Reviewed by Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

Frances Robinson's story has a lot in common with several news stories in recent years. Eleven years ago, her biological mother smothered her three younger sisters, and if it hadn't been for the arrival of a total stranger, Frances might have been next.

BREATHE MY NAME picks up when Frances is eighteen and a junior in high school. She lives with her loving adoptive parents in a nice home in a nice town. She is relatively happy, but things are about to change.

First, Frances meets Nix, a new student who just moved from New Orleans. He's a bit different but strangely fascinating. As lab partners, they begin to get to know each other and share stories. But there's a story Frances can't seem to share - the story of her mother and her sisters. How do you tell someone you care about something like that?

The other change for Frances comes in the form of a letter delivered by a special messenger. It appears to be from her mother, who has been locked up for the past eleven years. She is about to be released to a group home and seems to be requesting to meet with Frances.

R. A. Nelson's BREATHE MY NAME tells the amazing story of a young girl trying to come to grips with her past and decide how to move on with the future. Readers will find themselves pulled into the lives on the pages and carried along the sometimes frightening and bumpy ride as Frances takes control of her own destiny. This book is well worth reading. ( )

BREATHE MY NAME is an amazing psychological thriller with intriguing characters and several plot twists. It kept me turning pages until the very end. ( )

"Breathe My Name" pulled me in from the very first chapter. Francine was the sole survivor of matricide. The story alternates between flashbacks of the strange and isolated family life of Frances and her three younger sisters when she was a young child, to the present day when she is a high school student in her new idyllic home with extra normal adoptive parents. This idyllic existence is shaken when she receives a letter from her mentally ill mother which says "I need to see you. Please come right away. We have to finish". This letter prompts Francine and her boyfriend to seek and confront her murderous mother.

With short chapters and fast-paced action, this story is sure to engage teenagers who favor "problem novels". ( )

I thought it was very good until the ending, which made no sense at all. ( )

Frances was adopted at a young age. Now eighteen, she lives in the suburbs with her adoptive family and has a pretty decent life with friends and a new boy she's interested in...until she discovers that her birth mother has been released from the mental hopspital where she was being held for killing Frances' younger siblings. So Frances decides to take a road trip to find her mother and resolve some of the questions about her past. ( )