A Breath Too Late

I was really looking forward to this, but it wasn't what I expected at all. Yes, it is a book about a girl regretting her own suicide, but I feel like the vast majority of it is actually about domestic abuse and about Ellie's mom more or less keeping them in a situation where their lives are being threatened constantly and they face almost daily violence from Ellie's dad. As a domestic abuse survivor myself, I usually find stories like this cathartic and releasing, if that makes sense, but... sigh I wish I could come up with the right words to explain why this entire abuse depiction felt so exploitative and uncomfortable to me.

Beyond that, what I can put into words is how much this author's writing style doesn't agree with me. There are almost no contractions in the narrative or dialogue and the characters constantly phrase things in clunky, stilted ways that makes the entire reading experience flow poorly. There's a lot of potential in Callen's writing, but I do believe this book needed more editing and polishing.

I feel somewhat guilty for giving this book 2 stars, because the author's heart was clearly in a good place and I appreciate the attempt that was made here. That said, between the unenjoyable narrative voice and the unnecessarily constant barrage of violence and abuse... I can't recommend this book. I'm also going to be painfully honest here and say that, as another individual who has dealt with depression and suicidal ideation since I was a preteen, nothing about Ellie's story would have deterred me or given me hope to keep fighting. If anything, I think it would have made me feel even more bleak and miserable, and I'm honestly struggling a bit as I type this with the terrible mood A Breath Too Late put me in. And with that, I'm going to finish this review and go find something to focus on that's not quite so devastating.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!