Breathe and Count Back from Ten by Natalia Sylvester
Published by HarperCollins
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: Fiction
Genres and Categories: Disabled and Neurodivergent Authors, Latinx Authors, Latinx Characters, Contemporary Fiction, Chronic Illness, Medical Scenes, Mental Health, Contemporary Romance, Disabled and Neurodivergent Romance, Coming of Age
My Rating:
Published on: 10th May 2022
Pages: 352
Disability Representation: Chronic Pain, Hip Dysplasia, Mental Health
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In this gorgeously written and authentic novel, Verónica, a Peruvian-American teen with hip dysplasia, auditions to become a mermaid at a Central Florida theme park in the summer before her senior year, all while figuring out her first real boyfriend and how to feel safe in her own body.

Verónica has had many surgeries to manage her disability. The best form of rehabilitation is swimming, so she spends hours in the pool, but not just to strengthen her body.

Her Florida town is home to Mermaid Cove, a kitschy underwater attraction where professional mermaids perform in giant tanks . . . and Verónica wants to audition. But her conservative Peruvian parents would never go for it. And they definitely would never let her be with Alex, her cute new neighbor.

She decides it’s time to seize control of her life, but her plans come crashing down when she learns her parents have been hiding the truth from her—the truth about her own body.

This book was provided for free by NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Content Warnings:

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Ever since I heard about Breathe and Count Back from Ten last year, it has been on my radar, and I was so excited to read it. It is a novel about a young woman with hip dysplasia written by an author who has the same condition! This is one #ownvoices novel you do not want to miss. It is released on May 10th and is available to pre-order from any of the links in this post!

Verónica is a typical teenager who just happens to be disabled. She worries about boys; she worries about her protective parents finding her with boys and embarrassing her. She is thinking about where she wants to go to college, and she loves mermaids.  When a spot to become a mermaid at the local underwater tourist attraction suddenly becomes available right in time for a summer job, especially when she’s not been able to secure one yet, it seems like fate. The problem is that her parents don’t approve for multiple reasons, least of all because of her chronic health condition. She has to weigh up the choice of going against them, lying about it and creating more problems for herself or following her heart and trusting that she knows the strength of her own body.

Breathe and Count Back from Ten is a beautiful account of being born with a disability, living with it and how people around you react to it. Verónica’s love of mermaids began during her time recovering from a surgery when she was a child. Her voice is clear throughout the book. She talks openly and concisely about having hip dysplasia, about what that means to her on a daily basis and what it felt like for her as a child recovering from surgery. She didn’t just fall in love with the sight of the mermaids during the show; she associated their tails with her if her whole body was in a cast. It is observations like this and reading Verónica’s thought process that make this book truly special.

At the top of each chapter is a dictionary definition of a word followed by Verónica’s own definition, a process that she began after a therapist suggested she try it. It immerses us further into her world, giving us a glimpse of how she has grown up viewing the world. That is a very powerful writing tactic that Sylvester has chosen to use, and I couldn’t help but feel my heart squeezing when I read some of Verónica’s definitions. It is a very lonely world being a teenager and even more so when your body is different to everyone else’s. Teenagers are the first ones to point out differences, and nothing escapes their notice, something that Sylvester shows with unnerving accuracy several times in Breathe and Count Back from Ten.

There is no sugar coating in Breathe and Count Back from Ten. Verónica’s life is one with pain, with nasty comments, stares from everyone she comes into contact with, being a teenager with scars on your body, overbearing parents, and growing up with a “normal” sibling. Despite all that, this isn’t a feel-sorry-for-yourself book and anyone expecting it to be needs to spend some time with a real disabled person for two minutes. This is a story about living life, of finding love (and it is a beautiful love story), of best friends, and taking control of your life and your body. It’s also about growing up and taking that step into the future, that leap into the unknown.

Aside from Verónica’s hip dysplasia, there is also a male character with depression, and I’m highlighting this because not only do we need more authentic mental health representation, but also it’s very rare to see a male character portrayed with mental health. There’s also Peruvian representation (Verónica and her family) and LGBTQIA representation.

Thank you for reading my review for Breathe and Count Back from Ten by Natalia Sylvester! This is a beautiful book which I highly recommend checking out. It is released on May 10th and is available to pre-order from any of the links in this post!

Don’t forget to check out the rest of my reviews if you’re looking for some more book recommendations 🙂 You can also now sign up for my newsletter to get an email each month with a list of my new reviews

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