Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Feb 2016
368 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
An engrossing debut thriller full of page-turning twists and turns, richly imagined characters, and gripping psychological suspense.
Some secrets never die. They're just locked away.
Alex Dale is lost. Destructive habits have cost her a marriage and a journalism career. All she has left is her routine: a morning run until her body aches, then a few hours of forgettable work before the past grabs hold and drags her down. Every day is treading water, every night is drowning. Until Alex discovers Amy Stevenson. Amy Stevenson, who was just another girl from a nearby town until the day she was found unconscious after a merciless assault. Amy Stevenson, who has been in a coma for fifteen years, forgotten by the world. Amy Stevenson, who, unbeknownst to her doctors, remains locked inside her body, conscious but paralyzed, reliving the past.
Soon Alex's routine includes visiting hours at the hospital, then interviews with the original suspects in the attack. But what starts as a reporter's story becomes a personal obsession. How do you solve a crime when the only witness lived but cannot tell the tale? Unable to tear herself away from her attempt to uncover the unspeakable truth, Alex realizes she's not just chasing a story - she's seeking salvation.
Shifting from present to past and back again, Try Not to Breathe unfolds layer by layer until its heart-stopping conclusion. The result is an utterly immersive, unforgettable debut.
"Told from alternating perspectives and alternating decades, this gripping thriller about family and redemption will keep readers engaged to the very end." - Publishers Weekly
"Great plotting, but the author's oddball imagery proves distracting." - Kirkus
"There are some credulity-testing passages on how researchers can communicate with coma patients, and of the narrative voices, it's Amy's that is the most affecting. But the main attraction here is the voyeuristic appeal of Alex's meticulously detailed drunkenness, as she oh-so-carefully plans out her day so that she can drink herself into unconsciousness every night. Not for the faint of heart." - Booklist
"A razor-sharp plot and wonderfully complex characters ... Not since The Girl on the Train have I been so captivated by a work of suspense." - New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen
"A fast-paced debut about long-buried secrets and tangled truths." - New York Times bestselling author Kimberly McCreight
This information about Try Not to Breathe was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Holly Seddon was born and raised in the southwest of England and now lives in the Kent countryside with her husband and four children. Throughout her fifteen-year career, Seddon has been privileged to work in some of the UK's most exciting newsrooms. As a freelance writer, she has been published on national newspaper websites, leading consumer websites, and in magazines. Seddon has been writing short stories since childhood. Try Not to Breathe is her first novel.
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