Until I Break

Until I Break tells the moving story of one boy's mental distress at the hands of a bully. Truly an original YA novel, I loved the character development. I struggled a bit at first with the changes in timeline, but adjusted. A great read!

I was given this book in order for a free review. My review is always honest.

As a middle school teacher, I could relate to this book. As a teacher who has had students involved in a school shooting, it brought it close to home. With four main characters who lives are intertwined while growing up, the story focuses on one high school boy who struggles with a bully, a girlfriend, and a best friend that doesn't see him drowning. On top of that, he has lost his father and his mother isn't handling it well.

My favorite part was how the book was set up. It went back and forth in time, and you are constantly trying to guess what is going to happen. The book seemed truly realistic, and I would recommend it to anyone in high school and above.

Until I Break does a fantastic job at bringing the serious issue of bullying to the forefront. In a sense, this novel is proof that the act of bullying does not discriminate. The star athlete, the band member, the artist--anyone can be bullied, just like anyone can become the bully.

You can only take so much, before you break.. A take away that I had from reading is that in order to stop bullying, there needs to be more open communication. For the person being bullied, find that someone that you feel comfortable enough to confide in. For the person being confided in, be open minded and create a judgement free zone.

This was a great read. I definitely recommend it.

Sam has been relentlessly and harshly bullied by Ace for years, and is a peaceful person by nature. It's as the story develops that we see ultimately Sam isn't perfect either, and he makes huge mistakes. Lucky for him, he has good people there for him. I wasn't really super compelled to finish the story, but I'm glad I did. It went to a darker place than I expected, and I liked that it wasn't who you would have thought.

I have been waiting for a book like this. Realistic, character-driven and fast-paced, this book would not have worked so well without Sam's first-person narration. Bietz is effective at building tension and discomfort at key points of the book. The dialogue felt both legitimate and age-appropriate for the characters.

I was given an ARC of Until I Break via NetGalley and Albert Whitman & Company. This is my honest opinion of the book.

12 months before, Samuel North was nominated for Student Athlete of the Year, due to his stellar grades and athletic abilities. Ace Quinn, next door neighbor who is also a nominee, has been bullying Sam for as long as he can remember. After Sam is honored, the uneasy feeling that he has around Ace intensifies. As Ace continues to disrupt the positive strides forward that Sam is trying to make with his life, how long will it be before drastic measures are taken?

The author uses constant time shifts to build suspense and tell the story of what happens when a bully pushes his victim too far. This realistic fiction describes a situation that is all too common among teenagers today. Bullying is an important social issue that should be addressed more often and a book like Until I Break is a good way for parents to open a dialogue with their teens. Some of the story was a little unrealistic, but the overall feeling of the book was intense and accurate. Readers will really be able to feel Sam's agony and anxiety, both because of the bullying and because of the drastic way that he chooses to deal with it. I recommend Until I Break and look forward to reading more by this author in the future.

This book is set in present day, America.

The main theme of this story is about one boy bulling another. It is written in the first person, from the point of view from main character. As the book progresses, it counts down to a big event. And In addition, it flashes forwards to after this event, which I thought increased the mystery, but I found this confusing.

Ordinarily I would love this style of book but I gave it 3.5 stars because I couldn't relate to the main character as I am a girl

Lily

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

Highly engaging book that grabbed me from the first scene. Highly recommended.

Until I break is about two boys, Ace, who is the football star of the school and Sam, who's best at basketball and is also the brains of the school.
Sam and Ace live next door to each other and have had many "run ins" over the years.
They have a mutual female friend whom Sam has been in love with since grade school and finally in high school she starts showing interest. However, Ace will do everything he can to make sure to ruin Sam's chances.
This book is about bullying and the lengths some kids will go to make it stop.

Until I Break is a powerful YA novel. The protagonist Sam is an eminently likable high school senior, good student, great athlete, all-around nice guy. But he has been plagued pretty much his whole life by Ace, who has bullied and near-tortured Sam for years. Sam's father is dead, his mother is sunk in depression, and his grandfather just keeps telling him to suck it up and show strength. Sam's gradual descent into depression and ideas of retribution is skillfully portrayed, so that the inevitable breaking point still leaves the reader sympathetic towards the shooter. Very well done. Not a happy book, but I think this is an important read as a means of understanding, to at least some degree, the effect of bullying, the need for everyone to have people they can truly talk to about anything and everything, the horrific effect of gender stereotyping (men mustn't have feelings, or if they do, they mustn't express them), and also the glimmer of hope for anyone, even those who feel most alone and forgotten.

My favorite part was how the book was set up. It went back and forth in time, and you are constantly trying to guess what is going to happen. The book seemed truly realistic, and I would recommend it to anyone in high school and above.