Breathe by Dax Varley.
Hayden McKaley sneaks out past bedtime, never expecting the worst. She wakes the next morning in a strange house, her ankles and wrists bound.Her captor—a man wearing a Yoda mask—is mourning his son, a boy so fixated on Hayden he’d created an art journal of his obsession. But this diary holds more than flattering sketches and endearing love poems. It tells of a boy’s bent mind, his appetite for self-injury, and an addiction to playing The Game.Now his grieving father seeks revenge.The man’s vengeance is simple—agony and pain. Can Hayden unmask the beast and escape his endless torture? Or will she end up like his son?
A very good read with good characters. Great story. I found Yoda to be very creepy. I do love my horror. I loved the cover. 5*.

This was a pretty interesting novella. A teen girl who is a minor local celebrity (she does the commercials for her dad's car dealership) is kidnapped by the father of an obsessed fan who blames her for his son's death and submits her to some pretty terrible torture.
The unique part is that the novella comes with 3 different endings. The first gives what I considered to be a "twist" that caused moderate eyerolls. The second caused medium eye rolls and the third was just alright.

This was a DNF for me, I just couldn't get into it at all, sorry.

Breathe started as a fantastic thriller for reluctant readers. Hadley is kidnapped and tortured by a man who is accusing her of causing his son's death. Although written poorly, the plot was exciting enough to be appealing to low readers. However, the story ended quite abruptly, and included two alternate (still abrupt) endings. Definitely a disappointment overall.

Hayden McKaley is pretty and popular - and she’s been kidnapped. Who is her captor, and what does he mean when he says that Hayden killed his son?

This is thinly veiled torture porn. The characters are a pretty, nice girl and a very evil man. Also, there’s a son who may or may not exist and a doctor who’s personality doesn’t exist. It’s extremely short and other than torture almost nothing happens.

I want to categorize this book as a mystery, because who Hayden’s killer is is a huge part of the novel. The problem is that the book introduces us to no one but her kidnapper. The clues Hayden sees to his identity mean nothing to the reader. A mystery isn’t fun if there’s literally no way for readers to unravel it. It’s not satisfying to have to wait for the end to find out that some character you’ve never heard of is the criminal.

Let’s talk about alternate endings. They can be interesting, but your book should not be 30% alternate endings. It feels like the author got bored of the plot and didn’t quite know how to tie it off. Certain “clues” only lead to certain endings. Alternate endings are not a good choice for novels where the suspense and mystery are the drives. I want to know who did it. I don’t want three different options.

In a weird way, I sort of enjoyed the book. It was easy to breeze through in about an hour. I was sort of invested to find out what happened to the guy’s son. If the book had spent more time on a blend of the first and second ending it could have been interesting. If Hayden or her kidnapper had a personality outside of tiny boxes it could have been fantastic. They didn’t, and it wasn’t.

This novel is too short to develop anything interesting and it’s even shorter with the alternate endings taking up so many pages.

Breathe is a young adult suspense with three different endings. So first off I have to admit it isn't aimed at me as its target audience. However, it is always good to see what the youth culture is embracing these days. At a similar time in my life I was reading Ian Fleming and Graham Greene.
So, we have an interesting story written from Hayden's POV. Hayden McKaley is the teenager who sneaks out to meet her mate to watch a new hit movie, only to fall victim of an abductor who is out for revenge, but quite psychotic at the same time.
First, can someone please explain if you were sneaking out of the family home why you would take your vehicle off the drive, to shout loudly, you've gone out in your car?
Secondly, can someone enlighten me regarding the use of two alternative endings?
Lastly, am I supposed to pick the ending which best matches my reading experience?
By declaring his motive was associated with the reaction of his son to her and his self-harm based on his unrequited love, once she solved out whom he was she'd find her kidnapper too. So by definition he could never let her go unless his revenge was sufficient that any resulting criminal sentence was to be embraced like a badge of honour.
It is a clever short tale, full of suspense and a sense of harm in waiting. I felt the sense of place and pending violence intimidating setting up the dreadful finale well, with a number of twists and thrills.
So, the endings. I like the original one as it finished the story well and with a nice surprise. I got it and the thinking of the author. The author however appears to have been overthinking as the alternative endings are less credible once I'd finished the original story. Would this be different if I'd read one of these two first? Both additional conclusions to the story work; they shed some light on the writer's thoughts and plot planning, but apart from the menace of number two, neither adds to my own reading experience.

I received a ARC from Netgalley for an honest review.

Let me save a few teen librarians some time and possible issues. Breathe is a poorly written example of torture porn.

Please don't eat me alive for posting this. I use GoodReads as a resource for selection and collection development in a high school library. As a librarian I appreciate little warnings such as these as selecting materials can get us in trouble. Each library clientele and collection development policy is different so each location's collection varies based on that. Keep that last sentence in mind before your crucify me, please.

My reluctant readers like kidnap fiction so I try to have some available to circulate.

Some titles in our collection:
[book:The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die|16059396]
[book:Stolen: A Letter to My Captor|6408862]
[book:Dead to You|11724850]
[book:The Cellar|19155234]
[book:Held|9754157]
[book:Taken|6578631]

I wrote a gorgeous paragraph that deleted when I tried to upload this. I doubt I can recreate it so:

These titles contain substance more suitable for a educational environment. These titles may have some pain and/or sexual activity that coincides with the plot but pain and pleasure from it are not the main reason for existing or entertaining.

The following themes can and/or have been written in book reports regarding the above listed titles: beauty, family, greed, mental health, vengeance, family and completeness. In my opinion Breathe lacks the kind of theme a educator would want to read in a report and is a poorly written example of torture porn.

I wouldn't include this in our collection because this is not something I can defend against my collection policy or would want kids to tell their parents that their librarian suggested it. I do not want to deal with parents, my supervisors or employers b/c I have purchased this for our library. If kids hear about it they can find it elsewhere. I will not make this a political issue in my school or put my job in jeopardy because of buying this book.

Do I as a school librarian want to deal with development policy ramifications and put my job in jeopardy? No.

Will I stop a kid from reading this? No. I am sure some will want to read this and they can.

I'm not saying they shouldn't read this. I just won't provide it.

If a kid really wants it they will find it. Let them find it themselves.