What do you think?
Rate this book
Every Stolen Breath
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.
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.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 5, 2019
About the author
Kimberly Gabriel
2 books116 followersKimberly Gabriel started writing in fourth grade when she wrote, bound, and gave away books of terrible poetry to family and teachers as holiday gifts. Today she is an English teacher, who still squanders all free minutes to write and uses it as the best scapegoat for her laundry avoidance issues. When she is not teaching or writing, Kimberly is enjoying life with her husband and her three beautiful children in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Her debut, Every Stolen Breath, is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and the winner of the International Literacy Association’s Children’s and Young Adult Book Award in Young Adult Fiction.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 208 reviews
September 6, 2020
This is heart throbbing, riveting, fast-paced, incredible, mind-bending, surprisingly smart written, one of my favorite debuts of 2019! I’m so happy to announce we have new amazing author in the literary town. Let’s give a big applause for Kimberly Gabriel. This is not about generosity that I’m giving FIVE STARS because this book definitely deserved every each one of them.
Smart characterizations, thrilling twists, nail-biter action scenes wrapped up a soft romance and meaningful ending!
Metaphoric referral touch about Lia’s asthma to connect with its title is a great choice.
The plot is about Lia’s heart-breaking and thrilling journey to find her father’s killer. Everyone can be suspect, there is no one she can trust to open her heart for her secret mission.
Cullen, mayor’s son is arrogant asshole but he seemed like he wanted to help her. Ryan, her father’s partner in crime is also another dubious, shady character! You want to believe in him but your guts tell you the opposite. And we have slapping contest winner: A despicable journalist who insists she is on her side and helped her father before.
It’s one sit read, devoured half of it when I was nursing only first glass of my Chablis (My husband made grocery shopping without his glasses and bought the wrong bottle but his mistake was my big win! Yay!)
Gripping, chilling read with a smart and badass heroine who defeats the authorities with her wits and bravery. I loved it so much!
Thank you NetGalley, Blink to share this wonderful book’s ARC COPY with me in exchange my honest review and special thanks to Kimberly Gabriel. I cannot wait to read her future works! Brava!
blog
instagram
facebook
twitter
Smart characterizations, thrilling twists, nail-biter action scenes wrapped up a soft romance and meaningful ending!
Metaphoric referral touch about Lia’s asthma to connect with its title is a great choice.
The plot is about Lia’s heart-breaking and thrilling journey to find her father’s killer. Everyone can be suspect, there is no one she can trust to open her heart for her secret mission.
Cullen, mayor’s son is arrogant asshole but he seemed like he wanted to help her. Ryan, her father’s partner in crime is also another dubious, shady character! You want to believe in him but your guts tell you the opposite. And we have slapping contest winner: A despicable journalist who insists she is on her side and helped her father before.
It’s one sit read, devoured half of it when I was nursing only first glass of my Chablis (My husband made grocery shopping without his glasses and bought the wrong bottle but his mistake was my big win! Yay!)
Gripping, chilling read with a smart and badass heroine who defeats the authorities with her wits and bravery. I loved it so much!
Thank you NetGalley, Blink to share this wonderful book’s ARC COPY with me in exchange my honest review and special thanks to Kimberly Gabriel. I cannot wait to read her future works! Brava!
blog
November 1, 2019
Every Stolen Breath by Kimberly Gabriel is a young adult thriller that is based on real events that took place in Chicago in 2011. Chicago really isn’t the only city with random acts of violence either as the idea behind this reminded me of news stories about gang initiations too so the entire book has a realistic creepy what if this happens vibe.
Lia Finch is the teenage daughter of one of the victims to a group only known as “the Swarm”. This organized group of teenagers is wanted for several murders in the city after having come together as a group in public areas swarming in on one victim and attacking until they die.
The police are no closer to solving the murders and tracking down the Swarm than they were a couple of years ago when the attacks began so Lia has been determined to get justice for her father. When Lia figures out how the group communicates she finds herself right in the middle of the most recent attack.
There is something about realistic fiction that just pulls me into a story even more, perhaps just the added fear of this could be anyone. Every Stolen Breath had that extra curiosity about it within an action packed fictional thriller. However, there are little details in here that I just didn’t feel were overly believable lowering my rating to 3 1/2 stars.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/
Lia Finch is the teenage daughter of one of the victims to a group only known as “the Swarm”. This organized group of teenagers is wanted for several murders in the city after having come together as a group in public areas swarming in on one victim and attacking until they die.
The police are no closer to solving the murders and tracking down the Swarm than they were a couple of years ago when the attacks began so Lia has been determined to get justice for her father. When Lia figures out how the group communicates she finds herself right in the middle of the most recent attack.
There is something about realistic fiction that just pulls me into a story even more, perhaps just the added fear of this could be anyone. Every Stolen Breath had that extra curiosity about it within an action packed fictional thriller. However, there are little details in here that I just didn’t feel were overly believable lowering my rating to 3 1/2 stars.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/
November 29, 2019
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.
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.
November 26, 2019
Kimberly Gabriel’s debut was tense and riveting. An addictive YA thriller based on true events. Two years ago Lia’s father was killed by a “swarm“ of wild organized teenagers and he was not the only victim of the swarm. since The attack Lia has suffered from PTSD that only aggravates her asthma and anxiety. Lia might be physically weak, but she is strong in spirit and determined to find out who killed her father two years ago. Suspicious of everybody, but in need of help who can she trust? A reporter? A former swarm member? Or fellow classmates?
WOW was not expecting this book to be so remarkable! Fast paced, action packed, and completely absorbing from first page to last. Lia was a fantastic character and completely Drew me into the story. I was right there with her trying to figure out who the guilty parties were and who she could trust. There is a bit of a romance in this book, but it definitely took the backseat to the Mystery. I can’t even imagine being killed by a swarm of angry teenagers so scary and what made it scarier is that this actually happened in Chicago in 2011. I am glad to see that there are more and more young adult mystery/thriller’s being released, but I have to say this book is perfect for readers of all ages. A wild ride that will keep you guessing until the bitter end. Looking forward to what is next from Miss Gabriel.
This book in emojis 💔 🎢 🔍 💗
WOW was not expecting this book to be so remarkable! Fast paced, action packed, and completely absorbing from first page to last. Lia was a fantastic character and completely Drew me into the story. I was right there with her trying to figure out who the guilty parties were and who she could trust. There is a bit of a romance in this book, but it definitely took the backseat to the Mystery. I can’t even imagine being killed by a swarm of angry teenagers so scary and what made it scarier is that this actually happened in Chicago in 2011. I am glad to see that there are more and more young adult mystery/thriller’s being released, but I have to say this book is perfect for readers of all ages. A wild ride that will keep you guessing until the bitter end. Looking forward to what is next from Miss Gabriel.
This book in emojis 💔 🎢 🔍 💗
December 4, 2019
Kimberly Gabriel’s heart-racing YA thriller Every Stolen Breath was such a delight to read and truly hard to put down! Filled with tension and inspired by the real life flash mob violence that occurred in Chicago nearly a decade ago, this is a must-read thriller this year.
Lia is such an interesting and unique character. She suffers from debilitating asthma and she also is still working through PTSD since the murder of her father two years ago. I really grew to love Lia from the very beginning of this book. She’s an unlikely heroine—emotionally fragile and physically she’s a bit of an underdog. But her heart is what motivates her, and it is an unstoppable force.
I live in Chicago, and I remember the chaos of the Magnificent Mile flash mob attacks. Groups of people, often coordinated via social media or other difficult to track ways, would assemble and when they got the notification to activate, they would stage horrific attacks on businesses and people in the area. It was a really scary time and one that was disturbing for so many residents.
In the book, Lia’s father was a prosecutor investigating a string of similar attacks when he becomes the victim of one himself. Lia knows that these attacks are not as random as they appear, and for two years she follows any thread she can find. And finally, it pays off. She deciphers a tweet that indicates where the next attack will be and she shows up after forwarding it to the police.
The events of the book are so suspenseful, I was truly on the edge of my seat at times. Along the way, Lia partners with a group of others who are interested in uncovering what is happening behind the attacks. I was particularly intrigued by the characters of Adam and Ryan (in very different ways), who offer hacking and reporting expertise to her investigation. These skills are needed for Lia to make progress, but her drive, tenacity, and intelligence are key as well. There’s a lot to learn about both Adam and Ryan, but I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll leave my thoughts at “intriguing”!
The attacks themselves are appalling and involve quite a bit of violence, though I thought the author did a fantastic job of leaving out any graphic content. The darkness of the individuals behind the attacks was prominent and shocking. I felt the terror these attacks would spark, and I appreciated the way Lia refused to back-down from finding answers.
Fast-paced and filled with tautly-wound tension, this is a fantastic thriller that will appeal to fans of both YA and adult fiction.
Thank you to TLC Book Tours for my copy. Opinions are my own.
Lia is such an interesting and unique character. She suffers from debilitating asthma and she also is still working through PTSD since the murder of her father two years ago. I really grew to love Lia from the very beginning of this book. She’s an unlikely heroine—emotionally fragile and physically she’s a bit of an underdog. But her heart is what motivates her, and it is an unstoppable force.
I live in Chicago, and I remember the chaos of the Magnificent Mile flash mob attacks. Groups of people, often coordinated via social media or other difficult to track ways, would assemble and when they got the notification to activate, they would stage horrific attacks on businesses and people in the area. It was a really scary time and one that was disturbing for so many residents.
In the book, Lia’s father was a prosecutor investigating a string of similar attacks when he becomes the victim of one himself. Lia knows that these attacks are not as random as they appear, and for two years she follows any thread she can find. And finally, it pays off. She deciphers a tweet that indicates where the next attack will be and she shows up after forwarding it to the police.
The events of the book are so suspenseful, I was truly on the edge of my seat at times. Along the way, Lia partners with a group of others who are interested in uncovering what is happening behind the attacks. I was particularly intrigued by the characters of Adam and Ryan (in very different ways), who offer hacking and reporting expertise to her investigation. These skills are needed for Lia to make progress, but her drive, tenacity, and intelligence are key as well. There’s a lot to learn about both Adam and Ryan, but I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll leave my thoughts at “intriguing”!
The attacks themselves are appalling and involve quite a bit of violence, though I thought the author did a fantastic job of leaving out any graphic content. The darkness of the individuals behind the attacks was prominent and shocking. I felt the terror these attacks would spark, and I appreciated the way Lia refused to back-down from finding answers.
Fast-paced and filled with tautly-wound tension, this is a fantastic thriller that will appeal to fans of both YA and adult fiction.
Thank you to TLC Book Tours for my copy. Opinions are my own.
July 15, 2019
I was lucky enough to receive an ARC for Every Stolen Breath and I dove right in! The story's fast, energetic, and keeps the reader turning pages with its sharp prose and chapter-ending cliffhangers. Gabriel brilliantly matches the pace of her main character's faulty breath with her sentence structure, proving a deft sense of how to subtly affect a read while also keeping the action on the page driving the story forward. As the protagonist gets breathless, so do we. Sentences shorten. Paragraphs condense. Action leaps forward. So often when I read, I find my inner editor wanting to slash irrelevant or repetitive content, but nothing's wasted here.
Though I'm a big fan of love stories, in this particular case, the romance took a back seat for me, and I think intentionally so. This is a story about a girl driven to uncover truth. That's the engine, and one I think readers will thoroughly enjoy following. There are just enough characters to build a suspect list while the story never gets bogged down with too many names to sort out. We always have visuals to anchor to and yet not a page goes by without something happening.
As a long-time Chicago-ite, I also loved seeing the city play such a huge role in the story. It's not just background. It's a character all its own. ESB is a great read for lovers of suspense and political intrigue. A strong-willed but flawed heroine. A hint of romance. A corrupt but compelling city. And a constant uncertainty about who's an ally and who's an antagonist. Great stuff. Look forward to seeing what Gabriel writes next!
Though I'm a big fan of love stories, in this particular case, the romance took a back seat for me, and I think intentionally so. This is a story about a girl driven to uncover truth. That's the engine, and one I think readers will thoroughly enjoy following. There are just enough characters to build a suspect list while the story never gets bogged down with too many names to sort out. We always have visuals to anchor to and yet not a page goes by without something happening.
As a long-time Chicago-ite, I also loved seeing the city play such a huge role in the story. It's not just background. It's a character all its own. ESB is a great read for lovers of suspense and political intrigue. A strong-willed but flawed heroine. A hint of romance. A corrupt but compelling city. And a constant uncertainty about who's an ally and who's an antagonist. Great stuff. Look forward to seeing what Gabriel writes next!
May 18, 2019
From the moment I picked up Gabriel's debut YA thriller, I was completely immersed. When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. I was absolutely hooked from the get-go; needing to know what would happen next. With its fast-paced plot and cast of complicated, well-developed characters, it's become a new favorite -- one of the best books I've read in a long time.
Well worth the read -- Every Stolen Breath will have you on the edge of your seat!
Well worth the read -- Every Stolen Breath will have you on the edge of your seat!
January 7, 2020
Thanks so much to Blink for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review!
As soon as I received this book, I was fascinated by the synopsis and couldn't wait to read it. Intense and packed with suspense, Every Stolen Breath is one book you won't be able to put down until the story has unfolded. I was sucked into the story right away and couldn't wait to find out what was going on. Are the attacks random like the police believe or is there more going on? Lia is an amazing, strong young woman that you can't help rooting for. She has been dealt a pretty tough hand, but she doesn't let that hold her back in her quest for justice. The build up and the climax of the story are masterfully done.
As soon as I received this book, I was fascinated by the synopsis and couldn't wait to read it. Intense and packed with suspense, Every Stolen Breath is one book you won't be able to put down until the story has unfolded. I was sucked into the story right away and couldn't wait to find out what was going on. Are the attacks random like the police believe or is there more going on? Lia is an amazing, strong young woman that you can't help rooting for. She has been dealt a pretty tough hand, but she doesn't let that hold her back in her quest for justice. The build up and the climax of the story are masterfully done.
November 5, 2019
Every Stolen Breath literally stole my breath away! From the first chapter there is nonstop action, danger, and mystery. Teens and adults alike will devour this book.
What I loved 🖤💛🖤💛:
1. If you couldn’t already tell, I loved the title which hints at the heart-stopping pace of the plot but also symbolizes Lia’s asthma. From the time she was a premie baby, she has stolen every breath to be here.
2. The swarm: a group of teens that beats people to death. They surround their prey like a swarm of bees. It’s such a unique and fascinatingly violent idea. But who is behind them? And why? Are there kills thoughtless or is there a pattern?
3. I loved Lia’s tech-savvy friend Adam who helps her discover clues on the web.
4. The mystery guy who saves Lia’s life by nearly killing her and who is a part of the swarm.
5. Chicago serves as a beautiful and scary setting for this modern story.
6. Lia’s dad was murdered by the swarm and no matter how much they threaten her, she won’t give up until they’re brought to justice.
Caution, only pick up this book if you have time to read it all be cause you won’t want to put it down.
What I loved 🖤💛🖤💛:
1. If you couldn’t already tell, I loved the title which hints at the heart-stopping pace of the plot but also symbolizes Lia’s asthma. From the time she was a premie baby, she has stolen every breath to be here.
2. The swarm: a group of teens that beats people to death. They surround their prey like a swarm of bees. It’s such a unique and fascinatingly violent idea. But who is behind them? And why? Are there kills thoughtless or is there a pattern?
3. I loved Lia’s tech-savvy friend Adam who helps her discover clues on the web.
4. The mystery guy who saves Lia’s life by nearly killing her and who is a part of the swarm.
5. Chicago serves as a beautiful and scary setting for this modern story.
6. Lia’s dad was murdered by the swarm and no matter how much they threaten her, she won’t give up until they’re brought to justice.
Caution, only pick up this book if you have time to read it all be cause you won’t want to put it down.
May 29, 2019
Wow. This book sucked me and then spit me out and left me thinking about it for days. Lia's an amazing main character--her struggle with grief and PTSD was so real that I got choked up several times while reading. AND THE ENDING!!!! I won't spoil anything, but it was incredibly satisfying, and I could not put it down.
November 6, 2019
Holy crap Batman this book was amazing! This is one heck of a debut novel! Definitely looking forward to Kimberly Gabriel’s future works.
Lia Finch lives in a Chicago that is plagued by The Swarm a mob of crazed teens that target and kill people. After her dad is attacked and killed by The Swarm Lia spends her time investigating the attacks to find out what’s really going on and bring justice to her family and the families of the other victims. This book picks up 2 years after the last Swarm attack which killed Lia’s father. Everyone thinks that The Swarm is done since there hasn’t been any attacks since and they also think the Swarm is gang related. Lia knows better and is out to prove it even if no one will believe her. But investigating The Swarm puts her in their cross hair and now she’s getting threats and could very well be their next target. To discover what’s really going on she ends up getting help from her hacker best friend, a reporter, and a complete stranger.
This book is riveting. I absolutely loved that you are immediately immersed into the action. There is no slow buildup of back ground information you are just thrown right into the situations with Lia as she uncovers the truth and experiences the consequences of gaining this knowledge. This is so fast paced and I pretty much read the entire book in one sitting because I NEEDED to know what was gonna happen and who was behind The Swarm.
Thank you so much to Kimberly Gabriel for this ARC which I received while at a book fest this past weekend. The above is my honest review!
Lia Finch lives in a Chicago that is plagued by The Swarm a mob of crazed teens that target and kill people. After her dad is attacked and killed by The Swarm Lia spends her time investigating the attacks to find out what’s really going on and bring justice to her family and the families of the other victims. This book picks up 2 years after the last Swarm attack which killed Lia’s father. Everyone thinks that The Swarm is done since there hasn’t been any attacks since and they also think the Swarm is gang related. Lia knows better and is out to prove it even if no one will believe her. But investigating The Swarm puts her in their cross hair and now she’s getting threats and could very well be their next target. To discover what’s really going on she ends up getting help from her hacker best friend, a reporter, and a complete stranger.
This book is riveting. I absolutely loved that you are immediately immersed into the action. There is no slow buildup of back ground information you are just thrown right into the situations with Lia as she uncovers the truth and experiences the consequences of gaining this knowledge. This is so fast paced and I pretty much read the entire book in one sitting because I NEEDED to know what was gonna happen and who was behind The Swarm.
Thank you so much to Kimberly Gabriel for this ARC which I received while at a book fest this past weekend. The above is my honest review!
November 7, 2019
Set in modern-day Chicago, Every Stolen Breath is a fast-paced, YA thriller that readers are going to love. Lia, a teenager with asthma, PTSD, and anxiety, has been desperately trying to expose her father's killers for two years. Her father was attacked and murdered by the Swarm, an organized mob of crazy teens, famous for their brutal killings in high-profile areas, such as Navy Pier.
Lia cannot uncover the truth about her father's death by herself. While trying to overcome her own disabilities, she must trust in the skills and stories of others: a former Swarm member, a reporter who loves drama and TV cameras, and two loyal school friends with social media smarts who will help her - even if it means more danger for them. Lia is convinced that she knows how her father died, but there are secrets to be revealed, and there are many people who attempt to halt her efforts -- many who want to silence her forever. No one is safe from the secrets.
This novel by Kimberly Gabriel, a Chicago native, is now published! Add it to your reading list today.
Lia cannot uncover the truth about her father's death by herself. While trying to overcome her own disabilities, she must trust in the skills and stories of others: a former Swarm member, a reporter who loves drama and TV cameras, and two loyal school friends with social media smarts who will help her - even if it means more danger for them. Lia is convinced that she knows how her father died, but there are secrets to be revealed, and there are many people who attempt to halt her efforts -- many who want to silence her forever. No one is safe from the secrets.
This novel by Kimberly Gabriel, a Chicago native, is now published! Add it to your reading list today.
May 3, 2019
I was lucky enough to get my hands on an ARC of Every Stolen Breath. This debut novel was a complete surprise! It’s fast-paced and grips you from the very first chapter and doesn’t relent until the final scenes. Gabriel’s writing style is tight and clean, with no filler and no wasted words, and nothing getting in the way between you and the action. But the story is not only tense and exciting. It is filled with dynamic and diverse characters that leap off the page--especially Lia, who had me biting my nails halfway through the first chapter. The plot swerves and veers unpredictably and will keep you guessing until the very end. This story does indeed have everything—boundless tension, originality and a ton of heart.
May 22, 2019
This book is one of those books that you just can’t stop reading. I was so excited to keep reading it because I needed to figure out what would happen to Lia. The plot twists are so creative and fit the book perfectly. While I was reading this book, I forgot about everything that was happening around me and instead felt like I was Lia. This storyline is so unique and engaging. There was never a part of the book where I skimmed the page instead of actually reading it, which is extremely rare for me.
July 7, 2019
You're going to want to clear your calendar for this one. Once you crack it open, you won't want to stop until you get to the stunning conclusion. Everything about this book sings, from the strong but vulnerable main character, to the twisty-turny plot, to the setting that perfectly captures the spirit of Chicago. A brilliant debut!
July 6, 2019
This book is a rollercoaster ride of intrigue and terrifying action scenes! I love the MC, Lia, so much. She’s had to fight for her life since her first breath, and she’s tenacious and loyal. There are twists and turns—plus a love interest who is worthy of our brave Lia. Loved this book!! What a wonderful debut!
July 12, 2019
Edgy. Gritty. Fast-paced. Unputdownable. This modern day thriller feels dystopian but grounds itself in contemporary YA. The plot twists and layered characters, along with a complex plot, will keep you thinking about this. It's been awhile since a book kept me reading well beyond my "bedtime," but this one definitely did.
May 16, 2019
Every Stolen Breath is a fast-paced, suspenseful read filled with plot twists and complex characters. I loved Lia-I felt fully immersed in her voice, and Gabriel’s secondary characters were just as rich in detail and depth. This is an exciting thriller that will entertain all. Very well done.
Read
September 22, 2020Gabriel has crafted a thrilling, fast-paced narrative with twists and turns that left me genuinely shocked! I was never sure who to trust or what would happen next. EVERY STOLEN BREATH is a must read for fans of YA thrillers! I cannot wait to read whatever Gabriel writes next.
May 7, 2019
One of the best books I’ve ever read and I love all of the characters. I thought the plot was amazing and I couldn’t predict what was going to happen next and I couldn’t put it down!
April 21, 2020
I'm so disappointed.
This book had great reviews and a promising blurb. More important than that, it is a YA Thriller, a genre that's not quite popular, yet is one of my favorites. Because of it, I've read great books like One of Us Is Lying and The Dead List. And some really bad ones, like S.T.A.G.S and There's Someone Inside Your House.
This one belongs in the bad category. The story was kind of boring, slow and dull. Also, I found a lot of stuff very predictable.
Lia is a teenager whose father died because of the Swarm. Basically, a mob of teens who attacks a target and kills him. Nobody know who they are and why they do it, and the police has been incapable of stopping them. Lia's father was a prossecutor who was investigating the attacks when he was murdered.
Lia is desperate for justice. She knows the Swarm will attack again, even though most people think they no longer exist. That's why she starts investigating and finds out where and when will be the next attack.
The mystery did sound interesting. The problem was the way the author executed the story. I couldn't help thinking that Lia was kind of useless; most of the time, she acted kind of reckless and only managed to get herself hurt.
This book had great reviews and a promising blurb. More important than that, it is a YA Thriller, a genre that's not quite popular, yet is one of my favorites. Because of it, I've read great books like One of Us Is Lying and The Dead List. And some really bad ones, like S.T.A.G.S and There's Someone Inside Your House.
This one belongs in the bad category. The story was kind of boring, slow and dull. Also, I found a lot of stuff very predictable.
Lia is a teenager whose father died because of the Swarm. Basically, a mob of teens who attacks a target and kills him. Nobody know who they are and why they do it, and the police has been incapable of stopping them. Lia's father was a prossecutor who was investigating the attacks when he was murdered.
Lia is desperate for justice. She knows the Swarm will attack again, even though most people think they no longer exist. That's why she starts investigating and finds out where and when will be the next attack.
The mystery did sound interesting. The problem was the way the author executed the story. I couldn't help thinking that Lia was kind of useless; most of the time, she acted kind of reckless and only managed to get herself hurt.
June 28, 2019
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.
Thank you to net galley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book
Thank you to net galley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book
May 17, 2019
This book was absolutely amazing. I finished it so quickly because I could not put it down. The descriptions throughout the book keep you tied in, putting a clear image in your head. Twists and turns are everywhere and there are things you would never expect. This is definitely a 5 star book and it’s definitely worth reading.
August 12, 2019
I wanted to like this, I really did. But somewhere between the repetitive plot, the flat characters, the rampant use of ableist language (including some truly troubling references to mental illness), the protagonist's not-like-other-girls attitude, the racial microaggressions, the fat-shaming, and some baffling decisions at a sentence level.... I mean, it's not good. This is not a good book. This is not an entertaining book, this is not a well-written book, this is not a book that I felt good reading.
1. The plot is just a bunch of, "They're after me! They're coming to get me! I'm about to die! I'm having an asthma attack because they're going to get me! Oh wait no they're not they're after that other person. Huh..." over and over and over and over again. I never felt like Lia was in danger because, despite telling us several times that the Swarm was after her, she was NEVER the target they were actually after whenever she felt threatened. Also, people caring about her so much that she was a news/gossip fixture after being present at an attack? Not realistic. I don't care who your father is, someone was DYING! And the media is like "WHAT IS LIA DOING?!???! WHO IS SHE DATING??!??!??" and not "Yo this dude is dying that's pretty bad right?" Never mind that the Chicago news cycle is very rarely dominated by anything -- so much happens here, and no one would care for as long as is depicted in the book if they would even care at all.
2. None of these characters were well-rounded! Lia has asthma, PTSD, a dead dad, a dead sister, and she thinks she's better than everyone else. (Why was the dead sister there?? It didn't add anything to the story, and she was never relevant to the plot, and a few times there were these stories about her that took away from the rising action, and I was just confused.) Adam is your run-of-the-mill emo nonconformist who likes computers and is also gay apparently. Katie is... well, she has her own section of my review pretty much. Ryan is the mystery man who is buff with gray eyes and a lot of angst. The mayor is your run-of-the-mill corrupt politician. Just like in the plot, there's no complexity here.
3. Lia uses the word "spastic" like it's going out of style. I know the word is considered an extremely derogatory slur in the UK, but it's becoming increasingly recognized as inappropriate ableist language in the US as well, and Lia clearly means it as a derogatory descriptor for jumpiness and erratic movements. Additionally, her usage tends to accompany references to mental illness or mentally ill people, and those references are awful. According to Lia, people suffering from (and even seeking treatment for!) a mental illness are: faulty, broken, wrecked, and I think she used ruined once or twice too. Like, what?! She also constantly puts down treatment options and it just comes across like accepting help when you're suffering means you're weak, which is like... no. Just no.
4. Lia is supposed to be an outcast, and I'm pretty sure that's because she's a straight-up unpleasant person to be around. When she's not thinking about how awful it is to accept help when you're having mental health problems, her inner monologue is constantly judging other women and girls for their aesthetic choices, girly personality traits, and bodies.
5. This book is very clearly written by a middle-aged white woman living in the want-to-believe-they're-progressive suburbs of a diverse urban center. She tried to make the book reflect Chicago's diversity and call out the racial inequities and corruption, and on a surface level she totally succeeded: the conversation Lia had with Emi about the issues and violence that Latinx Chicagoans are facing after the latest Swarm attack was blamed on them made sense, and I wasn't mad about it -- even though it was never mentioned again after that scene. But she also described a cornrow hairstyle as "tiny french braids swirling in intricate designs around [a background character's] head" and I just.... am confused? Why not just say cornrows? Does she.... not know what cornrows are? This was a very small part, but it was so weird that I spent about 20 minutes googling tiny french braids to see if there's a hairstyle that would describe that isn't cornrows (spoiler alert: they're all cornrows). So, that's weird, but what about those racial microaggressions I mentioned earlier? One word: Katie. Katie is one of our protagonist's two friends, and she is Asian. The fact that she's Asian is stated explicitly a few times later in the book, but Katie is, in fact, coded as Japanese-American the first time we meet her... because she likes anime and packs her lunch in a bento box. This isn't a stereotype, but it made me uncomfortable because it felt very reductive, like the author decided Katie is Japanese and pulled out the two things she knows about Japanese culture as character traits. If Katie were a well-rounded character, it wouldn't feel gross to me, but... she's not. All we know about her is that she likes anime and drawing, she eats her lunch out of a bento box, she can drive, she is shy and meek at school (which IS a racial stereotype), she's tan with "dark silky hair" (mentioned repeatedly, unlike any of the white characters), and she protests the Lakefront project. None of the characters are fully developed, but the way Katie is depicted is gross to me.
6. There's a lot of nonsense in the sentences here, folks, but I want to specifically mention "a poorly pixilated [sic] photo" because I hate it so much. If a photo is rendered in poor quality, then it's pixelated. Poorly pixilated is nonsense, especially because pixilated means confused or befuddled and not broken into pixels. (I spent WAY too much time looking into it to make sure I haven't been spelling pixelated wrong all these years, and Merriam Webster + every other source I could find backs me up here.) And that happened a lot in this book; I would read a sentence, and then I would reread it because even taking figurative language into account, the sentence did not make sense. The grammar isn't exactly bad, but it's kind of clunky at times. The repeated sentence fragments are a stylistic choice that is supposed to heighten the tension and reflect her inability to breathe correctly (or something) but it just seemed overwrought to me. Some people will like it, and I think part of why I don't is that I hated the rest of the book so much that I was just side-eyeing everything the author chose to do, but for me the sentence fragments only heightened the soap opera feel.
7. Of all the underdeveloped, instalove romances....
Anyway, I have a lot of serious problems with this book, and I think a lot of other readers will have the same problems. Would not recommend to anyone, and I am actually a little bit angry because I know it's going to be popular at my library.
1. The plot is just a bunch of, "They're after me! They're coming to get me! I'm about to die! I'm having an asthma attack because they're going to get me! Oh wait no they're not they're after that other person. Huh..." over and over and over and over again. I never felt like Lia was in danger because, despite telling us several times that the Swarm was after her, she was NEVER the target they were actually after whenever she felt threatened. Also, people caring about her so much that she was a news/gossip fixture after being present at an attack? Not realistic. I don't care who your father is, someone was DYING! And the media is like "WHAT IS LIA DOING?!???! WHO IS SHE DATING??!??!??" and not "Yo this dude is dying that's pretty bad right?" Never mind that the Chicago news cycle is very rarely dominated by anything -- so much happens here, and no one would care for as long as is depicted in the book if they would even care at all.
2. None of these characters were well-rounded! Lia has asthma, PTSD, a dead dad, a dead sister, and she thinks she's better than everyone else. (Why was the dead sister there?? It didn't add anything to the story, and she was never relevant to the plot, and a few times there were these stories about her that took away from the rising action, and I was just confused.) Adam is your run-of-the-mill emo nonconformist who likes computers and is also gay apparently. Katie is... well, she has her own section of my review pretty much. Ryan is the mystery man who is buff with gray eyes and a lot of angst. The mayor is your run-of-the-mill corrupt politician. Just like in the plot, there's no complexity here.
3. Lia uses the word "spastic" like it's going out of style. I know the word is considered an extremely derogatory slur in the UK, but it's becoming increasingly recognized as inappropriate ableist language in the US as well, and Lia clearly means it as a derogatory descriptor for jumpiness and erratic movements. Additionally, her usage tends to accompany references to mental illness or mentally ill people, and those references are awful. According to Lia, people suffering from (and even seeking treatment for!) a mental illness are: faulty, broken, wrecked, and I think she used ruined once or twice too. Like, what?! She also constantly puts down treatment options and it just comes across like accepting help when you're suffering means you're weak, which is like... no. Just no.
4. Lia is supposed to be an outcast, and I'm pretty sure that's because she's a straight-up unpleasant person to be around. When she's not thinking about how awful it is to accept help when you're having mental health problems, her inner monologue is constantly judging other women and girls for their aesthetic choices, girly personality traits, and bodies.
5. This book is very clearly written by a middle-aged white woman living in the want-to-believe-they're-progressive suburbs of a diverse urban center. She tried to make the book reflect Chicago's diversity and call out the racial inequities and corruption, and on a surface level she totally succeeded: the conversation Lia had with Emi about the issues and violence that Latinx Chicagoans are facing after the latest Swarm attack was blamed on them made sense, and I wasn't mad about it -- even though it was never mentioned again after that scene. But she also described a cornrow hairstyle as "tiny french braids swirling in intricate designs around [a background character's] head" and I just.... am confused? Why not just say cornrows? Does she.... not know what cornrows are? This was a very small part, but it was so weird that I spent about 20 minutes googling tiny french braids to see if there's a hairstyle that would describe that isn't cornrows (spoiler alert: they're all cornrows). So, that's weird, but what about those racial microaggressions I mentioned earlier? One word: Katie. Katie is one of our protagonist's two friends, and she is Asian. The fact that she's Asian is stated explicitly a few times later in the book, but Katie is, in fact, coded as Japanese-American the first time we meet her... because she likes anime and packs her lunch in a bento box. This isn't a stereotype, but it made me uncomfortable because it felt very reductive, like the author decided Katie is Japanese and pulled out the two things she knows about Japanese culture as character traits. If Katie were a well-rounded character, it wouldn't feel gross to me, but... she's not. All we know about her is that she likes anime and drawing, she eats her lunch out of a bento box, she can drive, she is shy and meek at school (which IS a racial stereotype), she's tan with "dark silky hair" (mentioned repeatedly, unlike any of the white characters), and she protests the Lakefront project. None of the characters are fully developed, but the way Katie is depicted is gross to me.
6. There's a lot of nonsense in the sentences here, folks, but I want to specifically mention "a poorly pixilated [sic] photo" because I hate it so much. If a photo is rendered in poor quality, then it's pixelated. Poorly pixilated is nonsense, especially because pixilated means confused or befuddled and not broken into pixels. (I spent WAY too much time looking into it to make sure I haven't been spelling pixelated wrong all these years, and Merriam Webster + every other source I could find backs me up here.) And that happened a lot in this book; I would read a sentence, and then I would reread it because even taking figurative language into account, the sentence did not make sense. The grammar isn't exactly bad, but it's kind of clunky at times. The repeated sentence fragments are a stylistic choice that is supposed to heighten the tension and reflect her inability to breathe correctly (or something) but it just seemed overwrought to me. Some people will like it, and I think part of why I don't is that I hated the rest of the book so much that I was just side-eyeing everything the author chose to do, but for me the sentence fragments only heightened the soap opera feel.
7. Of all the underdeveloped, instalove romances....
Anyway, I have a lot of serious problems with this book, and I think a lot of other readers will have the same problems. Would not recommend to anyone, and I am actually a little bit angry because I know it's going to be popular at my library.
July 5, 2019
I received an early ARC of EVERY STOLEN BREATH from the publisher.
When I first started reading, I was hooked in the first chapter with Gabriel’s intense, fast-paced opening scene. From there, the further I got into the story, the harder it was to put down. I loved the plot and the mystery, but what kept me turning the pages were the characters. All of them, including the secondary characters, were so well written. I loved Lia—who’s both flawed and heroic, and I really loved her relationship with Ryan. I read the entire book in just a few days and am excited for more from this debut author.
When I first started reading, I was hooked in the first chapter with Gabriel’s intense, fast-paced opening scene. From there, the further I got into the story, the harder it was to put down. I loved the plot and the mystery, but what kept me turning the pages were the characters. All of them, including the secondary characters, were so well written. I loved Lia—who’s both flawed and heroic, and I really loved her relationship with Ryan. I read the entire book in just a few days and am excited for more from this debut author.
July 25, 2019
This book was excellent! Totally kept my attention and I wanted to find out what would become of the main characters. Highly reccomended.
November 6, 2019
This heart-thumping thriller will keep you guessing! Who is behind Lia's father's death---and will she be the next victim?
I hadn't heard of the flash mob violence in Chicago, even though I live in the suburbs (now that I've looked it up, I know it's scary stuff!), but I was incredibly intrigued at the idea of a book based on the concept. The idea of teenagers organizing violent mobs via social media is pretty scary. And then Gabriel took the concept and made it even scarier: What if the attacks were targeted, a cover-up for some larger scheme, and the victims were actually dying? The result is a YA thriller with incredibly high stakes. Lia hasn't given up on finding the "Swarm" who killed her father, but when she tries to capture another attack on video, she finds herself in the middle of a dangerous game---one she doesn't know the rules for. The suspense is constant as Lia sees danger in every teenager she encounters. Is she imagining things or could almost any kid at school actually be out to get her?
The book also weaves in a romance, but I don't want to talk much about it because I feel like it would be hard to stay out of spoiler territory. Suffice it to say, Lia's never quite sure who she can trust---and that includes her love interest. I'll confess that I did feel a slight disconnect with the MC---a few events in this book had the potential to be devastating, but while I appreciated them for their effect on the story and the mystery, I never really felt for Lia as she experienced incredible loss. Still, this was a tightly woven mystery with plenty of surprises!
***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***
I hadn't heard of the flash mob violence in Chicago, even though I live in the suburbs (now that I've looked it up, I know it's scary stuff!), but I was incredibly intrigued at the idea of a book based on the concept. The idea of teenagers organizing violent mobs via social media is pretty scary. And then Gabriel took the concept and made it even scarier: What if the attacks were targeted, a cover-up for some larger scheme, and the victims were actually dying? The result is a YA thriller with incredibly high stakes. Lia hasn't given up on finding the "Swarm" who killed her father, but when she tries to capture another attack on video, she finds herself in the middle of a dangerous game---one she doesn't know the rules for. The suspense is constant as Lia sees danger in every teenager she encounters. Is she imagining things or could almost any kid at school actually be out to get her?
The book also weaves in a romance, but I don't want to talk much about it because I feel like it would be hard to stay out of spoiler territory. Suffice it to say, Lia's never quite sure who she can trust---and that includes her love interest. I'll confess that I did feel a slight disconnect with the MC---a few events in this book had the potential to be devastating, but while I appreciated them for their effect on the story and the mystery, I never really felt for Lia as she experienced incredible loss. Still, this was a tightly woven mystery with plenty of surprises!
***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***
April 14, 2022
Trigger Warning: ableist use of S word appears four times in this book
I liked the concept of this but not the execution. I felt that instead of going out and finding the answers she was looking for, Lia was largely guided to them, or let her friends do the work for her. I couldn't even work out why she was friends with Adam and Katie, and Katie especially literally faded into the background.
I didn't feel the story delivered a satisfying conclusion, and I think I was hoping for a bigger reveal than we got, which really we didn't get a big reveal at all. I wanted Lia to actually meet and connect with more members of the Swarm too, because she just took Ryan's word without question that they weren't as bad as they seemed.
I liked the concept of this but not the execution. I felt that instead of going out and finding the answers she was looking for, Lia was largely guided to them, or let her friends do the work for her. I couldn't even work out why she was friends with Adam and Katie, and Katie especially literally faded into the background.
I didn't feel the story delivered a satisfying conclusion, and I think I was hoping for a bigger reveal than we got, which really we didn't get a big reveal at all. I wanted Lia to actually meet and connect with more members of the Swarm too, because she just took Ryan's word without question that they weren't as bad as they seemed.
July 31, 2019
A smart and indomitable young woman takes up investigating the dangerous conspiracy that got her father murdered. A must read for every fan of Veronica Mars!
September 2, 2019
I was really looking forward to reading Kimberly Gabriel’s debut novel.
It did NOT disappoint!
In fact, it had me turning pages well into the night and reaching for it at every opportunity.
The story follows teenager Lia Finch as she puts everything on the line in order to pull her father’s killers out from the shadows. Despite struggling with the loss of her father and some health challenges, Lia is determined to do what it takes to outsmart the Death Mob. She is smart and focused. She's also naïve and stubborn. These traits combine to make her a great character who is relatable, who you can’t stop cheering for, and who will take you on an adrenaline-fuelled adventure.
EVERY STOLEN BREATH is expertly paced. It has rich characters and a plot with countless action-packed twists and turns.
I hope this book marks the first in a long series for Gabriel! My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and Kimberly Gabriel for an ARC of this fantastic book!
It did NOT disappoint!
In fact, it had me turning pages well into the night and reaching for it at every opportunity.
The story follows teenager Lia Finch as she puts everything on the line in order to pull her father’s killers out from the shadows. Despite struggling with the loss of her father and some health challenges, Lia is determined to do what it takes to outsmart the Death Mob. She is smart and focused. She's also naïve and stubborn. These traits combine to make her a great character who is relatable, who you can’t stop cheering for, and who will take you on an adrenaline-fuelled adventure.
EVERY STOLEN BREATH is expertly paced. It has rich characters and a plot with countless action-packed twists and turns.
I hope this book marks the first in a long series for Gabriel! My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and Kimberly Gabriel for an ARC of this fantastic book!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 208 reviews