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A review by zoemig
A Breath After Drowning by Alice Blanchard
2.0
I hadn't heard anything about A Breath After Drowning by Alice Blanchard prior to receiving a copy in the mail, but I love dark suspense thrillers, so I immediately knew I was going to read it. I even managed to get an audiobook copy from the library, which was great. A Breath After Drowning is the story of child psychiatrist Kate, whose sister was murdered, and who finds herself re-examining the evidence sixteen years later and wondering if the right man is on death row.
Since Kate is a psychiatrist, a lot of the book revolves around her latest patient with a connection to her sister, and the fallout from a previous patient that committed suicide. The story had an interesting premise and seemed well-researched, but it just moves so so slowly that wasn't until over halfway into the book that I really felt like there was any intensity building. Kate also, despite seeming like a smart person, makes a lot of frustrating and not-smart choices. I did enjoy the slow-burning the intensity of the last couple hundred pages, but there were no actual surprises despite having many twists. Listening to the audiobook it became very very obvious how terrible the dialogue was. This is definitely a case of a book I enjoyed more when I was reading my paper copy, but even that couldn't save the horrible, ridiculous fight scene that occurs near the end of the book. Overall, I feel like Blanchard is an author with a lot of potential, but unless a book came highly recommended by someone whose opinion I respect I'm unlikely to read anything else by her in the future.
Since Kate is a psychiatrist, a lot of the book revolves around her latest patient with a connection to her sister, and the fallout from a previous patient that committed suicide. The story had an interesting premise and seemed well-researched, but it just moves so so slowly that wasn't until over halfway into the book that I really felt like there was any intensity building. Kate also, despite seeming like a smart person, makes a lot of frustrating and not-smart choices. I did enjoy the slow-burning the intensity of the last couple hundred pages, but there were no actual surprises despite having many twists. Listening to the audiobook it became very very obvious how terrible the dialogue was. This is definitely a case of a book I enjoyed more when I was reading my paper copy, but even that couldn't save the horrible, ridiculous fight scene that occurs near the end of the book. Overall, I feel like Blanchard is an author with a lot of potential, but unless a book came highly recommended by someone whose opinion I respect I'm unlikely to read anything else by her in the future.