The Breathless by Tara Goedjen - OPTIONAL

Goedjen, Tara The Breathless, 354 pages. Random House Children’s Books (Delacorte Press), 2017. $18. Language: R (6 swears); Mature Content: R; Violence: R.

Seventeen-year-old Roxanne Cole was murdered, and nothing has been the same for her family since then. Her father is angry and wants revenge. Her younger sisters hide their pain as they try to keep up their crumbling southern manor home. Then, nearly a year later, Ro’s boyfriend, Cage, the prime murder suspect, shows up at the house wanting to see Ro. He remembers nothing of the past year and has no recollection of Ro’s death. Through the words in an old family book of spells and secret conversations with Cage, Ro’s sister, Mae, begins to unravel the mystery surrounding her family history of raising the dead and the role Cage might have played in Ro’s death.  What she finds changes her view of her family forever.

A first novel for author Tara Goedjen, she capitalizes on the teenage obsession with the occult idea of the living dead. Well written but a bit hard to follow at times, some of the characters feel underdeveloped while others are written in vivid detail. The plot is intricate and keeps the reader engaged .Written for a high school audience, Goedjen manages to weave several teenage love stories into the plot using sensuality without graphic sexuality.  I gave it an R rating for the themes of murder, the occult, and raising the dead. I’m sure the book will be enjoyed by teenagers who love the occult teen genre. 

HS - OPTIONAL (ratings). LMA, future elementary school teacher