Reviews

Breathless by Amy McCulloch

exquisite_tragedy's review against another edition

3.0

This was a fun time. I really enjoyed the focus on mountaineering and the mountain itself (especially after seeing that the author climbed Manaslu in 2019). It was scary to think about how quickly things can wrong and the implications it could have for your whole team. The only issue I had with this was that the pacing was a little weird which resulted in it lacking some of the suspense and and intrigue I needed to stay engaged at times. There was a lot of “telling” and not “showing” when it came to important plot points, and there was a lot of talking/reminiscing about things instead of things actually happening (if that makes sense). I still very much enjoyed this book though and would definitely pick up more thrillers from her in the future.

Story: 3/5
Audiobook: 2/5 (narrated by Katie Leung); the male voices she would do were atrocious and made it hard to follow certain characters.
Length 11h4min

breeanaross's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.5

eri_cat93's review against another edition

4.0

I liked this book a lot - especially because it got me on a long Wikipedia rabbit hole of the world of mountain climbing, the alps, and avalanches.

Parts of the story felt unnecessary & others were really great twists that gave me the “OF COURSE, ugh should have seen that coming” feeling. Overall I liked reading this book even with a few flaws

bookph1le's review

3.0

I was disappointed in this book, but I'm giving it three stars because I thought the writing about mountaineering was compelling, and I learned a lot while reading it, since my curiosity about the places and events the author described compelled me to do a lot of googling and supplemental reading. Major spoilers beyond the tag.

Spoiler

I knew very early in the book that Charles was the killer, so the revelation that it had been him all along came as no surprise to me. Still, I wouldn't have found the book such a letdown if not for the reason the author chose for his motive: antisocial personality disorder (AKA sociopathy/psychopathy). While I didn't think the revelation came out of nowhere--the author did a thorough job of giving Charles traits characteristic of ASPD that can also read as charm--I didn't like this as a motive. I had thought Charles's motive would be related to his determination to bury the evidence that he'd cheated in his climbs, and I personally would have found that a much sounder motive. I also very much disliked the fact that Doug knew Charles was dangerous and yet still chose to help him organize the expedition because he thought the mountain climbing would be enough to sate Charles. Say what? Who would do something like that?

meganbharrison2's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

codaria's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

libraryofhayley's review against another edition

3.0

3.5*

cici44's review against another edition

4.0

wow

salmonator's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.25

szilvicsanyi's review against another edition

5.0

This book is the perfect combination of my two favorite genres: mountaineering and crime books. You can feel as if you were really there, the height, the freezing weather and the monumental landscape. The atmosphere is as chilling as the weather. I highly recommend this book to both fans of the mountains and good mysteries.