Breathless »

JESSICA WARMAN has an MA in creative writing and studied at prep school and Yale. Her poetry and short stories have been published in Sundress Publications, Stirring: A Literary Collection, the Stickman Review, Penguin Political, and Redivider. Breathless is her first novel. She is 27 years old, a marathon runner, and a mother of two girls, ages 2.5 years and 11 months.

When Katie Kitrell is shipped off to boarding school, it doesn't take her long to become part of the It Crowd. She's smart, she's cute, and she's a swimming prodigy. What her new friends, roommate, and boyfriend don't know is that Katie has kept a secret about her past—that her schizophrenic older brother, Will, is quickly descending deeper into insanity. As her lie constantly threatens to reveal itself, it's all Katie can do to keep her head above water.

Children's Literature

Katie Kittrell loves to swim. It is the only thing she likes to do. In the water she feels free from the pressures of distant parents, school cliques, and a schizophrenic brother. When her parents send her to boarding school, she lies about her brother then spends the next three years trying to fit in with the popular group and hoping that no one finds out. The only person who knows her secret is her roommate Mazzie, a girl with her own set of demons. When Katie's brother commits a horrible act, her secret comes out shocking everyone, including her ultra religious boyfriend. There are parts to this book that are beautifully written. The scenes between Katie and her brother and Katie and her roommate are intimate and so real that if feels like eavesdropping. Other parts of the book, however, read like a typical teenage novel: flat and predictable. Katie's boyfriend is an example of this. With scenes of drugs, sex and violence commonplace, this book is high school and up only. In parts wonderful and in parts typical, this novel is a mixed bag. Reviewer: Heather Robertson Mason