Breathe by Dax Varley

Genres: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller
Publisher: Garden Gate Press
Publication Date: August 31st 2016

Disclaimer: A free copy of this book was received through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hayden McKaley is pretty and popular – and she’s been kidnapped. Who is her captor, and what does he mean when he says that Hayden killed his son?

This is thinly veiled torture porn. The characters are a pretty, nice girl and a very evil man. Also, there’s a son who may or may not exist and a doctor who’s personality doesn’t exist. It’s extremely short and other than torture almost nothing happens.

I want to categorize this book as a mystery, because who Hayden’s killer is is a huge part of the novel. The problem is that the book introduces us to no one but her kidnapper. The clues Hayden sees to his identity mean nothing to the reader. A mystery isn’t fun if there’s literally no way for readers to unravel it. It’s not satisfying to have to wait for the end to find out that some character you’ve never heard of is the criminal.

Let’s talk about alternate endings. They can be interesting, but your book should not be 30% alternate endings. It feels like the author got bored of the plot and didn’t quite know how to tie it off. Certain “clues” only lead to certain endings. Alternate endings are not a good choice for novels where the suspense and mystery are the drives. I want to know who did it. I don’t want three different options.

In a weird way, I sort of enjoyed the book. It was easy to breeze through in about an hour. I was sort of invested to find out what happened to the guy’s son. If the book had spent more time on a blend of the first and second ending it could have been interesting. If Hayden or her kidnapper had a personality outside of tiny boxes it could have been fantastic. They didn’t, and it wasn’t.

This novel is too short to develop anything interesting and it’s even shorter with the alternate endings taking up so many pages.

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