Ryan lives in a world of solitude. He recently was released from a mental hospital over a semi-suicide attempt and people at school steer clear of him. Ryan hangs out at the waterfall near his house because he feels like he can block out all his thoughts while he's there... that is until Nicki shows up. Nicki wants to talk to Ryan, to know why he wanted to die. And surprisingly, Ryan trusts Nicki. She's bold and somehow different, which makes him feel like he's not living behind glass anymore. As Ryan opens up more and more to Nicki, he starts discovering that she has secrets of her own...

Ok Jennifer R. Hubbard can for real write a male character! I read The Secret Year last year, and fell in love with Colt, and now I feel the same way about Ryan. She just has this way of writing these guys who maybe aren't your typical teenage guy, because they're sensitive and are sort of self-aware, but they're so freaking real! I fell for this book.

Ryan lives in a world that from the outside looks pretty idyllic... and even from the inside it looks pretty good too. His house sounds pretty amazing, his parents are more than attentive, he played sports. He really doesn't have the big problems that one would think would lead to suicide, but I don't think that that's always where depression comes from. I think some people are just depressed and don't know why... and that's Ryan. He starts feeling like he's invisible at school and after some embarrassing social situations, he's just doesn't want to keep going. I love that he wasn't abused or traumatized... he was just a normal kid with normal problems who didn't know how to cope with what he was feeling.

Nicki on the other hand, was not depressed. She was a ball-full of life. She was just what someone like Ryan needed. Someone without a filter, who would just straight-up ask him the hard questions. He responded to her bluntness and he didn't even know why. She was just one of those people that you tell things to. Ryan had the friends that he made at the hospital, and those were people who maybe related more to how he was feeling, but Nicki wanted answers, she wanted the why of it even if there wasn't a why.

I seriously LOVE the way this author writes male M/C's. I can't wait to read more because her first 2 books were just my kind of books!



OVERALL: Amazing, beautifully written, something you can read in one night! If you liked The Secret Year, you will like this.

Quote I liked:
"Learning to live is more than just choosing not to die."

My blog:
http://pinkpolkadotbookblog.blogspot.com
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I picked this up by accident, not my usual reading fare. I did like the way it address suicide among adolescents, even if the overall narrative wasn't something I would normally enjoy. ( )

A Dark Subject Matter. A Highly Enjoyable Read

Cut off from friends but for the two he met at the mental Hospital he has just left after his suicide attempt, seventeen year-old Ryan spends his summer trying hard not to go back to the black place he so well remembers.

But living takes courage, more than he can gather on his own. Luckily for him Nicki intrudes into his life.

Nicki, a girl he barely knows, dares to ask him the questions neither of his traumatized parents have ever asked. Little by little, a friendship develops between them. But when Ryan discovers Nicki has been less than truthful, her betrayal may destroy all that’s gained.

In Try Not to Breathe, Jennifer Hubbard delivers a realistic and touching portrait of a young man’s struggles to find a meaning to his life. The first person, present tense narrative gives the story a pressing intimacy that fits the subject well.
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16 yr old Ryan meets Nicki the summer after he is discharged from a mental institute. Told in first person, Ryan recounts Nicki's attempts to get him to open up about his suicide attempt as she struggles to understand her father's death. ( )

3.5 stars ( )