Try Not To Breathe by Holly Seddon

[Jax14]

This is a thriller aimed at young adults and up.

15 year-old Amy Stevenson is your typical teenager; enjoying life with her friends, working hard at school and generally getting up to mischief. Amy has a nice and safe relationship with her boyfriend Jacob, but what he doesn't know is that Amy is also seeing an older man. Someone who makes her feel "oh so grown up". One day Amy doesn't return home from school, and her body is found having been raped and beaten. Not quite dead, but in a vegetative state where it's doubtful she will ever wake up. Fast forward 15 years and Alex Dale is a freelance writer and barely functioning alcoholic, who stumbles upon Amy in the hospital she has been in since the attack. No-one has ever been convicted of the crime so Alex decides to investigate and uses every connection she has managed not to sever. Will she even remain sober enough to complete the job and how will she get answers from the only witness when she hasn't been able to communicate with the world for the last 15 years?

Considering this is the author's first novel I am extremely impressed with it. Her portrayal of Alex's character is so comprehensive that you feel you are battling her demons along with her. The descriptions get so intense that I could feel the withdrawals her body was going through or empathising with her thirst for the next drink. The author spent just the right amount of word time on the main and peripheral characters-feeding you just enough info about some and letting you into deep and private thoughts for others. The plot was well thought out and logical. The neuroscience part about communicating with those patients in comatose states was very thought provoking, and the whodunit part-well who doesn't love a good mystery? There were a few spelling mistakes and formatting errors but not enough to cause a major distraction.

My congratulations to the author on a fantastic novel, with a crisp storyline that stayed on the straight path and well developed characters.

Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to review the book.