A Breath Too Late

by Rocky Callen Narrated by Imani Jade Powers

Overview

For fans of Girl in Pieces, All the Bright Places, and Girl, Interrupted comes a haunting and breathtaking YA contemporary debut novel that packs a powerful message: hope can be found in the darkness.

This program includes an author's note read by the author

“Achingly poignant . . . a love letter and a life raft to the brokenhearted.” -New York Times bestselling author Alison McGhee

Seventeen-year-old Ellie had no hope left. Yet the day after she dies by suicide, she finds herself in the midst of an out-of-body experience. She is a spectator, swaying between past and present, retracing the events that unfolded prior to her death.

But there are gaps in her memory, fractured pieces Ellie is desperate to re-assemble. There's her mother, a songbird who wanted to break free from her oppressive cage. The boy made of brushstrokes and goofy smiles who brought color into a gray world. Her brooding father, with his sad puppy eyes and clenched fists.

Told in epistolary-like style, Rocky Callen's deeply moving A Breath Too Late sensitively examines the beautiful and terrible moments that make up a life and the possibilities that live in even the darkest of places. Perfect for fans of the critically-acclaimed Speak, I'll Give You the Sun, and If I Stay.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company

"An exquisitely played love song to life, in all of its hurts, wonders, memories, and loves." -Jeff Zentner, Morris Award winning author of The Serpent King and Goodbye Days

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A Kirkus Best Book of the Year, Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year, and Texas Library Association 2022 TAYSHAS Pick

"Raw, heartbreaking, and poignant." —New York Times-bestselling author Kathleen Glasgow

"Achingly poignant . . . Dreamy, funny, fierce-hearted Ellie made me want to put my arms around all the hurting teens in the world and tell them to hold on, that there is hope, there is love, there is life to come. A Breath Too Late is both a love letter and a life raft to the brokenhearted." —New York Times–bestselling author Alison McGhee

"An exquisitely played love song to life, in all of its hurts, wonders, memories, and loves. This book will remind you that you are needed, in this big and often messy world." —Jeff Zentner, Morris Award winning author of The Serpent King and Goodbye Days

"A haunting story, punctuated with brilliant points of hope and light. This is an important story. A necessary story for so many countless people who need to know they are not alone in their pain. Callen’s writing radiates with passion, honesty and love." —National Book Award finalist and Printz Award–winning author An Na

"Absolutely devastating and yet hauntingly beautiful, A Breath Too Late is a poignant and timely debut from an incredibly gifted author." —Isabella Ogbolumani, Buffalo Street Books

School Library Journal

05/01/2020

Gr 8 Up—Sandwiched between a trigger warning and a list of hotlines, this raw and tragic debut opens with its narrator's inexplicit suicide and goes on to a detailed account of how years of physical and psychological abuse spiraled into depression and finally despair. In semi-epistolary chapters addressed mostly to cowed, bruised Momma and her estranged but loving friend, August, but also to her twisted father, her growing depression, the sky, death, and other eidolons, Ellie recalls incidents marking the slow disappearance of joy and color from her world. Her father's threats and beatings combined with the influence of her terror-stricken home life have overwhelmed any hopes of escape except one. But the story's overall tone is one of profound regret, as in the aftermath of her death Ellie revisits past moments of joy, catches a glimpse of what might have been with August, and also witnesses her mother making the 911 call that at last promises an end to the violence. "I let go too soon," Ellie heartbreakingly concludes, realizing "a breath too late" that among life's broken, ugly shards, hope and promise remain. VERDICT "This novel isn't about happy endings," the author writes. But if it falls into the hands of teens similarly on the edge, it may create some.—John Peters, Children's Literature Consultant, New York

Kirkus Reviews

2020-02-26
After shattering her life, a girl finds the healing in the shards.

Seventeen-year-old Ellie Walker woke to the silence of her oppressive life on Sunset Street with her abusive father and battered mother and headed to school, blasting music to make the world go away—only to face the reality of her own death by suicide the previous night. Ellie struggles to recall most of her memories, but as her specter observes the grief left in the wake of her death, her memories are triggered chronologically. It’s only through them that she can piece together what led up to that tragic night. A bystander in death, Ellie begins to notice the small things that often went overlooked in the moment, such as promises long forgotten, and the love others have for her, including August, the light-hearted, goofy boy who makes her dream in color, and her mother, who she thought was broken and whom she had given up on. This epistolary novel told from Ellie’s perspective details the raw reality of life’s darkest moments but shows where to look for the bright spots. Callen’s sharp, poignant writing depicts the events leading up to and following Ellie’s suicide without romanticizing either it or her depression. In this debut, the author also honestly examines the effect that abuse has and how hard it can be to escape. All characters are white.

A memorable, hopeful story of regret. (author’s note, resources) (Fiction. 14-18)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177618227
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	04/28/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

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