I wrote the word "elegy" in my notes when I finished Eimear Ryan's debut novel Hold Her Breath in March. Then, I didn't write another word of that review until today. Which shouldn't surprise me, given that this is one of the #gifted advance copies that took me years to read because I first started them during pandemic lockdowns when my concentration was nonexistent. Don't let my lateness to the party (in reading and in reviewing) put you off because I really enjoyed Holding Her Breath. I switched between the audio and ebook versions.

When Beth Crowe starts university, she is already behind her former classmates. Beth took a year out after school, including from competitive swimming. This wasn't exactly by choice, but she needed to take care of her mental health before continuing her studies. Beth also sees university as an opportunity to separate herself from the legacy of her grandfather, the poet Benjamin Crowe, who died by suicide before Beth was born. However, when a scholar asks Beth's grandmother, Lydia, for access to Crowe's archive, Beth finds herself confronting aspects of her family history that she has avoided looking at too deeply.

And here is where my review gets tricky because I have an issue with the blurb and how Benjamin Crowe's death is described, 'died tragically.' Crowe's death is undoubtedly tragic, but it feels more than a little euphemistic here to solely refer to his death this way especially when his suicide, including his chosen method, plays such a strong role in the novel. I admit that my own experience of suicide loss could be affecting how I view this phrase, but I think explicitly stating in the blurb that Crowe's death was by suicide allows the reader to decide whether they want or are able to read such a novel. I mentioned this in another review recently, but part of the reason it took me so long to read Holding Her Breath is because it was still too soon after my dad's death for me to fully engage with books containing suicide.

That said, Holding Her Breath is a poignant coming of age story about grief, mental health, ambition, and complicated families. I am looking forward to reading more of Ryan's fiction.

This book was a great read. It had a little bit of everything, a girl becoming a woman, sadness and joy.

This book was phenomenal. I have bought it many times since I first read it as gifts for friends and each person has adored it. I would recommend it to anyone!

When Beth Crowe starts university, she is shadowed by the ghost of her potential as a competitive swimmer. Free to create a fresh identity for herself, she finds herself among people who adore the poetry of her grandfather, Benjamin Crowe, who died tragically before she was born. She embarks on a secret relationship - and on a quest to discover the truth about Benjamin and his widow, her beloved grandmother Lydia. The quest brings her into an archive that no scholar has ever seen, and to a person who knows things about her family that nobody else knows.

I loved, loved, loved the writing - I wish I could go explore the poetry of Ben Crowe. The atmosphere of small town Ireland really shines trough when necessary. Every character is well developed, but I would have liked to see more of the gran and the flatmate characters - they were my favourite by far. I felt the theme of perfectionism and personal failure could have been explored more deeply - I would have liked to see more of why/how Beth ended up where she is re: swimming, as it is such a giant part of her character, but we never really get the full story - only some of the emotions.

Loved this book. I myself am from Ireland so really related to a lot of the cultural aspects. There is a lot of books being published in Ireland of a similar genre to this, I've read alot of them but this one is the one that has stuck with me the longest- I'm really excited to read whatever Eimear writes next

A fantastic coming of age story about what it is like at university and how to wade the murky waters of it! Another great book by a female Irish author that is somehow a debut, excited to see what is to come next.

'Holding Her Breath' is a short novel but it felt at least 600 pages long when I was reading it as I was simply so bored throughout the story. This was a book where I had not heard anything about it prior to seeing it on Netgalley but after being intrigued by the cover and finding the synopsis of the book interesting, I decided to give this book a chance. However, despite this book being a quite short one, I felt like I was reading it forever and having to push my way to the end of the book,
I did find the main character of the novel and the setting of the novel interesting but the overall story just was not for me.

Thank you for my approval, I am so pleased I read this book as there are some schemes that will stay with me for a long time. The world building is fantastic and very atmospheric.
I didn't love the romance side of it but enjoyed learning more about Ireland and would pick up further books by the author. A wonderful debut

Holding Her Breath is the debut novel from Eimear Ryan and tells the story of 20 year old Beth, competitive swimmer and granddaughter of the extremely famous, complicated and long-deceased poet Ben Crowe. Beth becomes involved in some very ill-advised romantic decisions and we see how important her swimming is to keep her grounded. I adored the writing style and the library/archive nerd in me desperately wanted access to the treasure trove of fictional Ben's notes, lovingly compiled and fiercely guarded by his formidable wife Lydia, which ultimately contain some answers about Ben's death. Scholars and fans of Irish poetry will adore this.

Holding Her breath is a coming of age story centred around Beth Crowe who is the granddaughter of famous Irish poet. She finds herself on the path of discovery not only of herself but of her family history. She finds herself engrossed in the world of her Gran father she wants to learn more about his poems and she wants to understand what led to his timely death. Whilst on this journey she is also trying to love swimming again which she partakes in as a competitive sport.
This story is told in third person and actually is done fantastically. The narrator makes us feel like we are part of beths world, it is hard at times to be a fly on the wall knowing the mistakes that she is going to make. But she is only 20 years old and it’s her first time away from home mistakes are going to happen. I find the way Beth interacts with others to be very interesting, especially with her roommate Sadie who by all accounts is the complete opposite too Beth as well as a very important part of the year of the book. Beth seems to have a really unhealthy attachment to serial killers and it made me wonder what genre this book was in when I first started reading it. I wondered if she was going to turnout to be a secret serial killer! I won’t spoil it but let’s just say it definitely falls in the YA section.

This book explores so many different things that many young people experience for the first time when going off to uni sex, alcohol, who the heck am I! Seems to make all her decisions based around other people’s feelings and it’s almost as if she is breaking free and learning to find the answers herself. Although her interactions with Jason are questionable and I will leave it at that.

I must say I really loved her Gran Lydia who by all accounts is an absolute bada**! She is your typical stubborn old lady. She holds the answers but isn’t willing to tell them and I mean that literally, you will understand.

The use of poetry throughout the book really adds an element of almost sophistication to a book in this genre. I myself absolutely love poetry so any kind of poetry in fiction always draws me in just a little bit closer. It’s really fascinating actually seeing the links of the poems to Beth in modern days when these poems would have been written in the early 80s. There is one poem in particular that academics have been trying to decipher over the years and this seems to be the central focus for Beth throughout the book.

All in all this was really easy feel good book. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys the young adult genre all anyone who is on a journey self discovery themselves. 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? I will not go too deeply on that subject because well I’m still on my sad journey! I write this book 3 stars really enjoyed it and I will definitely be recommending.

Thank you to netgalley, the author and the publishers for the free digital advanced copy of holding her breath in exchange for my fair and honest opinions.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author for granting me this book.

I’m still not 100% on my verdict of this book, it was different to the usual books I read and maybe that’s why I can’t make up my mind fully.

It was beautifully written and the characters were excellently depicted. So many people will enjoy this book.

Holding Her Breath is a remarkable and relatable debut from Eimear Ryan. A contemporary novel, it tells the story of Beth Crowe , a young woman starting her study of psychology at Trinity College Dublin. A little older than most of her classmates, Beth is looking forward to experiencing a more normal student life, having taken some time out after a crisis that saw her scupper her dreams of becoming an Olympic swimmer. Keen to build a new life for herself she moves into campus accommodation and soon forms a friendship with her new roommate.

Beth's grandfather was a renowned poet, whose work was studied in classrooms the length and breadth of the country, but he died before she was born. The shadow of his death and the events that led up to it has hung over Beth's family for years. When Beth meets Justin, a post- doc from the English department, she is drawn into an illicit relationship that sparks her curiosity about her family history, and leads her to uncover a truth that explains a lot about her family's silence over the years.

This is a really compelling read, I was completely invested in the character of Eimear, and her fascinating family, particularly her wise and acerbic grandmother. I found her struggles to adjust to her new life completely believable , and loved the dynamic between her and Sadie , her chalk and cheese roommate. The backstory of the family history was interesting, and really well woven into the main storyline.

The pacing is gentle but the book still flows well, and I never lost interest in the story being told.

I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the Publisher, all opinions are my own.

I am unable to review this book since my request to NetGalley was only approved after the title had already been archived and I am, therefore, unable to access the ARC.

I don't know if this went over my head a bit, but I found the pacing a bit slow overall. I didn't enjoy this one, but equally I didn't hate it - it felt very middle of the road for me.

It gave off strong "Normal People" by Sally Rooney vibes, which is another book I found myself a bit underwhelmed by. It has has pretty good views on Goodreads so maybe I am just in the minority with this!?

I felt a little lost when I started the book so struggled to get into it, but about 100 pages before the end it picked up and I found myself enjoying it. That being said, it felt like it wrapped up a bit too quickly for my liking?

Beth was a champion swimmer before she had a mental health crisis in her final year of school and dropped out of active competition. Now she’s starting university a little late, tentatively swimming again, although not at the elite level where she once participated, and trying to work out who she is without the sport. She turns to another label that she’s had all her life: she’s the granddaughter of Benjamin Crowe, a famous poet who drowned himself in the sea before she was born. Her grandmother Lydia is reluctant to talk about the past, but Beth sets off to discover what lay behind Benjamin’s most famous poem, Roslyn, completed just before he died. Holding Her Breath, Eimear Ryan’s debut, reminded me strongly of Danielle McLaughlin’s recent novel, The Art of Falling, which also intertwines an artistic mystery from the past with a finding-yourself plot in contemporary Ireland. Both McLaughlin and Ryan write the same kind of effortless, matter-of-fact prose, as well. However, Holding Her Breath is the stronger novel; Beth is much more of a person than the somewhat blank protagonist of The Art of Falling, and the secondary characters are much more people in their own right as well, especially Lydia and Beth’s flatmate Sadie.

In the hands of a different writer, this might have been yet another book about Dysfunctional Women Being Dysfunctional, following in the footsteps of Sally Rooney, Naoise Dolan and Ottessa Moshfegh, amongst others. Beth certainly ticks a lot of the boxes with her mental health issues, her sudden decision to abandon her swimming career, and a few sexual partners. However, Ryan is definitely not writing that sort of character, and I liked Beth the better for it. Surprisingly, it turns out that you can have sex with different people without being bent on self-destruction! And quitting your ‘job’ doesn’t mean you are doomed to spiral into isolation! It’s a much more positive way to write about young women, and gives Beth more agency. Sadly, though, despite these strengths, I don’t think Holding Her Breath will stay with me for long. Despite its nuanced protagonist, it has nothing really to say, and its watery imagery feels too schematic. I’ll be looking out for more from Ryan, though. 3.5 stars.

We follow the story of Beth in this book, a scholarship psychology student, champion swimmer. Beth is led back to her grandfather in the story, through her mother, her grandmother, and his poems.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the book. It was a refreshing story, different from the "norm" of books that are coming out these days. It had young college life, family life and troubles, suicide, love stories and life in general.

I felt for Beth, in the eyes of Justin; she is somewhat of a muse, the object of his eye due to her connection to her infamous grandfather, and in a lot of ways I could relate to her character. She opens up through her new found friendships, a coming of age of sorts.

I absolutely loved it. I read it in one day and it has been a long time since I read a book this fast!

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Books for the opportunity to review this ARC

Holding Her Breath is a confident, polished coming of age novel about talent, ambition and legacy as well an intelligent and refreshing perspective on a popular genre that is concerned with ideas of literature, authority and creativity while grounded in reality and the body. There is obviously a trend for Trinity novels at the moment, and I've read a few books about the mysteries behind famous artists or relatives, and while one of those elements would be fine, this novel does both really well together.

Beth's college experience is overshadowed by the legacy of her famous grandfather, a poet celebrated for his life's work but really spoken about because of his mysterious death. His wife and Beth's grandmother, Lydia, lives in the family's attic and is a strong force in Beth's life. She was an academic and critic in her own right, but has shunned others from poking too much into the family's past. The mystery surrounding Beth's grandfather propels the book forward as Beth begins to delve into her own family history, as she becomes entangled with someone her grandmother would rather she stay away from. Her journeys back and forth between her coastal family home and her city accomodation encapture the feeling of leading dual lives when we move out of home first, and the conflict within those places (an "inheritance of sadness" in an otherwise comforting homeplace and the freedom as well as rootlessness of the student flat) is expertly handled.

Beth's passion for swimming and identifying herself as a swimmer really compelled me and though I was sure we were going to find out more about the incident that led to her taking a break from competitive swimming and shaking her confidence, the point wasn't a big reveal of some past trauma but how swimming is such an inexorable part of her life. She comes alive in the water and is just completely herself when swimming, even aside from the competitions and the pressure. There are some startalingly impressive passages throughout the book but notably during one scene where she is overwhelmed, she paces around her student bedroom, touching the walls as she passes, as if swimming laps. I thought this was striking for a character who is most herself when her body is in control in the water, and how she can steady her mind with this movent. Ryan's gift for allowing her prose to be imbued with the personality and concerns of her character is rare and unexpected.

I enjoyed how Beth's athleticism and often singlemindedness about her sport reached into other areas of her life, particularly how she navigates the world in her body. She is often dressed for a workout and her hair damp, and occasions where this is not the case are notifinle and draws the readers attention to how Beth presents herself. Sex isn't something she loses her cool over - though her desire for a charasmatic academic is very clear, sex is pleasurable but not her driving force or constantly something she obsessed about. It is something her body does it is just another thing it needs and wants to be healthy and strong. Her on and off again fling with another swimmer and their unusual relationship with another friend depicts sex as something casual and natural, and another way to feel joy in their body. I feel as though I am almost overstating this, due to so many coming of age books depicting sexuality as all consuming and either a driving ambition or a dark and terrible act. So many characters I read are stuck in their own heads but Beth inhabits her body and the narrative confidently and refreshingly.

I've had a lot of respect for Eimear Ryan for a long time, as a fan of her shorter fiction and her work as an editor for Banshee, and Holding Her Breath just as skilled assured as I had come to admire and expect.

Happy publication day to this treasure of a book! The whole read was so tender and loving. Beth is a swimmer who is taking a step back from competitions, navigating first year of college. As the granddaughter of a famous poet, history always finds its way of catching up with her.

This is a really beautiful book about heritage and lineage, love and identity. Ryan writes her characters with such delicacy that they all felt fully formed and real - my favourites were the grandmother and Beth's new college friend Sadie. I loved that Ryan didn't use characters as tools but as sperate identities that collide. Really refreshing to read! You won't be able to put it down 🌊

Holding Her Breath by Eimear Ryan is an insightful story of a young high-achieving swimmer who discovers shortly after starting college that what had previously been a bit of a millstone, namely having a famous poet for a grandfather, has now become a decided advantage.

Although opting to study psychology, Beth Crowe falls in with a number of English students, and academics who want to know much more about her famous but seldom talked-about at home grandfather - Ben Crowe and his extensive archive.

At the same time, Beth who had to put an unfortunate swimming episode behind her, is getting back to regular competitive swimming and reuniting with her swimming friends and reacquainting herself with her motivational swimming mantras.

This debut novel is very accomplished and assured; it examines a number of wonderful relationships, Beth and her Grandmother, her college friends, her swimming friends, her father and of course her boyfriends. The complicated relationship between her grandmother, Irish academia and her grandfather’s sought-after archives provides the mystery that drives the narrative.

Wonderful debut novel which seems perfect for a television drama!

Holding Her Breath is a debut novel by Eimear Ryan, co-editor of the well-respected Irish literary magazine Banshee. Beth Crowe is a national swimmer who had to drop out of school due to a personal crisis for a couple of years, and is now starting university at Trinity College. She feels a bit awkward in the new environment but she can count on her extrovert roommate Sabie. Beth is also the granddaughter of Benjamin Crowe, a famous poet who died in tragic circumstances before her birth, which puts her in the spotlight in her new academic environment. At the same time, she finds herself drawn toward an (engaged) post-doc lecturer who has a strong interest in Crowe’s poetry. Discussions about his grandfather’s poetry and mysterious death abound and, determined to understand more about him, Beth will delve into some documents in her grandma’s possession to discover family secrets that have long been buried.

This is a very readable, coming of age novel exploring conventionalism in Irish society, what keeps people together, relationships deemed illicit, pain and healing, and it does so through two different, nicely intertwined plots (illicit love affair and family secrets). In some parts characters and situations seemed a bit cliched and modelled on romance novels (the sassy roommate, the timid new student with the gorgeous swimmer body, the illicit romance with a good-looking tutor), which was not for me, but I am wondering if this was done on purpose, as an attempt to show the main character move away from a conventional plot. The unravelling of the family secret was the more interesting part and redeemed it toward the end.

All in all, this is a well-crafted novel and a very accessible book, written a clear and simple style that makes it an appealing read for the summer, and for Pride month as well.