Breathless by Amy McCulloch, a Review

Breathless Review: Back-of-Book Description

AS SEEN ON THE TODAY SHOW • A high-altitude thriller that will take your breath away—Cecily Wong is on her most dangerous climb yet, miles above sea level. But the elements are nothing compared to one chilling truth: There’s a killer on the mountain.
 
“A vertigo-inducing page-turner by an author who brings the high-stakes world of expert mountain-climbing to life on the page.” —Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid

Journalist Cecily Wong is in over her head. She’s come to Manaslu, the eighth-highest peak in the world, to interview internationally famous mountaineer Charles McVeigh on the last leg of a record-breaking series of summits. She’s given up everything for this story—her boyfriend, her life savings, the peace she’s made with her climbing failures in the past—but it’s a career-making opportunity. It could finally put her life back on track.

But when one climber dies in what everyone else assumes is a freak accident, she fears their expedition is in danger. And by the time a second climber dies, it’s too late to turn back. Stranded on a mountain in one of the most remote regions of the world, she’ll have to battle more than the elements in a harrowing fight for survival against a killer who is picking them off one by one.

Breathless Review: My Thoughts

I chose Breathless as my Book of the Month pick back in May of 2022 and it sat on my shelf waiting for a cold, snowy day. And that is when I decided to read it – early February when there’d been snow on the ground for months and the temperature hadn’t been above 30 in days.

It matched the mood I guess.

I’m pretty behind on posting my reviews and so…I’m just gonna level with you here. This book was ok. It was fine. I read it, and kind of quickly, so there’s that. It kept my attention and I wanted to know what happened next.

The writer had the luxury of using the setting (the mountains) as an ominous villain to help move the story along. If she didn’t have that, she would have had nothing! Because the characters certainly couldn’t have held it.

Don’t get me wrong, they were fine in the context. The main character was actually pretty relatable and I liked her.  But the side characters were a little flat. And the villain was certainly not rounded out enough; too two-dimensional. And flipped too much on a dime I think. By all means, please debate this in the comments.

The writing was only ok. There were hardly any lines that stood out as good quotes.

Favorite Quotes from Breathless:

“Climbing a mountain…is one of the hardest things you can put your body through. The attempt is just as valid as the achievement.”

“Be Bothered...the mantra floated to the front of her mind. A reminder to tackle small issues before they became big ones.”

“So often fatigue – mental or physical – will stop you from caring, and small issues quickly turn into life-threatening ones in the mountains. The moment you stop caring is the moment you’ve lost your ability to climb.”

Breathless Review: In Conclusion

This was a pretty ok book. Enjoyable to read and had a lot of cool things, but it didn’t really stand out as amazing or anything. I’m going to say 3.5 stars for Breathless. 

I enjoyed the setting quite a bit and it was a quick read – so I would recommend it to people who like thrillers in unique settings, or who like fiction stories about mountain climbing.

I’m not sure I would seek out more books by this author but I also wouldn’t pass one up. Ya know?

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