[b: The Town That Forgot How to Breathe|218409|The Town That Forgot How to Breathe|Kenneth J. Harvey|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1316727742s/218409.jpg|302418] was at no point quite what I expected it to be. I'd been told it was a book in general Lovecraftian style, playing on the trope of a strange isolated seaside community. I expected the usual progression such stories take: the fear of being an outsider in an insulated community, strange beliefs at odds with the modern world, the dark creatures that swim beneath the surface of the sea... Instead what I got was a bit of a treatise against the modern world and the evils of convenience.

Divorced Joseph, and his daughter Robin, go for vacation in the town of Bareneed. Joseph had come from fisherman stock, but had taken up a job as a fisheries officer rather than follow in his families footsteps. The book opens with Miss Laracy, the town elder, realizing that young Robin has the sight. She can see spirits, and thus is the new life that Bareneed indeed needs. What follows is a tale of gothic horror. People are stricken with an illness that manifests as an inability to breathe automatically. They've forgotten who they are, where they are, and where they come from. It's an odd metaphor of the loss of identity that tends to rise up in places where modern ways of life clash with tradition, and plays out accordingly...

It's an interesting book, and not really a bad one. I simply wished for more care to be put into the characterization of the people within it, and a bit more clarity when it came to certain people's motivations. I could easily see falling in love with this book if I cared more for the style in which it was written, but overall I just couldn't get as into it as I wished. Still an interesting book, though. Would likely make a killer miniseries if adapted to television. ( )

I wish I'd liked this novel. It had all the makings of an interesting story, but the writing was often poor and lumbersome, it seemed to go on forever, and none of the characters were particularly interesting. A lot of the scenes and character motivations were bewildering, and there seemed to be a lot of padding for very little pay off. A disappointment. ( )

Thumbs up! Good mystery, bizarre and creepy, but not too scary.

What I liked: The opening character, Miss Laracy, grabbed me. Her colorful dialect pulled me in and I had to read on to get to know her better.

Story line was very interesting. It had mystery, with a touch of bizarre and creepy (supernatural), but not too scary. Perfect combination.

Pace was great. One part was so heart-pounding that I feared for what Joseph might do and inside I was yelling, “No, don’t do it!”

The characters were colorful and really brought life to the fishing village of Bareneed. From the whispy and tragic Claudia to the straight-laced Lieutenant-Commander French, to the plump Dr. Thompson – I really enjoyed the characters.

What I didn’t like: Nothing really --it was a satisfying read, but....if you forced me to “find” something, I might have two little things.
1. The dog – not sure what the dog meant to the story unless it was just for bizarre effect.
2. The ending outcome of the bizarre events/sickness (can’t spoil it for you). Not sure it completely works out in my head.

Overall: Really enjoyed the book and I’ll be looking to read his other books. ( )

see http://www.sfsite.com/07a/to227.htm ( )

Everyone has heard the phrase, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’. Yet, that is precisely what I do... a lot of the time. Okay, so I don’t judge exactly, but I have to admit I can be greatly influenced by a book’s cover art as well as the title; that is what possessed me to purchase Kenneth J. Harvey’s novel The Town That Forgot How To Breathe.

I purchased my paperback copy live and in person from the now defunct Border’s. The background color of the book’s cover is black with the only additional color being white. The title of the book is written in a raised white font which is spindly in nature; it is centered in the upper half of the front cover. On the bottom of the front cover slightly off centered to the right in white is a bald dolls head. The eyes are vacant, the head appears to be coming out of a splash of raised water which follows the book completely around to the back where we find a synopsis of the book again written in the same, albeit smaller, white spindly font. Some words are larger than the others… these words drew me in; mythical creatures, corpses, gothic thriller, H.P. Lovecraft, haunting. I had to read this book!

Scanning the inside I come upon the table of contents. There are fourteen chapters with titles such as; Thursday, Eight Days Ago, Thursday Afternoon and Night, Friday, Friday Night and this continues to Tuesday night and then the Epilogue. I like the simplicity of the titles and it also shows me that what occurs within these 471 pages take place in a span of 6 days.

I expected so much more from this book. I wanted to be on the edge of my seat, turning the page to find out what happens next. Alas, this never happened.

In the beginning of the book the character of Miss Laracy was not my favourite; her dialect was hard to read and it threw me off, however, by the end of the book she had endeared herself to me.

Throughout the book I held out hope for the relationship between Joseph and Kim and every time Claudia came into the picture, I held my breath… pun not intended, ok maybe a little.

Characters were brought in and then dropped out of the story without incident; as was the case of Luke and the albino shark. We learn from Tommy Quilty that the shark starts to regain its colour on the way back to St. John’s but it was never explained or elaborated on. It was like the only reason for that piece of the story was to allow Kim to travel to Bareneed.

I was mostly drawn to the story of Joseph and his daughter Robin. At times I felt they were being possessed by Reg and Jennifer. However, Joseph’s decent into madness seemed to have happened off page. He was sane at the end of one chapter and the next he was over the edge. His madness had me fearing for Robin’s life.

The character Claudia was most confusing, especially at the end. Was she the black dog? Sand pouring out of her wound, and why was Sergeant Chase seeing a little girl? Was Chase actually seeing Jennifer?

For me, there were too many story lines going on that never really seemed to connect.

Was it worth the read? I think so, and I would not discourage anyone from reading the book. Would I run up to my bibliophile friends exclaiming, “You’ve got to read this book!”? Sadly, I would not.

I felt that the cure for “forgetting how to breathe” was the telling of stories; the tall tales.

My overall emotion as the book wound to its end was a deep sadness… a sadness that we all have seemed to have misplaced or lost our stories; the oral tradition of history and storytelling. ( )