Early Review – The Deepest Breath by Meg Grehan (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Middle Grade
Genre: Prose/Contemporary Fiction/Mental Health
Length: 192 pages
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Release Date: February 16, 2021
ISBN-13: 978-0358354758
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: ARC from Amazon Vine
Rating: 4/5 stars

“11-year-old Stevie is an avid reader and she knows a lot of things about a lot of things. But these are the things she’d like to know the most:

1. The ocean and all the things that live there and why it’s so scary
2. The stars and all the constellations
3. How phones work
4. What happened to Princess Anastasia
5. Knots

Knowing things makes Stevie feel safe, powerful, and in control should anything bad happen. And with the help of her mom, she is finding the tools to manage her anxiety.

But there’s one something Stevie doesn’t know, one thing she wants to understand above everything else, and one thing she isn’t quite ready to share with her mom: the fizzy feeling she gets in her chest when she looks at her friend, Chloe. What does it mean and why isn’t she ready to talk about it?

In this poetic exploration of identity and anxiety, Stevie must confront her fears to find inner freedom all while discovering it is our connections with others that make us stronger.”

Series Info/Source: I got an ARC for this through Amazon Vine to review. This is a stand alone book told in prose format.

Story (4/5): Stevie is 11 years old and loves to read, she also has anxiety issues and can’t understand why she likes hanging out with her friend Chloe so much. We get to glimpse into Stevie’s life via the prose she writes as she works through these issues.

Characters (4/5): I felt like Stevie came across as being a few years older than 11 (I have a 13 year old and Stevie feels like she’s more in the 13-15 year old range to me). However, I enjoyed getting to know Stevie through her prose. She suffers from anxiety issues and is trying to figure out why she likes girls instead of boys. I also really loved how supportive her mother was. The characters are generally well done.

Setting (4/5): The setting was fine but not the point of the book, most of the setting is at Stevie’s house or her school.

Writing Style (4/5): This whole book is written in freeform prose. It does a great job getting the story across and provides some excellent imagery around Stevie’s feelings and struggles. This was a very quick read for me.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this and am glad I read it. The prose format works well for Stevie’s story. This does a good job at looking at a character that suffers from anxiety and is trying to figure out her own sexuality in an environment that is supportive. It’s just a little slip of a book and took 20 minutes or so to read. I thought the impact of the book was well worth the time I put in to read it. However, I probably wouldn’t purchase it unless I knew someone with a special interest in the addressed issues because it was so short and doesn’t really cover any new ground. I would recommend borrowing it from the library if you are interested in the topics of coming-of-age identity and/or anxiety.