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    One Breath Away
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    One Breath Away
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    One Breath Away
    Ebook383 pages5 hours

    One Breath Away

    By Heather Gudenkauf

    4/5

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    About this ebook


    In her most emotionally charged novel to date, New York Times bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf explores the unspoken events that shape a community, the ties between parents and their children and how the fragile normalcy of our everyday life is so easily shattered.

    In the midst of a sudden spring snowstorm, an unknown man armed with a gun walks into an elementary school classroom. Outside the school, the town of Broken Branch watches and waits.

    Officer Meg Barrett holds the responsibility for the town's children in her hands. Will Thwaite – reluctantly entrusted with the care of his two grandchildren by the daughter who left home years earlier – stands by helplessly and wonders if he has failed his child again. Trapped in her classroom, Evelyn Oliver watches for an opportunity to rescue the children in her care. And thirteen–year–old Augie Baker – already struggling with the aftermath of a terrible accident that has brought her to Broken Branch – will risk her own safety to protect her little brother.

    As tension mounts with each passing minute, the hidden fears and grudges of the small town are revealed as the people of Broken Branch race to uncover the identity of the stranger who holds their children hostage.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers Australia
    Release dateJul 1, 2012
    ISBN9781460810286
    Author

    Heather Gudenkauf

    Heather Gudenkauf is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Weight of Silence and Not a Sound.  Heather lives in Iowa with her family.

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    Reviews for One Breath Away

    4/5

    235 ratings24 reviews

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    • 3/5
      A gunman enters a school in the small town of Broken Branch and no one knows who he is or what he wants. The story is told from the point of view of many different characters: a teacher and student inside the school, a police officer and grandparent outside the school, and a hostage's mother who is states away. At times the stories get a bit confusing - all of the townspeople are characters, and sometimes it's hard to remember who's who. The suspense, however, is incredibly well done. The story comes together piece by piece, and even though you may figure out who the gunman is a few pages for the big reveal, it's still a nice surprise.
    • 3/5
      Whilst I enjoyed this book it didn't have the action and suspense I was expecting. Instead there was a lot of back story which slowed the story down. The book unfolded through the eyes of five main characters, which I enjoyed, but what annoyed me was the fact that some were told in first person while others were in the third person. I would have preferred them being all one or the other. "One Breath Away" certainly wasn't a thriller, but an okay read for an extremely hot weekend, although I must say I found the ending lacking.
    • 2/5
      For those of you who don't know, some audiobooks include a bit of music. Not all the way through or anything, but at the very beginning and end. One Breath Away actually has music at the opening and closing of each disc. The music has a creepy sound, and seems like theme music for some sort of crime drama program. This fits One Breath Away perfectly, because it definitely felt more like a made for television movie than a serious consideration of a gunman taking over a school.

      The topic, of course, inherently involves a lot of drama, fear and creepiness. The fact that a man with a gun would decide that the best way to make whatever point he has to make is to enter a school and take some children as hostages really freaks me out, mostly because it doesn't necessarily have to do with the children at all; they are merely innocent victims of a madman. Basically, this subject matter has plenty of natural intensity and shock value without adding additional sob stories into the mix.

      Gudenkauf tells this story using multiple third person limited narratives. The first is a mother, Holly, recuperating slowly in a hospital. In the meantime, her children, Augie and PJ have been sent to live with her estranged her father, while her mother sits at her bedside. How was she injured? In a grease fire, and she was injured to an insane degree. Not only that, but the fire was inadvertently caused by Augie, who never apologized before this incident.

      The second perspective is Augie's. Because of the guilt over her accidentally wounding her mother, when the school gets locked down, Augie decides she won't leave without PJ. Her class escapes early on, but she decides to stay and look for PJ, who's in the classroom with the gunman. Holly's perspective existed solely to add an extra level of sadness to this story, which really was not necessary. Why not make her any other mother, waiting outside the school? No matter the family situation, any relatively caring mother will be frozen with fear until she finds out her kids are safe; other than pure melodrama value, there's no reason to have her be gravely injured, at risk of ruining her skin grafts. Maybe that wasn't Gudenkauf's intention, but it detracted from the believability of the book for me.

      The third perspective, and the only male one, is Will, Holly's father. He and Holly have not talked since she left home as a teen, sick of the farm and of Iowa and of her dad who cared more about cows than his child. Will spends his time worrying about everyone, rightly so, but also stumbling into crucial information regarding the case and saving people. Again, this had a sort of cinematic feel to it, more than might necessarily be going down in real life. Oh, also, there was a crazy snow storm too.

      Our fourth perspective is Meg, a police officer. Her daughter would have been in the school, but she left before the last day to spend the weekend with her father, from whom Meg is divorced. Both Meg and Holly have a very powerful feminist attitude towards sex, though they seem to look down on themselves for it a bit, which is unfortunate. Their lives parallel somewhat, but more could have been made of that.

      Rounding out the story is Mrs. Oliver, the so-close-to-retiring teacher of the hostage class. She does try very hard for the kids, but I had trouble accepting that a no-nonsense teacher like she is described to be would confront the gunman in some of the highly stupid ways she does. The reader also gets a lot of back story on Mrs. Oliver that, I personally did not find useful to the plot or interesting.

      The audiobook version should have made their characters come more alive for me, but, sadly, that was not the case. I really did not like any of the narrators voices, though Meg was better than the rest. For one thing, they all had a really annoying accent, which I guess must be an Iowan accent for authenticity, but, whatever it is, I would have been happier without it. The worst performance has to be the one for Augie, as the narrator used a really obnoxious trying-to-sound-like-a-child voice, which skewed too young for eighth grader Augie and made her sound incredibly dumb.

      Looking at Goodreads, I can see that there are 3000 plus ratings for this, most of them four and five stars. Listening to an audio can be a very different experience, so, perhaps, had I read this I would have liked it more. I really cannot say. If you're curious, look at some other reviews or try the book yourself, preferably in print unless you love the Iowa accent, before writing it off.
    • 3/5
      A brief, vaguely interesting story of a hostage situation at a small town school. Told by many perspectives, the narration seemed overly simple.
    • 2/5
      Although I think the premise behind the book is good, I had a hard time going back and forth from the different perspectives of all the charactors. It held my interest especially with all the school shootings, but maybe limit how many people are telling the story. It does keep you guessing as I did not figure out who the shooter was until it was revealed.
    • 5/5
      This tense thriller by Heather Gudenkauf is terrifyingly real. For any parent or grandparent it is a fear that is always lurking somewhere in the subconscious: what if a madman with a gun enters my child’s school? Life changing moments sometimes are only one breath away. Told from the point of view of five characters, the reader is able to put together a comprehensive understanding of the situation. As in "These Things Hidden," the novel begins seemingly in the middle of the story, and details are disclosed as more of the story unfolds. With well developed characters and good use of description, the author conveys her message with a minimum of words. Before you start this novel, be sure you have enough time to finish it, because once you begin, you won’t want to stop reading until it’s over.
    • 2/5
      I was so excited when this book became available through PBS that as soon as I received it, I read it. I had read the other two books by this author and remember enjoying them. I was sadly disappointed in this book. Having worked through a school tragedy myself, I found the reaction of the characters unrealistic and sometimes downright silly. I thought that the book started off slowly and never really picked up pace. There was so much background information about the characters that took away from the premise of the story - it seemed to backfire and essentially kept me from connecting with any of the characters. With that said, there were some underlying storylines that I thought were left unfinished that having been addressed thoroughly would have added excitement to the story. It was very predictable - even determining who the gunman was was an easy task. I'm sorry to say that I wouldn't recommend this book.
    • 4/5
      I loved the structure and the pace of this book. It was difficult to put it down.
    • 4/5
      Heather Heather Heather! You did another awesome job with your newest book. I absolutely loved the story and the way it was written.

      The story is about a gunmen that goes into a school. Who is he? Why did he choose the classroom that he chose?

      You will find the answer to these questions and more by the end of the book. Each chapter features a character telling the story of what is happening at the same moment in time. I just love this style of writing that Gudenkauf uses. Just as the chapter is coming to an end and you are about to learn something huge we switch characters. OOOOOOOOHHHHHH, it works so well in keeping you in suspense and on the edge of your seat.

      Great book, great story telling and I highly recommend this to all.

      A heartfelt thank you to Net Galley and Mira Publishing for an "advanced readers copy". This book will be released on June 19, 2012
    • 3/5
      a little too Jodi Picoult for me.
    • 5/5
      Before I read this book I had heard comparisons of Gudenkauf's with Jodi Picoult's works. I must admit that was the main reason why I wanted to read this book in the first place. I am a big fan of Picoult, but I have to say Heather Gudenkauf's writing is a different world in itself.

      The book started off a bit slow - not a bad slow, but slow in the sense that she was letting us get familiar with the setting and characters for quite a while before moving on with the progression of the story. I was hooked by the writing. The alternating point of view did not put me off or disturbed the flow of the book for me. All the characters were flawed, but real. It was refreshing to read and I was constantly on the edge.

      This is my first book by the author, but I am pretty sure it will not be the only one. I liked the way she tackled the issues in the book and let the stories of all the different characters merge together. It was a subtle but compelling thriller and I absolutely loved it.

      A well deserved 5 stars!

      This ebook was provided to me by the publishers in exchange of an honest review
    • 5/5
      Debated on reading this with the world being what it is but she really roped me in and made me care. Recommended this to my school teacher daughter. A must read.
    • 5/5
      I ordered this book and when it arrived, I was unable to read the story of a school lock-down because of the Sandy Hook killings. Finally, I took it on and I'm glad I did. Heather Gudenkauf is a new author to me and I will read all of her books now. Told by several children and adults, the story avoids being gruesome by letting the reader see the lock-down from several angles and provides a nice character study. Not a downer at all, I highly recommend One Breath Away.
    • 4/5
      In this book we meet Holly, a woman who grew up in small town Iowa but flew from there as fast as she could to get away from her parents and life on the farm. She is currently recovering from serious burns in the hospital and has sent her children back to the childhood home she swore she would never again enter. While there tragedy strikes as an armed man enters the school with an unknown agenda. In this day and age of school shootings it is every parent's nightmare and it is compounded for Holly as she cannot leave the hospital in Arizona to go to Iowa.The story plays out in bits and pieces from five separate points of view; Holly's, her daughter's, a police officers, a teacher's and Holly's father's. As each chapter moves forward we learn a bit about each character, a bit about the town and little drops of information about the crazy man with the gun.The character studies are quite interesting as each voice is completely unique and Ms. Gudenkauf keeps to different ways of expressing her characters upsets, back stories and emotions. It's a balancing act to be sure and one that is handled very well. As the book races towards its conclusion each voice remains distinct.Some questions are left unanswered at the end but the conclusion is satisfying and unexpected.I don't read many thrillers but I would certainly pick up another book by the author.
    • 4/5
      The publisher requested United Kingdom reviewers. After reading the blurb, I was interested enough to sign up. I soon received a 7-week ebook loan. The text is written in American English.

      The narrative is delivered in short sections from the perspective of each character in turn. Conveniently, section titles reveal the narrator of each section. The narrative follows the spread of news and events when an unknown gunman walks into a school, holding pupils and staff hostage. Prose written in a personal vocal style can be awkward but I soon got used to it.

      Once you get into the flow, the story is engrossing. I read two-thirds in one night.

      As a family drama, One Breath Away is believable and compelling. Showing relationships from each side effectively conveys insights. I found the details of family life on an isolated livestock farm consistent with my own experiences.

      At first I was frustrated by the suspense of wondering who is the gunman? and why doesn't he start shooting immediately? Although the first-person narrative never gives voice to the gunman, all things are explained in time. In his mind he wasn't an indiscriminate killer - he wanted to kill a specific child in specific circumstances. The gunman appeared to phone or text an associate, but those were messages to a victim the gunman wished to hurt.
    • 5/5
      This is the suspenseful account of an emergency at a school in a rural community in the USA. Through short, punchy chapters, the story is told from the point of view of various characters: teachers and pupils being held hostage by a gunman, and those waiting for news outside. It is well written and very readable, the sort of thing you pick up and cannot put down. I was pretty sure I had guessed the identity of the guy with the gun, but the author had fooled me totally.
    • 2/5
      Not nearly as good as her other two books. The subject matter is sensationalism and the characters are poorly drawn. You don't hear enough of any one character's story to make you care about the situation they are in and by the end, you are just happy to know the identity of the mysterious gunman so you can move on to something else.
    • 5/5
      In this third book by Heather Gudenkauf, the reader is hooked from the first page. Gudenkauf has a way with her writing that grabs the reader and the book just has to be devoured! This is the story of five main characters and their perspectives when a lone gunman holds hostages in a third grade classroom in a small town in Iowa. It is also the story of a community dealing with a terrifying situation. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery. I also recommend this author as a MUST READ whenever she has a book on the market.
    • 3/5

      This was told by different people per chapter. We heard from Mrs. Oliver, Will, Meg, Holly and Augi.

      A stranger comes into a school and a lockdown takes place, this is the story told by a student, a teacher, an officer, a mom and a grandpa.

      I felt there was too much in this story that didn't need to be told. A few too many characters, that had no real purpose but to make you go who are they related to?

      This was one not as good as the first one I read by her.

    • 4/5
      A story about a gunman who enters a school and holds the children and teacher hostage, This book was a page turner.
    • 4/5
      As I was reading this book I kept thinking "This would make an awesome movie", not because of the way it was written but because the suspense makes one want to keep turning the pages. There is a gunman in the school. a school in a rural area that holds grades K-12, and the school goes on lock down. This is not another Columbine though, the shooter is there for a specific purpose and for a specific person. The who and the why are the big questions and the story is related by four different narrators. It is from these narrators that we learn the back stories of the people involved and the clues that lead to the shooters identity. My favorite character was the third grade teacher in the room that the shooter appropriates for his contact. Her old school ethics, she has been a teacher for many years and is dedicated to her students, reminded me so of my own teacher in that grade. This is not a great book but it is an extremely good and suspenseful one, one that will hold the reader's interest until the very end. ARC from NetGalley.
    • 5/5
      Don't start unless you want to do nothing but reading til you finish. I am only half way through. I took a quick break and will go right back. This is a good book.
    • 3/5
      I continued reading this book because I was interested enough to see how it ended however I didn't really feel the suspense or the sense of relief that you hope to in a book about children being held hostage. I think this was partly due to the overwhelming number of characters introduced as well as the way the event was drawn out so much. In terms of action not a lot actually happened in the book and despite lots of information about the many characters few of them I could feel I could relate to. That said I did sympathize with Will's character and admired the teachers resilience. Overall it was an ok read.
    • 5/5
      Wow, wow, wow! This book was very gripping! I loved the way the main characters had their own points of view as chapters. The whole plot was amazing. I can not think of one bad thing to say about this book. I'm definitely going to give Heather Gudenkauf's other books a read now as I believe she is a brilliant writer. This book is so emotional, and I would've never guessed the gunman's identity at the end. What a shocker!