Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - The Selfless Act of Breathing

Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

The Selfless Act of Breathing by J.J. Bola

25 reviews

rshaharyar's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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irismaybooks's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

From beyond this lonely feeling, to healing; the selfless act of breathing.

I found this book at my library, and I can say without a doubt that checking it out was the best decision I have made.

At first I found it a little difficult to get into the book, the jump between first and third person and being in England versus America in each chapter was quite jarring, but after understanding what was happening I was completely ensorcelled by the writing and the story.

At the very start of the book it lists Bola's other work, and I knew when I saw he was a poet that the writing would be beautiful; I was not prepared for quite how beautiful. Since this is a library book I was, unfortunately, unable to highlight as I was going along, so I had this app open the entire time to log lines - or entire paragraphs - that just completely captured my heart.

The writing was beautiful, and I found myself seeing myself in this man's loneliness when by all accounts, we have nothing in common. Loneliness is strange, isn't it? This book fell into my hands at the most perfect time in my life.

I loved the development of relationships, or lack thereof. I loved the exploration of these new experiences in Michael's life, how each new person brought something new to the story even if they were only there for a few pages, a chapter. I loved all of them.

Overall this book was just beautiful.
10/10, I would recommend this book to anyone.

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florecita_lectora's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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kwadwo_adu's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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charliettea's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I have never related to a book in the same way that I relate to The Selfless Act of Breathing. I think anyone who has experienced depression and suicidal ideation will find a deep familiarity and understanding in Michael, the main character. The emptiness, the numbness, the sadness, the pain, the guilt, everything is there. The yearning for death even while knowing how much it will hurt others is like an old friend. I'm sure there are many readers who feel the same. It just goes to show, you are never alone.

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kateea7536's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Wow. I’ve never read a book like this. It is so emotionally raw and vulnerable and filled with so much pondering of life and how it should be lived and what matters. This also encompassed identity, belonging, race, class, wealth, sex, love and friendship. SO MUCH was done within one book and it so sensitively handled every topic that it raised in a way that did not feel false or deliberate, but natural and heartfelt. I was blown away by how moving the prose was and how well written, including an extensive use of metaphor and description that was spellbinding and lyrical (although sometimes perhaps there were too many metaphors!). The only thing I would have loved was dates as well as locations of each chapter, since it was difficult to follow what Michael was doing in what order, but perhaps this was part of the experience, the idea that he was swimming through all these places and feeling searching for something.

Ending was fantastic but I would’ve loved to have heard more from the characters perspective.

I also felt frustrated at times that Michael didn’t tell people what he was feeling or reach out, but I understand that this is probably a very realistic for someone who feels this way.

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steepinginstories's review against another edition

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dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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jpreads6's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

This book had a great plot but I felt like we weren't given enough time with the character in the present in order to see his point of view. The book fell flat for me at the end

with the random death

, and it just left me feeling like "it was all a dream" in the end.

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aus10england's review against another edition

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dark emotional

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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lostinthelibrary's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

You can tell this author is a poet. There are some beautiful passages of prose that gave a lot more insight to the motivations of the main character than anything in the plot did. These moments of introspection were the highlight of the novel and very much captured the weight of mental illness.

However, I felt that the plot did not live up to it's intriguing premise and was a mixed bag. I felt like the author did a good job at writing what he knew well (inner London) but struggled with capturing the atmosphere in the US scenes which made the book feel very uneven. A lot of characters make choices that are not fully explored and it overall left me a bit unsatisfied.

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