Invisibly Breathing

Invisibly Breathing by Eileen Merriman (Review)

Image from Goodreads

Published March 5th 2019, Penguin Books New Zealand

Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult Fiction, LGBTQIA+

Rating:

 4.5 Stars

Thank you to Penguin Books NZ for the free copy of this book.

TW: homophobia, domestic abuse & violence

I’ll start off with the bad and move onto the good.

My most important nitpick is that the book uses the word r*t*rd, which is an ableist slur and therefore offensive, thus it should not be used in a book in this manner. This rubbed me the wrong way and knocked down the rating for me.

I felt that the romance was a little rushed at the start but that may be because I am more accustomed and partial toward slow burn romances.

Now onto the positives: apart from these two issues I actually really loved this book! Bailey and Felix have such a cute relationship, despite the rushed beginning to their relationship they really do grow. They grow not only as a couple but as individuals too. Both of them begin to accept who they are more towards the end as seen with Felix’s piercing and when both of them come out to their parents.

The domestic abuse and homophobia was dealt with properly in my opinion. I am not a victim of domestic abuse and am not part of the LGBT+ community so I don’t have much of a say in these matters, but it seemed well researched and realistic to me.

The story itself really sucked me in, I slowly but surely fell in love with all of the characters and the relationship between Felix and Bailey. I think the book brought up many important issues and was executed brilliantly. I’m definitely going to check out Merriman’s other novels as soon as I can.