A stunning YA novel
5 steloj
Breathe And Count Back From Ten is a stunning young adult novel which transcends that genre. It is about treading a fine line between the cultures of one's family and one's adopted family, about the daily challenges of living with disability and the impact of other people's well-meaning ignorance, and about how social conditioning of young women to smile and be agreeable however uncomfortable the situation can leave us without the tools to fend off inappropriate male behaviour. In a novel that was so powerful on so many levels, that last aspect was the one that made me feel as though Natalia Sylvester really saw me. We come from opposite sides of the planet and have very different physical realities, but Verónica's parents' insistence on girls being 'nice' and not making a fuss, regardless of how awkward and upset we were made to feel, exactly mirrored my own upbringing. Verónica, …
Breathe And Count Back From Ten is a stunning young adult novel which transcends that genre. It is about treading a fine line between the cultures of one's family and one's adopted family, about the daily challenges of living with disability and the impact of other people's well-meaning ignorance, and about how social conditioning of young women to smile and be agreeable however uncomfortable the situation can leave us without the tools to fend off inappropriate male behaviour. In a novel that was so powerful on so many levels, that last aspect was the one that made me feel as though Natalia Sylvester really saw me. We come from opposite sides of the planet and have very different physical realities, but Verónica's parents' insistence on girls being 'nice' and not making a fuss, regardless of how awkward and upset we were made to feel, exactly mirrored my own upbringing. Verónica, fortunately for her, worked out the danger of such submissiveness at seventeen. I still often struggle to overcome those ingrained behaviour patterns even after some three decades more of life experience.
For such an important novel which does encompass such deep themes, Breathe And Count Back From Ten is also an engaging read which feels light and energetic. I loved Verónica as a person and her burgeoning relationship with Alex is a joy to read. Both are dealing with serious problems, yet their ways of appreciating and understanding each other felt genuine and hopeful. Verónica's relationships with her family also feel utterly authentic. Their disagreements are rooted in love, with strong desires from each to protect the others leading to traumatic communication failures.
Breathe And Count Back From Ten's young protagonist and her coming of age story will appeal widely (I hope) to young adult audiences, but this is very much a story that I think older readers will appreciate too. I certainly never felt as though I were reading a book that was 'too young' for me, and the complexity of Sylvester's themes give a lot of food for thought.