I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for a reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

Beth was an interesting, complicated character.

The author never really explained exactly what happened to Beth bay caused her to quit. It seemed like an artistic choice rather than something forgotten. However many storylines in the book felt unfinished in the end. I also think it may have been an artistic choice based on how Ben died, his story left unfinished.

The inclusion of non traditional relationship felt fresh and was well done.

I wanted more from Beth in some many ways, I wanted her to choose something, do something instead of everything happening around her and I found that extremely frustrating.

Thank you to Net Galley and Mariner Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. Beth Crowe is a university student and competitive swimmer who has had a breakdown and missed her dream of becoming an Olympic swimmer. She's a bit lost and trying to find her way and new identity. She finds a friend her her roommate, Sadie, who is an English major. This puts Beth in contact with all the adoring fans of her grandfather who was revered writer and poet and died tragically before Beth was born. As Beth finds her way in relationships and through her complicated family history, she discovers secrets about her family and finds her way to move forward in life through her grief, loss and understanding. 3.5 stars.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an e-ARC of Holding Her Breath by Eimear Ryan.
Holding Her Breath is a coming-of-age story about a young girl that must give up her time as a competitive swimmer and find a new passion. Well-written, this story is a great debut by Eimear Ryan.

Although I found the writing technically done well, it was just ok for me. Fairly typical coming of age story but the multiple story lines were sometimes hard to follow and I was very turned off by the infidelity portion of the story. I would try to read the author again but this story just wasn’t for me.

I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't a favorite of mine. While I loved the premise and the very unique plot line, I didn't find that there was too much depth to the characters nor their story lines.

Thank you Mariner Books for the ebook copy of Holding Her Breath via NetGalley. I love literary fiction and I love books set in schools with coming of age themes. This book captures all of those loves and does so in such a wonderful narrative style. There are wonderfully developed themes on relationships (family, friends) and growing up and into a more adult version of oneself; I loved that Beth studied psychology (I am a psych lecturer) as I think that thematically went along with her growth and exploration of identity.

What really stood out for me was the exploration of what it is like to become separate from identities forced upon you (granddaughter of a famous poet) or move away from identities that are no longer accurate/healthy, in this case competitive swimmer. We often fail to realize that by the time young people arrive in college they arrive with a lot of emotional baggage and pressures to be someone they aren't or come with the goal of moving away from high school/past identities. I felt this book indirectly captured this common part of growing up, the desire and need to form new roles and identities and to try to find space away from pressures to be one version of self. The shadow of family identity and mental health are nicely revealed here.

The other standout were some of the relationships portrayed, including her friendship with Sadie and with her grandmother as I like strong female characters and relationships that reflect strength and nurturing. What was also notable were these relationships were about Beth as a person, not her identity as a swimmer or as the granddaughter of famous poet.

This is a strong debut, well developed themes and strong writing and narrative style and an ease in developing interesting, relatable, and dimensional characters. I often felt very present in Beth's world and her thoughts and experiences which is a credit to the writing, the pacing, and the overall sense of presence that Eimear Ryan brings to her writing.

From its premise, I thought this was such an intriguing coming-of-age story. Beth has just started university and her journey of finding herself continues to pull her back into her family's history. She is the granddaughter of an esteemed Irish poet, but there is an air of mystery surrounding the circumstances of his death by suicide. There were some really interesting discussions on the separation of an artist and their art.

This book explores all different kinds of relationships, but there were so many that I found myself wanting more development from nearly all of them. The character dynamics were reminiscent of those in Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends (which I really enjoyed), but I found the writing in this one a little too simplistic and flat for my taste. And the love interest was really... irritating, to put it simply. I just wanted more.

While I liked this one, I think I loved the concept a bit more than the execution. It follows in the grand tradition of books about going to college, finding yourself, and falling for an inappropriate love interest along the way, but put a bit of a spin on things: the swimming and the tortured poet angle were the best parts of the book for me. I connected with the swimming because that was my life for a while, and I thought the exploration of the legacy Beth’s grandfather left behind was fascinating. The last third especially, with Beth and her roommate following leads from her grandfather’s final days, felt very rewarding. I just didn’t vibe with the plotting of the other aspects, and that’s ok! Coming of age is usually not my thing, so it’s not a surprise that I didn’t love it here. I think a lot of other people will, fortunately.

This is a story about coming to terms with one's past. Beth Crowe comes from a famous family -- her grandfather, Benjamin, is still one of Ireland's most famous poets, even though he passed away before she was born. Beth has not really spent too much time thinking about her grandfather until she gets to university and realizes just how important he is to many of her fellow students -- and to the postdoctoral researcher she soon begins an affair with. As Beth is trying to find an identity for herself as an adult after a childhood spent focused almost exclusively on elite swimming, she finds that she is keen to learn more about her grandfather -- and soon realizes that, as a result of her unique position, she may be well positioned to discover the true story of his life and death that has remained secret for years.

This was a creative take on a coming of age story. We as readers encountered Beth at a crucial crossroads in her life, when she is shedding her core identity and searching for another. I appreciated the multifaceted way the author approached the story from there, as Beth’s search for identity takes on two dimensions — both figuring out who she was when her life was not defined by swimming and understanding her family and her place in it when the world seemed to know more about her family than she did. It was an interesting exploration of complicated family dynamics, how a stunted childhood shapes early adulthood, the distorting effects of ambition, the nature of connection, and how we shape the narratives about each other and ourselves.

Highly recommended!

Rounded up from 4.5.

I was intrigued throughout the book by the unique complication our main character must deal with as she starts college life. There is a lot of talk on campus about what might be meant by specific lines and imagery in the work of Ben Crowe, a revered (and complex) poet. But for Beth, the questions go much deeper than a set of fascinating literary mysteries. Crowe was her grandfather, whose life ended tragically before she was born.

I loved both the mystery in the book and Beth’s journey to discover who she is apart from her family legacy and her former identity as an Olympic-hopeful swimmer. (That goal has been crushed before the novel opens.) Her missteps and worries seemed very real to me, and Ryan has added interest to Beth’s story, giving her an obsession with true crime and a likeable roommate.

I also loved the contrast between the scholars’ interest in Crowe’s life and the deep pain Beth sees in her mother and her grandmother as they deal with the memories of the real man as opposed to the legend. I thought the family members were well drawn, and I enjoyed the brief quieter scenes in which a lot was revealed about them and their relationships with one another. We get to “meet” Ben as well through his poetry and the memories of those who knew him, and he is an intriguing figure.

Some of the other elements of the novel didn’t work as well for me. And the ending, while it was unpredictable, didn’t pack the same punch for me as the beginning of the novel. I would have liked to have seen Ryan delve deeper into certain aspects of the book, such as how Beth might have connected her grandfather’s story to her own.

But overall, I loved the book for its realistic characters, intrigue, and strong pacing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the chance to read and give my honest opinion.

Holding Her Breath is Eimear Ryan’s debut novel following Beth Crowe, a young woman who is navigating the complexities of starting university with a renowned poet as a grandfather, and as a former elite competitive swimmer who is coming to terms with pursuing a new path.

I really enjoyed watching Beth come of age through her experiences at Trinity and as she gradually unravelled her family secrets. At times, I was so frustrated by her naïveté (especially as it pertained to dating and relationships), but I enjoyed seeing her blossom over the course of the novel, and loved witnessing her friendship dynamic with her roommate, Sadie.

There were some incredibly beautiful lines that read like poetry and stuck with me, but somehow the novel never felt dense. On the whole, a very light and fast-paced read with a compelling plot.

Thank you Mariner Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

The premise of this novel sounded interesting, but I found the characters to be very boring and the writing was too simplistic.

I found this novel difficult to get into. I didn’t connect with any of the characters. I really didn’t like Justin. I thought he was a total putz. What I did like about the book was the allure of unknown manuscripts. The big secret was rather predictable.
It was an ok read, but I struggled to finish it.

Lovely read. Enjoyed the characters it was refreshing to see the lead was a strong, successful woman.

In her debut novel, Irish author Eimear Ryan explores family secrets and the legacy of trauma through the eyes of Beth Crowe.

Beth is a competitive swimmer entering her first year of university in Dublin. Her grandfather, Benjamin Crowe, is one of the most revered modern poets in Irish history, studied in school and mythologized due to his untimely death by suicide when he was only in his early 40s. Because Beth has such a strong connection to this lineage but never actually met her father—he died when Beth's mother was only a child—Beth struggles to make sense of her place in the narrative of his life. Additionally, Beth has had her own issues in the last year when she blows a huge chance at a swimming competition and takes a year off from her sport.

Entering college is a time for Beth to make new friends (like her boisterous roommate, Sadie) and engage in intellectual discussions while getting back on track with her swimming career. However, discussions about her grandfather, especially from the postdoc student, Justin, who seems to keep orbiting around Beth's life, resurface questions about her grandfather's death and what her family, including her grandmother Lydia, may be keeping from Beth.

I am a sucker for anything set in Ireland. This story was particularly fun for me because many of the places the author writes about are places I spent a lot of time during my own study abroad experience in Ireland. So it's hard not to say I'm biased, but I still found the story, the central mystery and Beth's coming of age plotline to be fully engaging and deftly written.

This story is subtle. The drama unfolds very peacefully, as Beth uncovers layer by layer the central mystery of her grandfather's death. It's not flashy and shocking, but more of a poignant tribute. It asks questions about artists and how we can, if at all, separate their art from their life; does the legacy of Ben's suicide inform the reading of his poetry or can we only study artists based on the work they produce? Considering this as an academic is quite different than that of a family member of the deceased. Beth's journey of self-discovery coincides with this sort of unraveling in her family's history, and she is left to piece it and herself back together.

Eimear Ryan’s debut, Holding Her Breath, is a great start for an author with a lot of potential. I'm very picky about prose and a few times something really stuck out to me as gorgeous. For example, a line at the very end that I loved: “She hits the water, plummeting into those dark blue folds that always looked to her like another country, impossible to come back from.” I enjoyed the novel but found it a little bit slow at the beginning; in general the characters are quite likable.

There were parts of the novel I wasn’t crazy about. I didn’t love the mystery aspect, and I wished that swimming played a larger part. I think Beth’s relationship to her sport is fertile ground for a lot more philosophical exploration than Ryan does. In general, I would say the novel has less of a focus on interiority than the writing I tend to love the most, but I also don’t think the book was necessarily aiming for that goal, of being a creature of interiority. I will say that I found the comparisons to Rooney and Batuman to be a bit off-base in that particular area. That being said I think a lot of people will really enjoy this book and it will probably do fairly well! It just ended up not being quite what I thought it was going to be. I tend to focus really hard on books with a more philosophical bent, and this wasn't quite that, in my mind; but as I said, I'm not convinced it was trying to be what I thought it was and I think many people who aren't as insufferable as I am will really enjoy it.

All in all a read that I ultimately found enjoyable, if not something squarely in my comfort zone, genre-wise. I’ll look forward to future books from Ryan; I think this is a solid debut and as she grows as a writer her work has the potential to go great places.

Holding Her Breath is an intimate coming of age novel by Elimear Ryan. It interweaves the daily life of elite swimmer Beth Crowe as she makes her way through her first year of university, with history of her famous poet grandfather Ben Crowe who killed himself by downing before she was born. The story is so rich that at times I felt I was reading a true biography of a poet told through through the eyes of his granddaughter, searching to find more about him as well as herself. A deeply engaging novel that I'd recommend to anyone, a solid five star read.

Holding Her Breath
by Eimear Ryan
Pub Date: May 17, 2022
Mariner
Thanks to the debut author, publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC. I found the writing delightful.
* Irish Literature * Contemporary
Holding Her Breath is a razor-sharp, moving, and seriously entertaining novel about complicated love stories, ambition, and grief--and a young woman coming fully into her powers.
I would recommend this to young adult readers or to anyone who enjoys the young adult genre. The book really demonstrates that there really is never truly one correct answer. The book itself really brings forth the questions of do we ever truly know anyone? As well as, will we ever truly know ourselves?
3 stars

A competitive swimmer in college who also happens to be the granddaughter of a deceased famous poet finds herself in relationships of all kinds while she searches for answers. Friendships and lovers. Teammates. Grandmother ties and connections with her mother and father. And the mysterious biographer. Satisfying and rich. Reminds me a bit of Sally Rooney.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley