the streets. Creed's group of friends are far from those Joy had back home before she started dating Asher, but regardless of back grounds, Joy learns the importance of friendships and having one's back at all costs. It's during this time and through a course of events that Joy truly becomes a person who finds her inner strength and grows into a surprisingly strong character. This is a story about a broken girl who through the course of her own journey discovers the inner strength to break away from everything that was holding her back. This book won't be for everyone, but I think that everyone who reads it will take something away from it. There is abuse, some language, an attempted rape, and a few scenes that might be a little graphic for some. This is a book I'd recommend to mature YA readers and those who enjoy reading a literary book with a contemporary setting.
The story follows that of Joy (who on the streets is known as Triste), a teenage girl who's looking for a way to escape. She wants out for her abusive relationship with her well to do boyfriend who hails from a prominent family in the Seattle area, an escape from her overly protective parents, and to run away from the person who's become since dating Asher. The thing I like that Holly does with Joy's character is she allowed me to see how broken she was, how and why she changed so much. In doing so, she also let me see the person she becomes. Through out the course of Joy's journey Holly does such an elegant job at revealing bits of Joy's past mixed into present tense, which allowed me to see what lead up to her decision to leave her life behind and what she's going to do now.
Joy's transition to life on the street is far from easy and in fact, it's at times down right scary. Luckily she has the help of Creed, the boy how gave her the strength to seek a different life on the streets. Creed's group of friends are far from those Joy had back home before she started dating Asher, but regardless of back grounds, Joy learns the importance of friendships and having one's back at all costs. It's during this time and through a course of events that Joy truly becomes a person who finds her inner strength and grows into a surprisingly strong character. This is a story about a broken girl who through the course of her own journey discovers the inner strength to break away from everything that was holding her back. This book won't be for everyone, but I think that everyone who reads it will take something away from it. There is abuse, some language, an attempted rape, and a few scenes that might be a little graphic for some. This is a book I'd recommend to mature YA readers and those who enjoy reading a literary book with a contemporary setting.
July 12, 2012
THIS BOOK SHOULD COME WITH A WARNING!
"There comes a point when a runaway decides it's safer to live on the streets than to live at home."
Sometimes life takes a wrong turn that we question fate for what it is and what it's doing. Even the person we grown comfortably with could cause physical and emotional pain that it'll terribly screw us. We feel vulnerable and helpless we think the whole world dropped in front of our eyes. Of course, every body feels like shit once in a while but we are still grateful living at our desired pace - whether the road is rocky or smooth - that we are moving forward.
For Joy's matter, she suffers a great deal of asthma dreading for it to strike her any time. But that's just a part of what's really in the picture. Her boyfriend, Asher, I agree he's an awesome boyfriend. He's rich, smart, and sexy. It gets to a point he could control Joy and ended up hurting her, not physically but in words. Yes folks, in words. Words could slice up ones life, drawing blood inside, and rots the core. It's the most powerful weapon of all. She felt threatened so she decided to run away avoiding the scariest words she'll hear. She ran to Seatle in the hopes that the boy she met might help her, save her even. But Creed is not what she thought he was. He was also running away from the ghosts of his past. Suffering in fear and despair ended him to be homeless. Creed takes a responsibility in protecting May and Santos another homeless teens(since he didn't get to protect the person he loved) with secrets of their own. The four of them threaded the streets of Seatle, trying to figure out how to live every single day - from stealing, garbage hunting, playing street music, petty modeling work, and slavery.
It's hard for me to imagine what people do in order to survive. People who were homeless endure one of life's battles, even they are battling for themselves. They do everything just to have something to eat and somewhere to sleep. They tend to become immoral and we despise them and treat them like crap, ignorance as if they're not there. Because it's easy right? Because they are not our problem? And anyway we have our own problem to attend to so why bother. It's books like this that awareness is strong realizing we are not as helpless as others. That what we've gone through is not half of what others had withstand. Holly Cupala enlightened us a story of a person's broken soul and the lost of hope and how having a hand to reach get to change everything.
DON'T BREATHE A WORD is a very edgy, raw, and emotional novel that takes you in a wild ride in a world of survival and the appreciation of life's necessities. I'm rooting for this to somehow have a happy ending because at least as I read along Joy, Creed, May, and Santos' tale, I want them living conveniently & satisfyingly in the end. I take pleasure knowing somebody who's distressed came to be a better person.
xx
"There comes a point when a runaway decides it's safer to live on the streets than to live at home."
Sometimes life takes a wrong turn that we question fate for what it is and what it's doing. Even the person we grown comfortably with could cause physical and emotional pain that it'll terribly screw us. We feel vulnerable and helpless we think the whole world dropped in front of our eyes. Of course, every body feels like shit once in a while but we are still grateful living at our desired pace - whether the road is rocky or smooth - that we are moving forward.
For Joy's matter, she suffers a great deal of asthma dreading for it to strike her any time. But that's just a part of what's really in the picture. Her boyfriend, Asher, I agree he's an awesome boyfriend. He's rich, smart, and sexy. It gets to a point he could control Joy and ended up hurting her, not physically but in words. Yes folks, in words. Words could slice up ones life, drawing blood inside, and rots the core. It's the most powerful weapon of all. She felt threatened so she decided to run away avoiding the scariest words she'll hear. She ran to Seatle in the hopes that the boy she met might help her, save her even. But Creed is not what she thought he was. He was also running away from the ghosts of his past. Suffering in fear and despair ended him to be homeless. Creed takes a responsibility in protecting May and Santos another homeless teens(since he didn't get to protect the person he loved) with secrets of their own. The four of them threaded the streets of Seatle, trying to figure out how to live every single day - from stealing, garbage hunting, playing street music, petty modeling work, and slavery.
It's hard for me to imagine what people do in order to survive. People who were homeless endure one of life's battles, even they are battling for themselves. They do everything just to have something to eat and somewhere to sleep. They tend to become immoral and we despise them and treat them like crap, ignorance as if they're not there. Because it's easy right? Because they are not our problem? And anyway we have our own problem to attend to so why bother. It's books like this that awareness is strong realizing we are not as helpless as others. That what we've gone through is not half of what others had withstand. Holly Cupala enlightened us a story of a person's broken soul and the lost of hope and how having a hand to reach get to change everything.
DON'T BREATHE A WORD is a very edgy, raw, and emotional novel that takes you in a wild ride in a world of survival and the appreciation of life's necessities. I'm rooting for this to somehow have a happy ending because at least as I read along Joy, Creed, May, and Santos' tale, I want them living conveniently & satisfyingly in the end. I take pleasure knowing somebody who's distressed came to be a better person.
xx
January 2, 2012
Another beautifully written book by Holly Cupala that's heartbreaking, gritty and real. Everyone needs some breathing room in their lives but for Joy, it's become a struggle of life or death. Each breathe leads her one step closer to suffocation or one step closer to freedom. Freedom from her parents constant worry, freedom from her boyfriend Asher's control and freedom to figure out who she's meant to be. If she can manage to escape, to find the homeless boy who offered to help her, maybe she'll be able to breathe again.
Joy, a life-long asthma sufferer is literally suffocating in her life. Her family suffocates her with their constant worry about her health - is she taking her medicine? Does she have her emergency inhalers? Will the next coughing fit land her in the hospital again, or worse, will this be the time she stops breathing for good? The medical bills and her parents job situations have taken a toll on everyone in the family. Then there's her asthma. If the air isn't clean enough or she strains her lungs too much she literally suffocates.
Her boyfriend Asher, who is the definition of "control freak", suffocates her with his words, affection and the manipulative way he shows his love to her. (which isn't love at all) He leaves scars that are both seen and unseen. Her family either doesn't notice or chooses to not to notice how much of driving force he is in her life.
Joy's relationship with Asher is unhealthy right from the start. The pull she feels towards him is a powerful one and she recognizes the control he has over her but she can't seem to make herself leave. After awhile, he won't let her. When things go too far one night, farther than just cruel words, or mere threats, Joy realizes the only way to protect herself and her family is to escape.
She's convinced that the best place to go is the streets of Seattle, to disappear into the homeless population there. She's seen them numerous times, even accompanied her older brother Jesse while he handed out sandwiches but it was the last time with her friends that's etched in her mind. Asher had been upset with her and after the homeless boy witnessed Asher's harsh treatment, he'd offered Joy his help, saying, "If you ever need help, you know where to find me." (pg 79) She believes if she can just find that boy again, she'll be okay.
With a drastic new appearance and only a backpack to her name Joy sets off to search for the boy and begin her new life on the street. When she finally does catch up with "Creed", she discovers that life out there is much harder and more dangerous than she ever imagined. He lives with two others, Santos and May, in an abandon house with no running water which means no bathroom facilities and no showers. They sleep on dirty mattresses while scavenging for food in dumpsters or shoplifting it. Joy meets other people too, many of whom are not as nice and who are willing to do whatever it takes to survive on the streets. Whether it's selling drugs, prostitution, panhandling or modeling (nude) for local art students these teens will do whatever is necessary to survive. There are shelters nearby offering clean showers, hot meals and warm beds but many of the kids are afraid of being returned to foster care or in Joy's case, turned into the police if her family or Asher is looking for her.
Joy learns that looks can be deceiving and even though Santos is a tough kid, he has a kind heart and a love of reading. He takes Joy under his wing and shows her how to acquire food and gets her asthma medicine when she needs it. May was the character who broke my heart. She's a product of the streets with a drug addict Mom who proves the point that many homeless kids feel living on the street is safer than at home. As a result, she's built a wall around herself using sarcasm as a means of protection.
Creed is the self appointed protector of the group. (He was also my favorite) He wasn't able to protect those he loved back home so he did was he thought was best and left. His dream is to be a musician and he plays on street corners and fills in at gigs when he can. He's kind and generous and doing what he needs to in order to provide for those around him. It's obvious that he cares for Joy or Triste, as she goes by on the street but he doesn't allow anything to happen between them. This frustrates her but he knows what Asher did to her and the last thing she needs is another guy trying to control her.
Joy and Creed grow closer the longer she spends on the street and she begins to realize that neither one of them can run away from their pasts forever. Eventually, you have to decide to stop struggling and face your life in order to become the person you were meant to be. When she does return home, she's forced to face the truth - about her family, Asher and why she left. She comes through her experience stronger and more aware of who she is and the she also learns what real love is. Real love isn't cruel or hurtful and it certainly doesn't leave scars. Real love is joy, pure joy.
Joy, a life-long asthma sufferer is literally suffocating in her life. Her family suffocates her with their constant worry about her health - is she taking her medicine? Does she have her emergency inhalers? Will the next coughing fit land her in the hospital again, or worse, will this be the time she stops breathing for good? The medical bills and her parents job situations have taken a toll on everyone in the family. Then there's her asthma. If the air isn't clean enough or she strains her lungs too much she literally suffocates.
Her boyfriend Asher, who is the definition of "control freak", suffocates her with his words, affection and the manipulative way he shows his love to her. (which isn't love at all) He leaves scars that are both seen and unseen. Her family either doesn't notice or chooses to not to notice how much of driving force he is in her life.
Joy's relationship with Asher is unhealthy right from the start. The pull she feels towards him is a powerful one and she recognizes the control he has over her but she can't seem to make herself leave. After awhile, he won't let her. When things go too far one night, farther than just cruel words, or mere threats, Joy realizes the only way to protect herself and her family is to escape.
She's convinced that the best place to go is the streets of Seattle, to disappear into the homeless population there. She's seen them numerous times, even accompanied her older brother Jesse while he handed out sandwiches but it was the last time with her friends that's etched in her mind. Asher had been upset with her and after the homeless boy witnessed Asher's harsh treatment, he'd offered Joy his help, saying, "If you ever need help, you know where to find me." (pg 79) She believes if she can just find that boy again, she'll be okay.
With a drastic new appearance and only a backpack to her name Joy sets off to search for the boy and begin her new life on the street. When she finally does catch up with "Creed", she discovers that life out there is much harder and more dangerous than she ever imagined. He lives with two others, Santos and May, in an abandon house with no running water which means no bathroom facilities and no showers. They sleep on dirty mattresses while scavenging for food in dumpsters or shoplifting it. Joy meets other people too, many of whom are not as nice and who are willing to do whatever it takes to survive on the streets. Whether it's selling drugs, prostitution, panhandling or modeling (nude) for local art students these teens will do whatever is necessary to survive. There are shelters nearby offering clean showers, hot meals and warm beds but many of the kids are afraid of being returned to foster care or in Joy's case, turned into the police if her family or Asher is looking for her.
Joy learns that looks can be deceiving and even though Santos is a tough kid, he has a kind heart and a love of reading. He takes Joy under his wing and shows her how to acquire food and gets her asthma medicine when she needs it. May was the character who broke my heart. She's a product of the streets with a drug addict Mom who proves the point that many homeless kids feel living on the street is safer than at home. As a result, she's built a wall around herself using sarcasm as a means of protection.
Creed is the self appointed protector of the group. (He was also my favorite) He wasn't able to protect those he loved back home so he did was he thought was best and left. His dream is to be a musician and he plays on street corners and fills in at gigs when he can. He's kind and generous and doing what he needs to in order to provide for those around him. It's obvious that he cares for Joy or Triste, as she goes by on the street but he doesn't allow anything to happen between them. This frustrates her but he knows what Asher did to her and the last thing she needs is another guy trying to control her.
Joy and Creed grow closer the longer she spends on the street and she begins to realize that neither one of them can run away from their pasts forever. Eventually, you have to decide to stop struggling and face your life in order to become the person you were meant to be. When she does return home, she's forced to face the truth - about her family, Asher and why she left. She comes through her experience stronger and more aware of who she is and the she also learns what real love is. Real love isn't cruel or hurtful and it certainly doesn't leave scars. Real love is joy, pure joy.
July 17, 2016
To have TWO characters coming from a family of wealth and choosing the streets because they don’t like their home life and decided to throw a tantrum, only to be the only two characters that end up together at the end? It disgusts me. I still think that I could have maybe liked this read…and then I was introduced to the protagonist and since she was introduced in the beginning of the book, wellllll…
Joy is a goddamned idiot. Her incredible ignorance and naivety runs deep, and throughout this read I was nauseous. I was nauseous because of all of the eye rolling I was doing was giving me motion sickness and I was sighing rather loudly, so loudly in fact, I’m surprised someone didn’t ask me if I needed medical attention. My mind seriously could not work through the fact that less than 48 hours after literally running away from an abusive relationship with a guy that wanted to control every aspect of her life only to meet another guy-did I mention less than 48 hours later? – and fall madly in love with him…she didn’t even know him! This idiot girl really, honest to God just carved the name of her boyfriend into herself with a fucking hot poker because he was a psycho and she was a dumbass and he insisted that she needed to be punished, only to swiftly point out how much control he has over her, if only he realized it.
Being fresh out of total lunacy, one would think that she would have been just a tad bit hesitant, maybe take it a little slow, you know? Maybe be a little bit guarded and explore her independence…a little bit. But no, this needy, tactless and desperate juvenile delinquent went from one crazy and wanted to openly welcome another!
W.T.F.
And even without alllllll that, I hated Joy. She is sensitive to air, yes you read that right, and yet when she decides to get the hell out of dodge, she puts all of her medication that she needs in order to survive in a backpack, like other homeless people with nothing to lose were just going to let her waltz on by, just doopty doopty do-ing around all brand new without an ounce of grode or disease anywhere in sight. Dumb. What she should have done, is strap her shit to her with a few rolls of duct tape, like a suicide bomber. She should have gotten one of those travel waist belts and had her money in that…this dumbass planned to be homeless and didn’t even have a plan, how the fuck does that happen?!
Oh and she is also incredibly fucking tactless, I couldn’t get over how she felt “at home” with the band of misfits and would just try to call everyone out on their personal damned business, making assumptions that there was a better way, when she knew absolutely nothing about their struggle, all the while still wearing a $2,000 bracelet on her wrist. That actually pissed me off the most, she held on to that bracelet as if her life depended on it, even when her and her “family” was eating out of trashcans and selling their bodies for 20 damned dollars…stop it.
AND THEN she returns home like nothing fucking happened! She even mentioned how nice it was to be sleeping in her own bed! Even though her “family” was still out on the streets! She ran a pathetic ass coat drive but she never went back out there to look for them. Unbelievable.
I will admit though, the supporting characters were better than the protagonist. But all in all, just a very unexciting and infuriating read. *shrug*
Joy is a goddamned idiot. Her incredible ignorance and naivety runs deep, and throughout this read I was nauseous. I was nauseous because of all of the eye rolling I was doing was giving me motion sickness and I was sighing rather loudly, so loudly in fact, I’m surprised someone didn’t ask me if I needed medical attention. My mind seriously could not work through the fact that less than 48 hours after literally running away from an abusive relationship with a guy that wanted to control every aspect of her life only to meet another guy-did I mention less than 48 hours later? – and fall madly in love with him…she didn’t even know him! This idiot girl really, honest to God just carved the name of her boyfriend into herself with a fucking hot poker because he was a psycho and she was a dumbass and he insisted that she needed to be punished, only to swiftly point out how much control he has over her, if only he realized it.
Being fresh out of total lunacy, one would think that she would have been just a tad bit hesitant, maybe take it a little slow, you know? Maybe be a little bit guarded and explore her independence…a little bit. But no, this needy, tactless and desperate juvenile delinquent went from one crazy and wanted to openly welcome another!
W.T.F.
And even without alllllll that, I hated Joy. She is sensitive to air, yes you read that right, and yet when she decides to get the hell out of dodge, she puts all of her medication that she needs in order to survive in a backpack, like other homeless people with nothing to lose were just going to let her waltz on by, just doopty doopty do-ing around all brand new without an ounce of grode or disease anywhere in sight. Dumb. What she should have done, is strap her shit to her with a few rolls of duct tape, like a suicide bomber. She should have gotten one of those travel waist belts and had her money in that…this dumbass planned to be homeless and didn’t even have a plan, how the fuck does that happen?!
Oh and she is also incredibly fucking tactless, I couldn’t get over how she felt “at home” with the band of misfits and would just try to call everyone out on their personal damned business, making assumptions that there was a better way, when she knew absolutely nothing about their struggle, all the while still wearing a $2,000 bracelet on her wrist. That actually pissed me off the most, she held on to that bracelet as if her life depended on it, even when her and her “family” was eating out of trashcans and selling their bodies for 20 damned dollars…stop it.
AND THEN she returns home like nothing fucking happened! She even mentioned how nice it was to be sleeping in her own bed! Even though her “family” was still out on the streets! She ran a pathetic ass coat drive but she never went back out there to look for them. Unbelievable.
I will admit though, the supporting characters were better than the protagonist. But all in all, just a very unexciting and infuriating read. *shrug*
January 30, 2012
I'm a little disappointed that I didn't like this book more, considering the glowing reviews I saw on goodreads. First off, I was glad to see links and information to raise awareness of the homeless population and what the average person can do to help. I also liked that Joy's experience being homeless wasn't all roses and daisies, but showed how unbelievably dangerous it really is.
I thought the writing was disjointed when flashing between present and past. I know the author was trying for suspense when we weren't supposed to know what happened between Joy and Asher, but I was ultimately disappointed with the big reveal. It was clearly awful, what Asher made her do and all the things that he made her do, but overall Joy came across as a spoiled little girl who just wanted to play at being homeless for a little while. The dynamic of their relationship was not very well developed, although the author did a good job of showing that sometimes people are just abusive, and it's not the victims fault for being victimized. But when she mentions that her family is overbearing -- it's because they want to protect her from dying of an asthma attack. And I never really understood the part with Jesse -- why was he so mad at her?
Beware of spoilers past this point because the ending was what really made me unhappy. So Santos and May magically clean up their lives to prove a point to Joy, while Creed and Joy go home to their little families -- and when Joy runs into Asher again she just... tells him that he has no control over her and that's that? That's all she had to do and instead decided to plan an elaborate faux kidnapping and become a street kid? I mean, it's awesome that she gained control at the end and I applaud the author for not romanticizing this fucked up relationship, but it didn't sit well with me.
I definitely have mixed feelings on the book because the relationship between Joy and Asher is dealt with well in some parts, and not so well in other parts. Overall, the message is a good one for young girls to get but... there were some issues.
I thought the writing was disjointed when flashing between present and past. I know the author was trying for suspense when we weren't supposed to know what happened between Joy and Asher, but I was ultimately disappointed with the big reveal. It was clearly awful, what Asher made her do and all the things that he made her do, but overall Joy came across as a spoiled little girl who just wanted to play at being homeless for a little while. The dynamic of their relationship was not very well developed, although the author did a good job of showing that sometimes people are just abusive, and it's not the victims fault for being victimized. But when she mentions that her family is overbearing -- it's because they want to protect her from dying of an asthma attack. And I never really understood the part with Jesse -- why was he so mad at her?
Beware of spoilers past this point because the ending was what really made me unhappy. So Santos and May magically clean up their lives to prove a point to Joy, while Creed and Joy go home to their little families -- and when Joy runs into Asher again she just... tells him that he has no control over her and that's that? That's all she had to do and instead decided to plan an elaborate faux kidnapping and become a street kid? I mean, it's awesome that she gained control at the end and I applaud the author for not romanticizing this fucked up relationship, but it didn't sit well with me.
I definitely have mixed feelings on the book because the relationship between Joy and Asher is dealt with well in some parts, and not so well in other parts. Overall, the message is a good one for young girls to get but... there were some issues.
January 31, 2012
This is the kind of book that hits you in such a way that you NEVER see it coming.
This book as suggested to me, and I begrudgingly put it on my TBR list. With books like Don’t Breathe a Word , Poughkeepsie or any other book that is so blantly real I hesitate at. Sometimes they are just a little too much for me.
Times like this... I’m glad I ignored my reluctance and read it anyways...
Joy has lived an extremely sheltered life. Hindered by the effects of having asthma, she feels even more suffocated by her family and her abusive boyfriend, Asher. She makes a huge decision, all because of one comment..
“If you ever need help, you know where to find me.”
Taking those words to heart, Joy leaves the shelter of her home, protection of her family, to live on the streets of Seattle. To find Creed, the boy who told her those words....
I was rooting for Joy instantly. By page one I think she had my vote.
She’s not my typical, run of them mill Heroine that I usually enjoy. Because in the beginning she’s wounded, she’s closed in.
Reading the growth of Joy/Triste made it perfect though. I loved watching the transformation. From the beginning you can see that Joy has guts and that she is trying so hard to find herself.
We all know there could have been easier routes to escape Asher.
To her, going out into the streets was the only plausible escape.
She had more gumption than I ever would, to try and survive on the streets. I wouldn’t have lasted the first day!
It did make me sad that she was so desperate for liberation. That she found living on the streets, surviving on hardly any food, a better option. It will make your heart ache a little, too!
But aside from Joy. I enjoyed reading about May, Santos, and Creed. They help Joy/Triste, take her underneath their wings to learn how to survive the streets. With each interaction that Joy has between the the three of them, she learns more of why they are living on the streets themselves.
Some great quotes that stuck with me:
“At home, I was powerless. But out here, I would become more powerful than he could possibly imagine.”
“They would wrap me gently, keep me in a cage, and watch over me as if my life depended on it. They would suffocate my spirit to save my body, and then hand the keys to Asher, who engraved our vows on a bracelet with a dangling crow.”
“You could be a rock star and not even know it. I could discover you.”
Even though this book has so much grit to it, there is a underlining of hope. That somehow Joy, along with the rest of her street family can survive and find a better life.
This book deserved a happy ending. Some books have the ends wrapped up so quickly, your quickly scratching the back of you head, wondering exactly what happened. But when you read through this book, and watch the struggles that all of them go through you’re practically PLEADING for everything that is good to shine their way.
This book as suggested to me, and I begrudgingly put it on my TBR list. With books like Don’t Breathe a Word , Poughkeepsie or any other book that is so blantly real I hesitate at. Sometimes they are just a little too much for me.
Times like this... I’m glad I ignored my reluctance and read it anyways...
Joy has lived an extremely sheltered life. Hindered by the effects of having asthma, she feels even more suffocated by her family and her abusive boyfriend, Asher. She makes a huge decision, all because of one comment..
“If you ever need help, you know where to find me.”
Taking those words to heart, Joy leaves the shelter of her home, protection of her family, to live on the streets of Seattle. To find Creed, the boy who told her those words....
I was rooting for Joy instantly. By page one I think she had my vote.
She’s not my typical, run of them mill Heroine that I usually enjoy. Because in the beginning she’s wounded, she’s closed in.
Reading the growth of Joy/Triste made it perfect though. I loved watching the transformation. From the beginning you can see that Joy has guts and that she is trying so hard to find herself.
We all know there could have been easier routes to escape Asher.
To her, going out into the streets was the only plausible escape.
She had more gumption than I ever would, to try and survive on the streets. I wouldn’t have lasted the first day!
It did make me sad that she was so desperate for liberation. That she found living on the streets, surviving on hardly any food, a better option. It will make your heart ache a little, too!
But aside from Joy. I enjoyed reading about May, Santos, and Creed. They help Joy/Triste, take her underneath their wings to learn how to survive the streets. With each interaction that Joy has between the the three of them, she learns more of why they are living on the streets themselves.
Some great quotes that stuck with me:
“At home, I was powerless. But out here, I would become more powerful than he could possibly imagine.”
“They would wrap me gently, keep me in a cage, and watch over me as if my life depended on it. They would suffocate my spirit to save my body, and then hand the keys to Asher, who engraved our vows on a bracelet with a dangling crow.”
“You could be a rock star and not even know it. I could discover you.”
Even though this book has so much grit to it, there is a underlining of hope. That somehow Joy, along with the rest of her street family can survive and find a better life.
This book deserved a happy ending. Some books have the ends wrapped up so quickly, your quickly scratching the back of you head, wondering exactly what happened. But when you read through this book, and watch the struggles that all of them go through you’re practically PLEADING for everything that is good to shine their way.
Read
January 2, 2012Don't Breathe a Word is probably the most powerful story I've read. Seriously. This book suckerpunched me right in the heart and I'm still reeling from the blow. Holly Cupala's writing is gorgeous and lyrical and absolutely perfect for the harsh situations that Joy deals with.
I feel like there's a lot of places in this book where it would be easy for some critical readers to question Joy/Triste's decisions if not for Holly's brilliant character development. I was yanked so far into Joy's mind and heart and conscience that all of the brutal and twisted things started to seem normal and all of her motives were crystal clear.
The pace of this book is sort of perfect. This isn't a story that needs action or pulse-pounding scenes. It's all about Joy/Triste gaining her bearings on the streets, learning to fit in among a new kind of people. And I love that we only get brief glances of the past, of the stuff that happened to lead Joy/Triste to leave her home, every few chapters. Her unraveling mixed in with the present works well together.
And the characters! My favorite part of the book! They're crude and obscene, but they're a family and their togetherness leaps off the pages.They've each got their own story and attitude, and even though I wanted to reach through the pages and punch them in the face a time or two (*coughMAYcough*) I still closed the book caring about all of them. I was also immensely happy with how their stories ended, how this book ended in general. It seems a bit unrealistic, but if you come to love the characters as much as I did, especially Joy and Creed, you wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
Overall, Don't Breathe a Word is unlike any other book on YA shelves today. It's intense, emotionally powerful, harsh and raw and brutal and beautiful all at the same time and I'm suddenly finding it difficult to find words to justify how incredible I thought it was. Anytime I ramble, take it as a good sign. I highly, highly recommend this book to everyone!
I feel like there's a lot of places in this book where it would be easy for some critical readers to question Joy/Triste's decisions if not for Holly's brilliant character development. I was yanked so far into Joy's mind and heart and conscience that all of the brutal and twisted things started to seem normal and all of her motives were crystal clear.
The pace of this book is sort of perfect. This isn't a story that needs action or pulse-pounding scenes. It's all about Joy/Triste gaining her bearings on the streets, learning to fit in among a new kind of people. And I love that we only get brief glances of the past, of the stuff that happened to lead Joy/Triste to leave her home, every few chapters. Her unraveling mixed in with the present works well together.
And the characters! My favorite part of the book! They're crude and obscene, but they're a family and their togetherness leaps off the pages.They've each got their own story and attitude, and even though I wanted to reach through the pages and punch them in the face a time or two (*coughMAYcough*) I still closed the book caring about all of them. I was also immensely happy with how their stories ended, how this book ended in general. It seems a bit unrealistic, but if you come to love the characters as much as I did, especially Joy and Creed, you wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
Overall, Don't Breathe a Word is unlike any other book on YA shelves today. It's intense, emotionally powerful, harsh and raw and brutal and beautiful all at the same time and I'm suddenly finding it difficult to find words to justify how incredible I thought it was. Anytime I ramble, take it as a good sign. I highly, highly recommend this book to everyone!
December 3, 2011
This book has actually been sitting on my shelf for a few months I kept putting off, and now I am kicking myself. This book was, simply put, INCREDIBLE. It has so many layers, so many twists and turns, so many gut wrenching moments … It’s a contemporary YA masterpiece. This book has cemented a place on my shelf forever, and Holly Cupala is a writer I can’t get enough of.
Joy is a heartbreaking character. What drives her to ultimately abandon her home, safety, love, and security is gut-wrenching. I felt an immediate kinship to her because I also suffer from severe asthma. When she mentioned her mother obsessively cleaning the house to eradicate any stray speck of dust, I completely understood because that was a perfect description of my mother and me.
When Joy moves from the suburbs to the streets, she sheds every inch of “Joy”—from her hair to her name (she adopts the name Triste). On the streets she connects with Creed, a boy she had seen before in passing. Together, with two other friends, they form a pseudo family that take care of one another. The truth is that homeless, starving Triste is freer than Joy ever was.
Cupala pulls no punches and there are several moments that had my pulse racing. This isn’t a flowers and frills book about a girl who finds herself on the streets. The novel is gritty and graphic, and often shows the lengths people will go to so they can simply survive another day. Think of the worst case scenario for a teen living on the street and Cupala tackles it head-on.
This book is being released mere days into 2012, and if it’s any indication of the books to come next year, I cannot wait. This book is amazing and stunning and beautiful and every other fabulous adjective you could use.
Joy is a heartbreaking character. What drives her to ultimately abandon her home, safety, love, and security is gut-wrenching. I felt an immediate kinship to her because I also suffer from severe asthma. When she mentioned her mother obsessively cleaning the house to eradicate any stray speck of dust, I completely understood because that was a perfect description of my mother and me.
When Joy moves from the suburbs to the streets, she sheds every inch of “Joy”—from her hair to her name (she adopts the name Triste). On the streets she connects with Creed, a boy she had seen before in passing. Together, with two other friends, they form a pseudo family that take care of one another. The truth is that homeless, starving Triste is freer than Joy ever was.
Cupala pulls no punches and there are several moments that had my pulse racing. This isn’t a flowers and frills book about a girl who finds herself on the streets. The novel is gritty and graphic, and often shows the lengths people will go to so they can simply survive another day. Think of the worst case scenario for a teen living on the street and Cupala tackles it head-on.
This book is being released mere days into 2012, and if it’s any indication of the books to come next year, I cannot wait. This book is amazing and stunning and beautiful and every other fabulous adjective you could use.
January 14, 2012
Asher turned me to ashes.
Here,
Little Birdie...♥
I don't care if they know.
I only care if you know, Joy.
An amazing story that will leave you
raw and breathless.
5 stars because...
April 30, 2013
Heartbreaking and yet hopeful. A beautiful read :)
August 24, 2015
Fantastic book! Wonderful, great characters, and a compelling story, loved this book!
October 15, 2012
"ASHES.
He had reduced me to ashes.
And now I would rise.”
He had reduced me to ashes.
And now I would rise.”
January 4, 2012
Read this review on my blog, Mindful Musings.
In a Sentence: Don't Breathe a Word is a compelling contemporary that brings the world of a homeless kid to life.
My Thoughts
Though this book was just released yesterday, for weeks now I've been reading scores of reviews from bloggers who received advanced copies of Don't Breathe a Word. When I found my own review copy in my mailbox, I was excited to get started. I'm not sure if I've even seen a negative review of this book yet. Most of the ratings have been fours and fives with the occasional three (though I'm sure there are reviews that I've missed). Taking the amount of so much positive feedback into account, I knew there was a chance that the book would fall victim to "over-hyped" syndrome, as I like to call it. Lucky for me, Don't Breathe a Word ended up being one of the most enjoyable contemporary YA novels that I've read in awhile.
By the third page, I knew that Holly Cupala's writing style was going to be to my liking. Her first person point of view in Don't Breathe a Word is smooth and lyrical. Furthermore, Cupala has the tendency to drop these little gems of existential contemplation into a scene that really made me take a step back and think about what I was reading. For example:
"You can know someone your whole life, and a year later they know nothing about you at all" (p. 3).
Personally, I could really connect with this line because I had a similar experience a few years ago when I moved away to go to college and left my high school friends behind. It's so eerie how one day people can be like two peas in a pod and the next, they've fallen into the mere "acquaintance" zone, talking about nothing more significant than work and the weather.
I also liked how Cupala created the character of Asher, Joy's boyfriend. Now, let's get this straight right off the bat: I loathed Asher. He was an absolutely despicable human being who deserved to suffer in a more creatively agonizing way than I can think of at the moment. But the way his character was crafted was very well-done. He was smooth, suave, attractive, and completely and utterly abusive. Want to get an idea? Try this on for size:
"Let me explain. If you can learn to manipulate the social hierarchies of animals, the natural next step is people. They aren't all that hard to control" (p. 50).
Think that's bad? Check this out:
"If he'd hit me, that would have been something. Something I could point to. Words, words were nothing. But every word he spoke taught me to fear him and his threats, his touch, his constant reminder that he'd rescued me and my family. Like a fairy-tale girl sacrificed to save her father, only in this story the prince turned out to be the beast, who would tear her with his claws from the inside out. He even made the girl wound herself. Were words enough to count as hurting?" (p. 280).
See what I mean? However, even though Asher is the epitome of the dregs of humanity, he wielded so much power over Joy. The sad and horrifying truth is, there are people like Asher in the real world. I've seen them...at varying levels of cruelty, sure, but they're out there, and so many teenagers are caught up in the attention and the semblance of love they receive from these people that they can't break out of the vicious cycle they're stuck in. This is why I thought Cupala's characterization of Asher was so masterful: it struck a tone of reality that made the book seem all the more raw and heartfelt.
The way life as a homeless kid was portrayed in Don't Breathe a Word didn't pull any punches. It's rough. It's beyond rough. It's impossible. Sure, you can manage to survive for awhile, and you might enjoy the occasional good time, but, as the character May says, "There's no hope for me...No matter where I go, no matter what I do, death is always gonna be there, waiting" (274). I can't even imagine the weight of what carrying that feeling around all the time would be like, but I think I came close while reading Don't Breathe a Word. The most miserable part about being homeless isn't the homelessness, or the starvation, or the cold, or the heat. It's when you reach the point of the sheer absence of hope.
This leads me into my final talking point about this book. I don't want to give away anything, but I'll tell you that when I first finished Don't Breathe a Word, I wasn't satisfied. I thought that, after all the hardships and horrors that the characters had went through, things got wrapped up a little too nice and neat to be realistic. But before writing my review, I thought about the ending for a little while and realized something. If the book didn't end in the way it did, it wouldn't have created the same atmosphere of hope, and I think that hope is necessary, in a way. Let's face it, we humans don't tend to do very well in the absence of hope, and if all the characters ended up coming to tragic, terrifying ends, I think a lot of us readers might have pushed the book away in despair. Instead, the ending to Don't Breathe a Word allows the reader to take a journey through a dark tunnel, but there IS a light at the end (and yes, I'm aware that that's one of the most overused metaphors ever. It's 1AM. So sue me).
Anyways, Don't Breathe a Word was my first encounter with Holly Cupala as an author but, from what I've seen, it definitely won't be my last. She has a lot of talent and I look forward to checking out her other book, Tell Me a Secret (2010). Also, for those of you looking for an excuse to run out and buy Don't Breathe a Word right away, know that Cupala donates ten percent of her author proceeds to Hope for Sexually Exploited Girls, so you can get a new book and get your Good Samaritan on at the same time!
In a Sentence: Don't Breathe a Word is a compelling contemporary that brings the world of a homeless kid to life.
My Thoughts
Though this book was just released yesterday, for weeks now I've been reading scores of reviews from bloggers who received advanced copies of Don't Breathe a Word. When I found my own review copy in my mailbox, I was excited to get started. I'm not sure if I've even seen a negative review of this book yet. Most of the ratings have been fours and fives with the occasional three (though I'm sure there are reviews that I've missed). Taking the amount of so much positive feedback into account, I knew there was a chance that the book would fall victim to "over-hyped" syndrome, as I like to call it. Lucky for me, Don't Breathe a Word ended up being one of the most enjoyable contemporary YA novels that I've read in awhile.
By the third page, I knew that Holly Cupala's writing style was going to be to my liking. Her first person point of view in Don't Breathe a Word is smooth and lyrical. Furthermore, Cupala has the tendency to drop these little gems of existential contemplation into a scene that really made me take a step back and think about what I was reading. For example:
"You can know someone your whole life, and a year later they know nothing about you at all" (p. 3).
Personally, I could really connect with this line because I had a similar experience a few years ago when I moved away to go to college and left my high school friends behind. It's so eerie how one day people can be like two peas in a pod and the next, they've fallen into the mere "acquaintance" zone, talking about nothing more significant than work and the weather.
I also liked how Cupala created the character of Asher, Joy's boyfriend. Now, let's get this straight right off the bat: I loathed Asher. He was an absolutely despicable human being who deserved to suffer in a more creatively agonizing way than I can think of at the moment. But the way his character was crafted was very well-done. He was smooth, suave, attractive, and completely and utterly abusive. Want to get an idea? Try this on for size:
"Let me explain. If you can learn to manipulate the social hierarchies of animals, the natural next step is people. They aren't all that hard to control" (p. 50).
Think that's bad? Check this out:
"If he'd hit me, that would have been something. Something I could point to. Words, words were nothing. But every word he spoke taught me to fear him and his threats, his touch, his constant reminder that he'd rescued me and my family. Like a fairy-tale girl sacrificed to save her father, only in this story the prince turned out to be the beast, who would tear her with his claws from the inside out. He even made the girl wound herself. Were words enough to count as hurting?" (p. 280).
See what I mean? However, even though Asher is the epitome of the dregs of humanity, he wielded so much power over Joy. The sad and horrifying truth is, there are people like Asher in the real world. I've seen them...at varying levels of cruelty, sure, but they're out there, and so many teenagers are caught up in the attention and the semblance of love they receive from these people that they can't break out of the vicious cycle they're stuck in. This is why I thought Cupala's characterization of Asher was so masterful: it struck a tone of reality that made the book seem all the more raw and heartfelt.
The way life as a homeless kid was portrayed in Don't Breathe a Word didn't pull any punches. It's rough. It's beyond rough. It's impossible. Sure, you can manage to survive for awhile, and you might enjoy the occasional good time, but, as the character May says, "There's no hope for me...No matter where I go, no matter what I do, death is always gonna be there, waiting" (274). I can't even imagine the weight of what carrying that feeling around all the time would be like, but I think I came close while reading Don't Breathe a Word. The most miserable part about being homeless isn't the homelessness, or the starvation, or the cold, or the heat. It's when you reach the point of the sheer absence of hope.
This leads me into my final talking point about this book. I don't want to give away anything, but I'll tell you that when I first finished Don't Breathe a Word, I wasn't satisfied. I thought that, after all the hardships and horrors that the characters had went through, things got wrapped up a little too nice and neat to be realistic. But before writing my review, I thought about the ending for a little while and realized something. If the book didn't end in the way it did, it wouldn't have created the same atmosphere of hope, and I think that hope is necessary, in a way. Let's face it, we humans don't tend to do very well in the absence of hope, and if all the characters ended up coming to tragic, terrifying ends, I think a lot of us readers might have pushed the book away in despair. Instead, the ending to Don't Breathe a Word allows the reader to take a journey through a dark tunnel, but there IS a light at the end (and yes, I'm aware that that's one of the most overused metaphors ever. It's 1AM. So sue me).
Anyways, Don't Breathe a Word was my first encounter with Holly Cupala as an author but, from what I've seen, it definitely won't be my last. She has a lot of talent and I look forward to checking out her other book, Tell Me a Secret (2010). Also, for those of you looking for an excuse to run out and buy Don't Breathe a Word right away, know that Cupala donates ten percent of her author proceeds to Hope for Sexually Exploited Girls, so you can get a new book and get your Good Samaritan on at the same time!
January 31, 2012
Holly has done it again! She has set a world that draws you in and you can't leave until all is finished. Man oh man where to start with this review. I have so much jumbled in my head because this book is so heart wrenching and so close to home that at times I laughed and at times I cried. I am so greatful to Holly for sending me an ARC copy and The DBAW Team for allowing me to be a part of the team and spreading the word about DBAW.
Joy has asthma really bad asthma. She has spent her entire life in and out of hospitals just trying to breathe. Her family is very over protective of her and she feels like she is being smothered to death by her mother. Her older brother took care of her but now he is gone off to college and he wants nothing to do with her because he finally has the freedom to live his own life without having to worry about her.
Then one day her father has this fund raiser he has to attend and she goes with him because her mother is sick. There at the fund raiser she meets Asher the billionares son who everyone is after because he is a good catch. Only she is a bit taken back by him because he is mysterious and she wants to get to know him better but she is shy and does not want to ask for his number. At the end of the fund raiser Asher comes up to her and gives her all the prizes he has won and leaves her his number so they can go out the resturant she has won tickets to.
From the first date she is held captive by Asher. He becomes her world and helps her with her asthma just like her brother did. The only thing is Asher has a side to him no one has seen only Joy and she is determined to leave him and her family behind because she does not want Asher to take his anger out on her family. So she comes up with a plan to run away and find the one person who can help her. The one person who really sees what Asher is and what he does to her. The only thing is she is not sure where to find him.
Joy sets out in the middle of the night to find this guy she knows will help her escape the abuse that Asher is doing to her. She goes down to skid row where all the homeless kids are and she starts her journey on finding this guy she knows will help her. She runs into a few snags on her way but in the end she finds this guy and learns his name is Creed.
As Creed and Joy stay together in an abandoned building they learn so much about one another. Joy for the first time feels like she can breathe without having to use her asthma inhaler. She trusts Creed and Santos and May. They all live in this abandoned house where they have to work odd jobs to get money. There Joy learns what it is like to be homeless and not have food like a regular person. She learns how to dumpster dive and she learns how to shop lift in oirder to survive.
As time goes by Joy sees things happening to her new friends and she can not help but want to help them. She is not sure how but she is going to try. She tells Creed that he needs to find his mother and go back home and make things work out. SHe does not want him to leave but she knows that something is going to happen to them real soon and she will have to go home because her parents are looking for her and they will stop at nothing to get her back.
As the story unfolds you see why Creed, Santos, and May left where they were living to be homeless and you also find out that one of them gets hurt really bad and everything they have built up comes crashing down. Joy will go back home and May will end up somewhere else as will Creed and Santos. In the end Joy gets some great news about everyone and how they are doing. She even gets a surprise call from someone and she goes to see that person. This book is a great book because it talks about a few issues that are close to me. One being that an abusive relationship is NOT okay. If you are in an abusive relationship tell someone a friend, teacher, family anyone because it is not okay. The abuser is abusing you because there is something wrong with that person and not you. Don't ever feel like you have to take verbal or physical abuse from anyone because it is WRONG!
Second is the homeless population. There are so many kids out there who run away and become homeless. There is help out there you just have to seek it. If you feel like things are so bad trust someone, open up to someone because you will be surprised to know that there is help out there.
Joy had to learn all she had to do was open up to someone and ask for help and they would have helped her. She learned a lot while she was on her own that made her a better person and made her parents stop and think and stop smoothering her. Asher also learned a very valuable lesson that not everyone is going to be a door mat for him. He was an abuser and he was going to get his because in the end Joy wanted nothing to do with him and she made that quite clear.
Favorite Quotes
“At home, they'd clipped my wings and then caged me so I couldn't fall. Here, they bandaged one another's broken wings, helped each other fly.”
“We're all family--the only family we've got. It doesn't have to be blood.”
“Maybe that's why he watched over all of us--because of the ones he couldn't protect, he took care of the ones he could.”
“ASHES.
He had reduced me to ashes.
And now I would rise.”
“When the worst happens and you still survive, it sets you free from fear.”
Joy has asthma really bad asthma. She has spent her entire life in and out of hospitals just trying to breathe. Her family is very over protective of her and she feels like she is being smothered to death by her mother. Her older brother took care of her but now he is gone off to college and he wants nothing to do with her because he finally has the freedom to live his own life without having to worry about her.
Then one day her father has this fund raiser he has to attend and she goes with him because her mother is sick. There at the fund raiser she meets Asher the billionares son who everyone is after because he is a good catch. Only she is a bit taken back by him because he is mysterious and she wants to get to know him better but she is shy and does not want to ask for his number. At the end of the fund raiser Asher comes up to her and gives her all the prizes he has won and leaves her his number so they can go out the resturant she has won tickets to.
From the first date she is held captive by Asher. He becomes her world and helps her with her asthma just like her brother did. The only thing is Asher has a side to him no one has seen only Joy and she is determined to leave him and her family behind because she does not want Asher to take his anger out on her family. So she comes up with a plan to run away and find the one person who can help her. The one person who really sees what Asher is and what he does to her. The only thing is she is not sure where to find him.
Joy sets out in the middle of the night to find this guy she knows will help her escape the abuse that Asher is doing to her. She goes down to skid row where all the homeless kids are and she starts her journey on finding this guy she knows will help her. She runs into a few snags on her way but in the end she finds this guy and learns his name is Creed.
As Creed and Joy stay together in an abandoned building they learn so much about one another. Joy for the first time feels like she can breathe without having to use her asthma inhaler. She trusts Creed and Santos and May. They all live in this abandoned house where they have to work odd jobs to get money. There Joy learns what it is like to be homeless and not have food like a regular person. She learns how to dumpster dive and she learns how to shop lift in oirder to survive.
As time goes by Joy sees things happening to her new friends and she can not help but want to help them. She is not sure how but she is going to try. She tells Creed that he needs to find his mother and go back home and make things work out. SHe does not want him to leave but she knows that something is going to happen to them real soon and she will have to go home because her parents are looking for her and they will stop at nothing to get her back.
As the story unfolds you see why Creed, Santos, and May left where they were living to be homeless and you also find out that one of them gets hurt really bad and everything they have built up comes crashing down. Joy will go back home and May will end up somewhere else as will Creed and Santos. In the end Joy gets some great news about everyone and how they are doing. She even gets a surprise call from someone and she goes to see that person. This book is a great book because it talks about a few issues that are close to me. One being that an abusive relationship is NOT okay. If you are in an abusive relationship tell someone a friend, teacher, family anyone because it is not okay. The abuser is abusing you because there is something wrong with that person and not you. Don't ever feel like you have to take verbal or physical abuse from anyone because it is WRONG!
Second is the homeless population. There are so many kids out there who run away and become homeless. There is help out there you just have to seek it. If you feel like things are so bad trust someone, open up to someone because you will be surprised to know that there is help out there.
Joy had to learn all she had to do was open up to someone and ask for help and they would have helped her. She learned a lot while she was on her own that made her a better person and made her parents stop and think and stop smoothering her. Asher also learned a very valuable lesson that not everyone is going to be a door mat for him. He was an abuser and he was going to get his because in the end Joy wanted nothing to do with him and she made that quite clear.
Favorite Quotes
“At home, they'd clipped my wings and then caged me so I couldn't fall. Here, they bandaged one another's broken wings, helped each other fly.”
“We're all family--the only family we've got. It doesn't have to be blood.”
“Maybe that's why he watched over all of us--because of the ones he couldn't protect, he took care of the ones he could.”
“ASHES.
He had reduced me to ashes.
And now I would rise.”
“When the worst happens and you still survive, it sets you free from fear.”
July 4, 2018
Poorly written.
August 23, 2018
oooooooofffff !!!!!!! ok !!! After that ending , now I can't take a good breathe and thank the author for this great book and great story ...
December 1, 2011
My Thoughts: Wow, whoa, insane! I know this review is going to be difficult to write because that is how awesome of a book it is. I started Don't Breathe A Word late on a Thursday night before bed. I figured I'd just read a few chapters and than go to bed. So much for that! I read the whole book in one sitting and lost track of time. I looked up at the clock when I was finished and it was 3 in the morning. Yes, that is how good it was.
We are introduced to Joy who lives with her family. Don't Breathe A Word is mostly told in recent segments but there are also flashbacks to let us learn about her important past moments. Joy also has asthma really bad. She has to carry an inhaler around in her pocket because she never knows when she will get a breathe of bad air which will cause her to go into a coughing fit. Joy is used to this by now but I never got used to going through it with Joy. That could be because I also have asthma and I know what its like to experience an asthma attack.
Joy meets Asher. Asher is a bad boy. He comes off as sweet at first. We think he's just a bit protective of her (in a nice caring way) but within moments I knew there was more to the story and he was really possessive and controlling. Example: Joy went to visit her brother and Asher was mad about it and asking her if they went to a party. You could tell he thought he should be in control of everything. Things only get worst over time. When Joy says or does the wrong thing, she's scared because she knows she will get punished for it. I hated seeing Joy so vulnerable. I wanted happiness for her.
Joy finally decides she must do something about it and take control of her life. She decides she's going to run away and live on the streets. It’s the only way to protect herself from Asher and how much worst its going to get if she stays. A while ago, while she was with her friends, she ran into a homeless kid living on the streets and he told her if she ever needed help to find him.
Joy knows she must make everything look like a kidnapping so she sets up the scene perfectly. I hated seeing Joy change her appearance. Yes, it was a good idea but I hated that she had to cut off her hair and dye it. She had to become a new person.
Joy finally escapes Asher's grip and runs away. She tries to survive living on the streets with just the backpack on her shoulders. Joy was very very brave.
Joy meets a group of homeless teens and starts to live with them. They live in an old abandoned house. It doesn't even have running water and is moldy and stinky. The teens she lives with are very unique. The only other girl of the group is May. At first, I didn't like May very much. She came off with the attitude, "I'm kind of better than you are", but I soon started to like her. Next, is Santos. Santos always made me laugh. He also helped Joy get more inhalers and medicine and that made me me realize that he did care what happened to her. Last, is Creed. Creed was everything I was looking for in a main character. He was sweet, caring, protective, just a plain good guy. He was the guy who told Joy, if she needed help to find him. There are more characters throughout the novel that bring their own quirks to the storyline, such as Maul (insert all the bad names for a jerk here).
Each character has their own story and why they are out living on the streets. Most of them are downright sad. After a few months of living on the streets, Joy is starting to deal with being homeless until she's put in a position to do something brave for one of the group and her life drastically changes again.
Throughout the novel we never learn anyone's real name. But by the end we know Creed's real name and it fits perfectly. I loved seeing him in the aftermath of what happened.
Joy was such a brave character in her own way. I wish she would have stood up to Asher but once she left him she knew she had to become brave and take care of herself. She stood up for herself. She didn't let anyone boss her around. She became her own person. With Creed by her side, Joy became a whole new person.
Please please please pick up this novel and devour it. You won't be sorry.
Overall: I loved Don't Breathe A Word. It was everything I was looking for in a novel. I loved the romance, I loved Joy's voice, I loved it all.
Cupala's Don't Breathe A Word won't disappoint. It was raw, emotional, intense, and heartfelt.
Cover: Love it! The cover even hints that the book is emotional!
What I'd Give It: 5/5 Cupcakes
_____________________
Review Based on Softcover Edition
Taken From Princess Bookie
www.princessbookie.com
We are introduced to Joy who lives with her family. Don't Breathe A Word is mostly told in recent segments but there are also flashbacks to let us learn about her important past moments. Joy also has asthma really bad. She has to carry an inhaler around in her pocket because she never knows when she will get a breathe of bad air which will cause her to go into a coughing fit. Joy is used to this by now but I never got used to going through it with Joy. That could be because I also have asthma and I know what its like to experience an asthma attack.
Joy meets Asher. Asher is a bad boy. He comes off as sweet at first. We think he's just a bit protective of her (in a nice caring way) but within moments I knew there was more to the story and he was really possessive and controlling. Example: Joy went to visit her brother and Asher was mad about it and asking her if they went to a party. You could tell he thought he should be in control of everything. Things only get worst over time. When Joy says or does the wrong thing, she's scared because she knows she will get punished for it. I hated seeing Joy so vulnerable. I wanted happiness for her.
Joy finally decides she must do something about it and take control of her life. She decides she's going to run away and live on the streets. It’s the only way to protect herself from Asher and how much worst its going to get if she stays. A while ago, while she was with her friends, she ran into a homeless kid living on the streets and he told her if she ever needed help to find him.
Joy knows she must make everything look like a kidnapping so she sets up the scene perfectly. I hated seeing Joy change her appearance. Yes, it was a good idea but I hated that she had to cut off her hair and dye it. She had to become a new person.
Joy finally escapes Asher's grip and runs away. She tries to survive living on the streets with just the backpack on her shoulders. Joy was very very brave.
Joy meets a group of homeless teens and starts to live with them. They live in an old abandoned house. It doesn't even have running water and is moldy and stinky. The teens she lives with are very unique. The only other girl of the group is May. At first, I didn't like May very much. She came off with the attitude, "I'm kind of better than you are", but I soon started to like her. Next, is Santos. Santos always made me laugh. He also helped Joy get more inhalers and medicine and that made me me realize that he did care what happened to her. Last, is Creed. Creed was everything I was looking for in a main character. He was sweet, caring, protective, just a plain good guy. He was the guy who told Joy, if she needed help to find him. There are more characters throughout the novel that bring their own quirks to the storyline, such as Maul (insert all the bad names for a jerk here).
Each character has their own story and why they are out living on the streets. Most of them are downright sad. After a few months of living on the streets, Joy is starting to deal with being homeless until she's put in a position to do something brave for one of the group and her life drastically changes again.
Throughout the novel we never learn anyone's real name. But by the end we know Creed's real name and it fits perfectly. I loved seeing him in the aftermath of what happened.
Joy was such a brave character in her own way. I wish she would have stood up to Asher but once she left him she knew she had to become brave and take care of herself. She stood up for herself. She didn't let anyone boss her around. She became her own person. With Creed by her side, Joy became a whole new person.
Please please please pick up this novel and devour it. You won't be sorry.
Overall: I loved Don't Breathe A Word. It was everything I was looking for in a novel. I loved the romance, I loved Joy's voice, I loved it all.
Cupala's Don't Breathe A Word won't disappoint. It was raw, emotional, intense, and heartfelt.
Cover: Love it! The cover even hints that the book is emotional!
What I'd Give It: 5/5 Cupcakes
_____________________
Review Based on Softcover Edition
Taken From Princess Bookie
www.princessbookie.com
March 27, 2012
♥ Find my reviews on Blogger ~ Reviews by Bookish Sarah
- - -
This book opens up to our protagonist, Joy Delamere (16 or 17 years old - I waited too long to review this so I don't remember which...), setting up her own “kidnapping” - except she's really running away from home.
The problem? It's more than just one thing. Joy has severe asthma and because of a brush with death when she was younger, her parents practically suffocate her by watching over her too closely - she feels like a burden. She wants to be free. The clincher, though, is the abusive relationship she is caught in with Asher. Asher hurts Joy not just with words, but other things as well. As for trying to get out of the relationship? Not going to happen - you see, Asher's father is a very prominent and wealthy man in the community. He got a job for Joy's father, and Asher has threatened to take that away if Joy leaves and/or disobeys him.
“ASHES.
He had reduced me to ashes.
And now I would rise.”
The solution? Running away, but making it look as if she was taken against her will. Joy runs off to the streets of Seattle to find Creed; a homeless boy who, after seeing an altercation between Joy and Asher, promised help if she ever needed an out. Joy quickly learns that life on the streets isn't as easy as she thought it was. There's danger at every turn, and she may lose her life before she's even able to find the elusive Creed.
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Don't Breathe a Word was nothing like I expected, yet so much more.
Holly Cupala has some of the most amazing writing I've ever seen. I was completely mesmerized the entire time I read this novel. It was entrancing, which, considering this story is as gritty as it gets, says a lot. Even when Cupala had need to describe the down and dirty life of a homeless teen - it was still beautiful. I am saddened that this is only her second novel because that means once I read Tell Me a Secret, that's it. *cries*
This story is written in present and past. It opens up to Joy running away before we even know the why of it. As the book progresses, we read through flashbacks of how Joy met Asher, how they got to know each other, to the first signs of his abuse, all the way to that final event that triggered Joy to want to run. I think having the book written this way was pure perfection. It flowed so easily and beautifully.
Joy was a very inspirational character. I had trouble with her at first. It was hard to get past the fact that she let Asher do the things he did and still stayed with him. It was almost like she had a sort of sick fetish for it - but later on in the book, bits and pieces are revealed that helped me to view the situation differently and I grew to admire Joy and was impressed with her heart and gut.
The depiction of street life seemed accurate. I can't pretend I know what it is like, but it seemed to be exactly what one would imagine. It was terrifying and sad. I think Cupala did a wonderful job of transferring the feel of that life and experience onto paper.
Overall, this book blew me away. It truly truly did. It was an emotional ride from the very first page. Cupala was not afraid to show her readers that life and stories aren't always sunshine and roses. People hurt other people. Life events can break you. Some situations are nearly impossible to deal with. Sometimes fighting is the only thing you can do.
“When the worst happens and you still survive, it sets you free from fear.”
That really says it all. :) Don't Breathe a Word is a beautiful and moving novel. It's packed full of raw emotion and inspiring characters. There just aren't proper words to describe how wonderful this book really is. You just have to read it for yourself. I recommend it 100%. It's one of my new favorites!
*Be aware of some violence, language, and sexual situations.*
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Book source: Personal collection
Publisher: HarperTeen/HarperCollins
January 10, 2019
This novel had a heart and a soul. It takes you for a heartfelt ride through the streets of Seattle, where both the bad and the ugly awaits.
December 28, 2011
After reading Tell Me a Secret, Holly Cupala's first book, I couldn't wait to read more by her, so when I first heard about Don't Breathe a Word, I knew I had to get my hands on a copy as soon as possible. The book sounded amazing, and after seeing all the great praise it had been getting as well as the gorgeous cover, I just wanted to read it even more. Luckily, I was able to get an early copy and I dove right in only to find one AMAZING new contemporary read! Seriously this book was even better than I had expected.
Don't Breathe a Word begins the story of Joy, a girl who's life has been filled with anything but what her name promises lately. However, after an extremely bad run-in with her Asher, her abusive boyfriend, she makes a run for it. She runs away to Seattle, hoping to get back on the right track again. The streets of Seattle, though, aren't anything like she thought. They're filled with scary people and tough circumstances as well as situations. Just as Joy's about to hit rock bottom, Creed, a boy who gave her the idea originally, swoops in and saves her. As he begins to teach her the ins and outs of Seattle, Joy begins to feel at one with herself, but will everything stay this way? Or does more trouble lay in her path? Will she ever return home? Only more time and pages call in this heartbreaking and gritty portrayal of one teen's life on the streets.
From page one, I immediately became invested in Joy's story. She was a girl who had faced a lot in her past due to not only Asher but from her asthma as well, and while in some ways this had broken her beyond pieces, she was willing to take a stand for herself, even if running away wasn't the best choice ever. What I loved most about her character, though, was seeing her begin to trust herself again as well as grow as a character. She truly became one strong girl by the end of this, and I couldn't have been more proud. I also liked the variety of other characters Holly Cupala introduced. My favorites, though, would have had to be Creed, who was very sweet especially when it came to Joy, as well as Santos and May, two other members of Creed's pack. Each one was fully developed, and by the end, I was not only invested in Joy's story but theirs as well.
The plot in this one really got the ball rolling though. From the first page, I was dying to know more about Joy. What exactly did Asher do to her? Why did she feel so smothered by her parents? I kept looking for answers, and as Holly slowly reveled them, I was pleasantly surprised by the level of detail and development she put into each. I also really enjoyed seeing Creed and Joy's relationship bloom as the novel progressed. They were two people who came from bad situations, but together, they were able to overcome their past demons. Plus it didn't hurt that their relationship developed at a reasonable pace.
Cupala's writing was also very good! I felt she did an excellent job with development as well as showing what street life is really like for teens. She truly didn't sugar coat it one bit, and I really appreciated that and I'm sure many other readers will feel the same.
Diverse, bittersweet, and well written, Don't Breathe a Word by Holly Cupala is an amazing contemporary read, one I just couldn't get enough of. I can't wait to read her next book, because if this is any indication, it's sure to be FABULOUS!
Grade: A+
Don't Breathe a Word begins the story of Joy, a girl who's life has been filled with anything but what her name promises lately. However, after an extremely bad run-in with her Asher, her abusive boyfriend, she makes a run for it. She runs away to Seattle, hoping to get back on the right track again. The streets of Seattle, though, aren't anything like she thought. They're filled with scary people and tough circumstances as well as situations. Just as Joy's about to hit rock bottom, Creed, a boy who gave her the idea originally, swoops in and saves her. As he begins to teach her the ins and outs of Seattle, Joy begins to feel at one with herself, but will everything stay this way? Or does more trouble lay in her path? Will she ever return home? Only more time and pages call in this heartbreaking and gritty portrayal of one teen's life on the streets.
From page one, I immediately became invested in Joy's story. She was a girl who had faced a lot in her past due to not only Asher but from her asthma as well, and while in some ways this had broken her beyond pieces, she was willing to take a stand for herself, even if running away wasn't the best choice ever. What I loved most about her character, though, was seeing her begin to trust herself again as well as grow as a character. She truly became one strong girl by the end of this, and I couldn't have been more proud. I also liked the variety of other characters Holly Cupala introduced. My favorites, though, would have had to be Creed, who was very sweet especially when it came to Joy, as well as Santos and May, two other members of Creed's pack. Each one was fully developed, and by the end, I was not only invested in Joy's story but theirs as well.
The plot in this one really got the ball rolling though. From the first page, I was dying to know more about Joy. What exactly did Asher do to her? Why did she feel so smothered by her parents? I kept looking for answers, and as Holly slowly reveled them, I was pleasantly surprised by the level of detail and development she put into each. I also really enjoyed seeing Creed and Joy's relationship bloom as the novel progressed. They were two people who came from bad situations, but together, they were able to overcome their past demons. Plus it didn't hurt that their relationship developed at a reasonable pace.
Cupala's writing was also very good! I felt she did an excellent job with development as well as showing what street life is really like for teens. She truly didn't sugar coat it one bit, and I really appreciated that and I'm sure many other readers will feel the same.
Diverse, bittersweet, and well written, Don't Breathe a Word by Holly Cupala is an amazing contemporary read, one I just couldn't get enough of. I can't wait to read her next book, because if this is any indication, it's sure to be FABULOUS!
Grade: A+
May 26, 2013
To be honest, I had no idea what this book was about when I picked it up and if I had known I'm not sure if I would have picked it up, simply due to the fact that I don't read a lot of dark YA. But sometimes you stumble onto a treasure and don't know what you have found until you open it. That was the case for me with this book.
The story surrounds Joy. From the outside you would think that she is perfect. She has a great family, a loving and dedicated boyfriend, Asher, but from the inside Joy is dying. She's slowly being smothered by her families overprotectiveness, Asher's unpredictably and her growing desperation. Not knowing who to turn to, she turns to the only person who has seen through her charade and offered to help, Creed, the homeless boy with music that is capable of stealing her deepest and darkest secrets. But, Joy can't just get up and leave, and expect everyone to forget about her. How long will her hard won solace last before he comes back for her? Asher.
Don't Breathe a Word was one of those book that sends chills down your spine but you still read on, not just because you want to know what happens next but because of Holly Cupala's incredible writing. She is capable of hooking you from page one and sending you on a serious emotional roller coaster. She had me biting my nails in fear and anticipation, laughing and smiling with the character and crying when something bad happened to them. By the end of the book I was emotionally drained but basking in its magnificence.
My first reaction after finishing the book was my love for the characters. Cupala managed to create the most realistic bunch of characters. None of them were perfect, and I didn't agree with a lot of their decisions but I understood them. By the end of the book I was in love with some and the others I just wanted to wrap my fingers around their neck and squeeze, hard!
Joy was a great protagonist, she was scared and confused, but brave and wonderful when the opportunity presented itself. She had me rooting for her and dying to find out what had happened to her to cause her to leave. As for Creed, I loved him just as much, he was such a wonderful person. But this isn't because he was a one diminutional male hero who was just awesome and thats it. Creed had his own story, we saw him grow as a character as his and Joy's relationship grew.
One of the most endearing qualities of this book was the actual idea. I don't know about anyone else, but I haven't read many books about a similar topic. Homeless people is a truth all around the world, even in first world countries like Canada and the U.S. But I haven't seen many books about them. I'm grateful of Holly Cupala for getting up to the task and writing a book about a sad reality that some people face and managing to derive such a thought provoking story out of it.
Holly Cupala's, Don't Breathe a Word is a master piece. One that should be shared so more readers can enjoy it. It's an original story of the reality that some people face and horrors that drive them to desperate measures, running away being one of them.
The story surrounds Joy. From the outside you would think that she is perfect. She has a great family, a loving and dedicated boyfriend, Asher, but from the inside Joy is dying. She's slowly being smothered by her families overprotectiveness, Asher's unpredictably and her growing desperation. Not knowing who to turn to, she turns to the only person who has seen through her charade and offered to help, Creed, the homeless boy with music that is capable of stealing her deepest and darkest secrets. But, Joy can't just get up and leave, and expect everyone to forget about her. How long will her hard won solace last before he comes back for her? Asher.
Don't Breathe a Word was one of those book that sends chills down your spine but you still read on, not just because you want to know what happens next but because of Holly Cupala's incredible writing. She is capable of hooking you from page one and sending you on a serious emotional roller coaster. She had me biting my nails in fear and anticipation, laughing and smiling with the character and crying when something bad happened to them. By the end of the book I was emotionally drained but basking in its magnificence.
My first reaction after finishing the book was my love for the characters. Cupala managed to create the most realistic bunch of characters. None of them were perfect, and I didn't agree with a lot of their decisions but I understood them. By the end of the book I was in love with some and the others I just wanted to wrap my fingers around their neck and squeeze, hard!
Joy was a great protagonist, she was scared and confused, but brave and wonderful when the opportunity presented itself. She had me rooting for her and dying to find out what had happened to her to cause her to leave. As for Creed, I loved him just as much, he was such a wonderful person. But this isn't because he was a one diminutional male hero who was just awesome and thats it. Creed had his own story, we saw him grow as a character as his and Joy's relationship grew.
One of the most endearing qualities of this book was the actual idea. I don't know about anyone else, but I haven't read many books about a similar topic. Homeless people is a truth all around the world, even in first world countries like Canada and the U.S. But I haven't seen many books about them. I'm grateful of Holly Cupala for getting up to the task and writing a book about a sad reality that some people face and managing to derive such a thought provoking story out of it.
Holly Cupala's, Don't Breathe a Word is a master piece. One that should be shared so more readers can enjoy it. It's an original story of the reality that some people face and horrors that drive them to desperate measures, running away being one of them.
March 30, 2013
Don't Breathe a Word started out fast for me because the main character escaped from her home and had her adventure out in the streets. It was fast in a way that I felt like I have to catch up with her or else I'd be left behind. Okay, I'm not making any sense. But really, that's how the start made me feel.
Joy run away from her home because she was suffocating, physically and emotionally. She has asthma and she needs to have her meds all the time. Someone has to watch out for her or else she may have an attack while she's alone. She has a boyfriend, Asher who was so not good to her. He is like a psychopath who's sweet to Joy one minute then when she does something wrong, he becomes really aggressive, manipulative and controlling. Who wouldn't feel suffocated to have a boyfriend like that right? Add up to that the family of Joy. Her parents do not really listen to her. As long as her dad has work in Asher's family company and as long as she is the goody-goody girlfriend of Asher and not having attacks, all is well for them. She kept it all inside her. Until the time she actually saw a street guy and realized that maybe there's life there that's gonna be better. Then all that is bubbled up inside of her just burst and everything went out.
Joy became Triste later on. Her adventures on the streets made me gasped and gave me an idea that running away from home is so not a good idea. I swear that my choice of what book I'd be reading is really connected to my life. I don't know how or why even but I guess the heavens are telling me something! I read this at a time when I really want to go to my best friend's place and just crash there. I'm so fed up with my family's drama and I just want to go, you know. Then I read this. Holy cow. I'm telling you, the heavens are really looking at me every minute. So onto the story, Triste met Creed (the guy I'm referring to earlier) and his gang. Together with Creed, Santos and May, Triste learned how to live in the streets, how to steal goods and meds, and how to cope with the other people in the streets. Triste even felt the love of a family more with them than when she was at her home back then. It wasn't the best life that she thought it would be but it sure is better than her being at home.
But when something unexpected happened, she was forced to call professional help and she was back to her family. From then on, they tried to work it out with her family and even with Creed, May and Santos.
Joy's story is a reflection of a lot of teenagers or even adults out there. People who are suffocating in their lives but are forced to go on because that's how it is. They can't do anything about it or moreover, they believe they just can't. Joy was so brave to do that. It's bad, I know. But when something bad is all the solution someone's got, then I guess it's worth the shot.
Don't Breathe a Word moved me. It was like I was really suffocating in a way that I can't even explain to myself. It was compelling, attention-grabber and of course, pulse-quickening! It is a must-read for all teenagers, hell, even to parents so that they'll have an idea of how the generation now sees things.
Joy run away from her home because she was suffocating, physically and emotionally. She has asthma and she needs to have her meds all the time. Someone has to watch out for her or else she may have an attack while she's alone. She has a boyfriend, Asher who was so not good to her. He is like a psychopath who's sweet to Joy one minute then when she does something wrong, he becomes really aggressive, manipulative and controlling. Who wouldn't feel suffocated to have a boyfriend like that right? Add up to that the family of Joy. Her parents do not really listen to her. As long as her dad has work in Asher's family company and as long as she is the goody-goody girlfriend of Asher and not having attacks, all is well for them. She kept it all inside her. Until the time she actually saw a street guy and realized that maybe there's life there that's gonna be better. Then all that is bubbled up inside of her just burst and everything went out.
Joy became Triste later on. Her adventures on the streets made me gasped and gave me an idea that running away from home is so not a good idea. I swear that my choice of what book I'd be reading is really connected to my life. I don't know how or why even but I guess the heavens are telling me something! I read this at a time when I really want to go to my best friend's place and just crash there. I'm so fed up with my family's drama and I just want to go, you know. Then I read this. Holy cow. I'm telling you, the heavens are really looking at me every minute. So onto the story, Triste met Creed (the guy I'm referring to earlier) and his gang. Together with Creed, Santos and May, Triste learned how to live in the streets, how to steal goods and meds, and how to cope with the other people in the streets. Triste even felt the love of a family more with them than when she was at her home back then. It wasn't the best life that she thought it would be but it sure is better than her being at home.
But when something unexpected happened, she was forced to call professional help and she was back to her family. From then on, they tried to work it out with her family and even with Creed, May and Santos.
Joy's story is a reflection of a lot of teenagers or even adults out there. People who are suffocating in their lives but are forced to go on because that's how it is. They can't do anything about it or moreover, they believe they just can't. Joy was so brave to do that. It's bad, I know. But when something bad is all the solution someone's got, then I guess it's worth the shot.
Don't Breathe a Word moved me. It was like I was really suffocating in a way that I can't even explain to myself. It was compelling, attention-grabber and of course, pulse-quickening! It is a must-read for all teenagers, hell, even to parents so that they'll have an idea of how the generation now sees things.
August 30, 2012
Holly Cupala has done it again. Two years ago I was super impressed by her debut novel, Tell Me a Secret. This year I am even more impressed with her sophomore novel, Don’t Breathe a Word. Holly Cupala writes YA contemporary with an edge and I adore it.
Joy starts out seeming a bit like a spoiled kid who has everything in life handed to her. It’s partly because she is so sheltered because of her asthma but she really doesn’t seem to know how to survive on her own. Taking to the streets seems to be a bit of an overreaction on her part but as the book goes on it’s easier to see how she might think it’s a good idea. She’s a smart girl who’s very brave and strong but it takes a lot to make her realize that about herself. I started out feeling sorry for her but that quickly changed and I grew to love her and my whole view of her changed. By the end of the book she was fierce, strong, and pretty much a completely different person than when she first left home. Being on the streets forced her to see things about herself that were there all along but that she just couldn’t see.
Creed, May, and Santos are the characters that really made this book for me. It’s been a long time since I loved characters as much as I loved these three. Creed is the white knight, the protector, the one who feels like he has to take care of everyone. May is the badass, the troublemaker, the one who doesn’t need anyone. Santos is the mystery, the kind one, the one who has quite a few secrets. They don’t seem at all like a group that would end up together but they do. They balance each other out and they are always there for each other. They describe each other as family and they truly are. Joy isn’t exactly easily accepted into their group but she does eventually become part of that family. And let me just say, some of the trials they put her through are quite hilarious. Oh and hey there’s a ferret named Faulkner. I loved him!
The story is remarkably fast-paced and the book is impossible to put down. From the moment Joy runs away from home her life changes and she finds danger, drama, and even some romance while living on the streets. As she gets to know more people out on the streets she learns more and more about secrets that her new friends are hiding and nothing is ever as it seems. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to find out everyone’s secrets and whether or not any of them would get their happy endings. While everything is pretty well tied up with this one I would love to read a companion novel more about Santos and May. I didn’t get nearly enough of them for my liking! And you know, I wouldn’t mind more of Creed and Joy.
Warning: I would recommend this one for older teens though because it does touch on some topics like prostitution, abuse, and drugs.
Overall, Don’t Breathe a Word is a must-read for fans of contemporary. Holly Cupala is a fabulous writer and I am eager to see what she does next!
Joy starts out seeming a bit like a spoiled kid who has everything in life handed to her. It’s partly because she is so sheltered because of her asthma but she really doesn’t seem to know how to survive on her own. Taking to the streets seems to be a bit of an overreaction on her part but as the book goes on it’s easier to see how she might think it’s a good idea. She’s a smart girl who’s very brave and strong but it takes a lot to make her realize that about herself. I started out feeling sorry for her but that quickly changed and I grew to love her and my whole view of her changed. By the end of the book she was fierce, strong, and pretty much a completely different person than when she first left home. Being on the streets forced her to see things about herself that were there all along but that she just couldn’t see.
Creed, May, and Santos are the characters that really made this book for me. It’s been a long time since I loved characters as much as I loved these three. Creed is the white knight, the protector, the one who feels like he has to take care of everyone. May is the badass, the troublemaker, the one who doesn’t need anyone. Santos is the mystery, the kind one, the one who has quite a few secrets. They don’t seem at all like a group that would end up together but they do. They balance each other out and they are always there for each other. They describe each other as family and they truly are. Joy isn’t exactly easily accepted into their group but she does eventually become part of that family. And let me just say, some of the trials they put her through are quite hilarious. Oh and hey there’s a ferret named Faulkner. I loved him!
The story is remarkably fast-paced and the book is impossible to put down. From the moment Joy runs away from home her life changes and she finds danger, drama, and even some romance while living on the streets. As she gets to know more people out on the streets she learns more and more about secrets that her new friends are hiding and nothing is ever as it seems. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to find out everyone’s secrets and whether or not any of them would get their happy endings. While everything is pretty well tied up with this one I would love to read a companion novel more about Santos and May. I didn’t get nearly enough of them for my liking! And you know, I wouldn’t mind more of Creed and Joy.
Warning: I would recommend this one for older teens though because it does touch on some topics like prostitution, abuse, and drugs.
Overall, Don’t Breathe a Word is a must-read for fans of contemporary. Holly Cupala is a fabulous writer and I am eager to see what she does next!
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