Review: Don't Forget to Breathe

Don't Forget to Breathe

by Brianna R. Shrum & Sara Waxelbaum

Harper, 2025

Category: Young Adult

Reviewer: Kathryn Hall

 

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Brianna R. Shrum and Sara Waxelbaum, authors of Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl, have written another young adult romance. Hanna has lived on army bases all her life until her parents move to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she convinces them to live off base for her senior year of high school. Despite her ADHD, Hanna, a pianist, is able to make friends who are comfortable with her identity as a lesbian. Zoe, also a senior at her school, is a ballet dancer on the autism spectrum with a boyfriend struggling with her plans for the future. When the two girls meet there is instant sexual tension. There is more intensity and less comic relief than in Shrum’s previous YA rom-coms. Sexual feelings are described in more detail than sexual acts. The book is well-written and realistic, with suspense as to the ending. The reader will be rooting for the girls’ relationship.

Both protagonists are Jewish. Zoe and her family appear to be casually Jewish and not very observant. Hanna's father is Jewish, her mother is not, and exploring the interfaith family relationships illuminates the characters in a relatable way for both Jewish and non-Jewish readers. 

 

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Reviewer Kathryn Hall is a retired pediatrician, lifetime member of the Jane Austen Society of North America, volunteer librarian for her synagogue and for her local LGBT+ center, and active in her local PFLAG chapter. She has a special interest in Jewish children's literature with LGBT+ content. She lives in Central California with her husband, the youngest of her three children, and two of her eight grandchildren.