Hardcover: 336 Pages

Publisher: Blink (November 5, 2019)

The Swarm is unrecognizable, untraceable, and unpredictable—random attacks on the streets of Chicago by a mob of crazed teens that leaves death in its wake. It’s been two years since the last attack, but Lia Finch has found clues that reveal the Swarm is ready to claim a new victim.

Lia is the only one still pursuing her father’s killers, two years after attorney Steven Finch’s murder by the Swarm. Devastated and desperate for answers, Lia will do anything to uncover the reasons behind his death and to stop someone else from being struck down. But due to debilitating asthma and PTSD that leaves her with a tenuous hold on reality, Lia is the last person to mount a crusade on her own.

After a close encounter with the Swarm puts Lia on their radar, she teams up with a teen hacker, a reporter, and a mysterious stranger who knows firsthand how the mob works. Together, they work to uncover the master puppeteer behind the group. Though if Lia and her network don’t stop the person pulling the strings—and fast—Lia may end up the next target.

Inspired by the real-life “flash mob” violence that struck Chicago in 2011, Every Stolen Breath by debut author Kimberly Gabriel is a fast-paced and immersive thriller that shows just how hard one girl will fight back, knowing any breath might be her last.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Then she hung up before I could think of an articulate rebuttal, leaving me sitting there, mouth gaping like some taxidermized fish.

 

It’s the side effect of attending a pretentious private school, where people treat Everybody’s Business like it’s a class they can ace and add to their transcripts.

 

I can’t help but wonder if I’m caught in some sick and twisted Alice in Wonderland dream where my world has turned upside down and nothing is as it seems.

 

Strength isn’t defined by who can hit the hardest in a fight, but by who’s still standing at the end.

  

My Review:

 

I rarely read YA and to be honest, I purposely avoid it, but I’m thrilled I had the foresight to make an exception for Kimberly Gabriel’s brilliantly plotted debut. I couldn’t seem to resist the intriguing synopsis and a colorful book cover that required a full stop and several minutes to thoroughly examine.

 

Ms. Gabriel’s storylines were diabolically clever and fiendishly crafted while populated with uniquely compelling and intriguing characters of all ages and levels of mistrust and suspicion. I was immediately sucked into Lia’s mono-focused and quivering vortex of distrust and dramatic catastrophic thinking. This mesmerizing tale was written from the first-person POV of an angsty sixteen-year-old asthmatic who proved to be rather unstable with significant features of PTSD including panic attacks, auditory and visual hallucinations, paranoia, delusions, and crippling anxiety and self-consciousness. She was also stubbornly persistent, grief driven, highly resourceful and had the arrogance of youth in her toolkit.

 

With cunning and deftly written twists and turns, Ms. Gabriel has made a stunning and flawless debut. As I was making my way through this tautly penned and complex tale, I had a striking epiphany of why I tend to eschew this genre while simultaneously realizing this book was well worth the disheartening and stark reminders of the painful sense of powerlessness and nettling subjugation and disregard experienced as a teenager with two XX chromosomes.   While I vastly enjoyed her work, I still haven’t decided whether I should thank the author for the personal insight or swear a pox on her instead.

 

Kimberly Gabriel is an English teacher who writes every chance she gets and struggles with laundry avoidance issues. When she’s not teaching or writing, she’s enjoying life with her husband, her three beautiful children, and a seriously beautiful boxer in the northern suburbs of Chicago.

Connect with Kimberly

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram