Reviews

The Breakaways by Cathy G. Johnson

elsanore's review

hopeful

3.0

aliena_jackson's review against another edition

3.0

This book needed to be much, much longer. A lot of the characters didn't have a storyline, and they weren't fleshed out well enough. I forgot their names most of the time, except for Faith, of course, who I wish I had been in the fifth grade. All of the characters seemed to love in a utopia where you're just magically accepted for being LGBT identifying with no backlash and people disappear with no real explanation. Nonetheless, congrats to this book for having rep and for the awesome drawings. I might just pick this up again in the future.

wondering_wildflower's review

lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

christiana's review against another edition

3.0

The hype got ahead of this one for me. There's some good stuff here, but when you say "read this if you loved Smile!" you're going to be disappointed (and a little more like Drama than Smile, IMHO).

bickie's review against another edition

I found this book a little hard to follow, which was probably similar to Faith's feeling at her new middle school. When she signs up for the soccer team, she doesn't realize it's on the 3rds (C) team. Most of the players there don't really care about soccer, and neither does the coach, who is one of the players' (Huang) dad. Some of the kids have nicknames, both self-selected (Sodacan) and assigned (Bulldog and Warthog). Faith realizes that a lot of people are mean to each other, and most of the time just stays silent but does speak up a few times. One pair of friends has a rift when one tells the other she likes a boy (who is one of the player's older brother), then the other decides to "hit on" him instead.

Some readers might find the interspersed storylines confusing. A few show some of the teammates at their homes once; another recurring storyline is one that Faith draws herself in her notebook about a girl (her) and a knight-looking person named Mathilda who is a messenger between kinds and queens.

Spoiler

There is one scene where one of the teammates (Marie) is having a sleepover with another (Sammy) and sharing a bed. Sammy (on the girls' soccer team) discloses that he "thinks I'm a boy." Marie has had a crush on Sammy and, while surprised at first, is completely affirming. The scene ends with a consensual kiss in the bed.

samgray's review against another edition

4.0

Love that this story worked to break the stereotypical "happy ending" but was also able to end on a hopeful note. These kids don't magically become a superpower team, but they do become better teammates and friends. I love the lack of absolutes or cheap "lessons learned" trope in middle grade stories. The Breakaways is messy, but isn't Middle School like that?

This would be a perfect book to start a discussion about a myriad of topics relevant to middle schoolers today.

extrabees's review against another edition

lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

There was a solid groundwork here and the characters were all fun, but it suffered from being way too short. You can't adequately explore storylines for 12+ different characters in a 224 page middle-grade graphic novel. At one point I had to flip back to see where we'd actually been introduced to someone because it was so brief I completely missed it. I wish it had been a graphic novel or comic series so we could actually focus in on particular characters in each chapter properly. 

vbrightcml's review

lighthearted

2.0

amyg88's review

adventurous emotional funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

whatisjordyreading's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying