I’m always torn between starting with the good, or just going straight to what I didn’t like about the book. I don’t know what it is lately, but I’ve been reading a lot of books that I just don’t… like. It’s not like I hated them. I just didn’t like them either. Solidly meh books. This was one of them, but I will start off with what I liked.

So, I liked the mountaineering explanations and descriptions. Amy Mcculloch seems very knowledgeable in this respect, and it was interesting learning about something I know nothing about. I liked the main character, Cecily, Galden, and Elise. Other characters? Not so much. The writing was well down, but other than those things I’ve mentioned, this story really didn’t stick with me.

The first and foremost reason why this novel didn’t work for me is the pacing. Boy did the first two hundred-something pages go by slow. It wasn’t until the last sixty-ish pages where I really got to the “thriller” of this novel. The story as a whole just didn’t seem worth it to me, but I’m too stubborn to not finish a book. Breathless felt so slow at times and the mountaineering aspects were the only things keeping this going.

Most of the characters seemed very one-dimensional to me. I’m sure the characters I actually liked may seem the same way to others, but at least they had redeeming qualities and personalities. The plot was so predictable, too. I mean, I think I guessed the ending around the first fifty pages as soon as they got up on the mountain before suspicious stuff even started happening. I’m not gonna give too much away until I get to the spoilers, but man, it was easy to guess.

The only other thing I didn’t like were Cecily’s blog posts. They seemed very redundant and pointless to the story. Except for one very specific instance where it was actually necessary.

Despite what I said about everything, I really liked the ending.

Spoilers ahead.

Finally, I get to talk about some spoilers for this book! Like I said, I liked the ending, but man did it take long to get to. I knew the killer was going to be Charles. When they say, “Out of sight, out of mind,” they do NOT mean in a thriller book. I’m sitting here thinking like, okay, we have this mysterious person camping in a tent, the only person who would do that away from others is someone who is super familiar with the terrain. Now who is that? Charles 100%. I hate that he killed Elise and Galden because they were my favorite. Doug trying to kill Cecily, and then later trying to save her? It made no sense. He shouldn’t have tried to kill her in the first place because it was so out of character. Doug always respected the mountain. Trying to kill her went against every principle he had. I mean, come on. Okay, okay, I’m done ranting.

Overall, I don’t think I’d necessarily recommend this book to anyone unless they want to learn a little bit about mountaineering. I really like the last sixty-something pages of this book, and I thought the ending was nice, too. The writing style and the descriptions were great, but the plot just wasn’t there for me, and that is a large portion of what makes a book enjoyable. Other than that, it took me an abnormally long time to get through. I rated it three stars, but it was a solid 2.5 for me honestly.  

Source: Personal Copy