The Break Down by B A Paris #BookReview

Book description

If you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust?

Cass is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods and the woman who was killed.

Since then she’s been forgetting everything. Where she left the car, if she took her pills, the alarm code, why she ordered a pram when she doesn’t have a baby.

What she can’t forget is the woman she might have saved, and the terrible nagging guilt.

Or the silent calls she’s receiving and the feeling that someone’s watching her…

Having loved B A Paris debut novel Behind Closed Doors, I was really looking forward to reading her latest book The Breakdown, unfortunately although I enjoyed it, this one didn’t quite hit the mark. It’s a psychological thriller filled with murder, paranoia and plenty of suspense, with flawed characters that make you question there integrity at every turn, but personally I expected something more. Maybe I have read one too many books in this genre, and I have come to expect a storyline to shock me and leave me breathless, unfortunately for me this is where this novel didn’t meet my expectations.

One night Cassie decides to take a short cut through the woods after a night out, what she doesn’t realise is that a woman will be found murdered on the very same night she passed her. Cassie starts out feeling guilty that she didn’t stop to offer help, but guilt soon turns to paranoia, suspicion and dread. It soon becomes evident that Cass is having problems remembering things and as her life spirals out of control and drags her to the brink, it begs the question is this a woman struggling with mental health issues? or is there something far more sinister a foot? B A Paris convincingly describes Cass loosing her grip on reality, and you can’t but help but feel empathy for her character, as the author describes her emotions and feelings with such conviction I found it heightened my own feelings of anxiety and paranoia.

The Breakdown is an intriguing read and I just know there are going to be plenty of readers who will love every page of this well written novel. Unfortunately I pretty much guessed where this novel was heading, so when the twists were revealed they didn’t come as a great surprise to me, I really thought there would be a twist that would make me change my opinion of this book but unfortunately it never materialised so I was left feeling slightly deflated. In the authors defence she has written a well plotted book, building skilfully on the tension and suspense and I’m sure it’s a book that will become a bestseller, for me this novel has the psychological elements you would expect, but it lacked the “thriller” or mess with my head element I’ve come to expect in books of this genre. This is only my humble opinion so you may prefer to check this one out for yourself.

4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5

Paperback: 352 pages

Publisher: HQ (9 Feb. 2017)

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