Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon

Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

You won't be able to put it down.
Just remember to breathe.

Alex is sinking. Slowly but surely, she's cut herself off from everything but her one true love - drink. Until she's forced to write a piece about a coma ward, where she meets Amy.

Amy is lost. When she was fifteen, she was attacked and left for dead in a park. Her attacker was never found. Since then, she has drifted in a lonely, timeless place. She's as good as dead, but not even her doctors are sure how much she understands.

Alex and Amy grew up in the same suburbs, played the same music, flirted with the same boys. And as Alex begins to investigate the attack, she opens the door to the same danger that has left Amy in a coma...


When this landed on my door mat unsolicited I was really excited. I had never heard of Holly Seddon, but this sounded like something I would be keen to read.

This is a great debut novel and one that will have you whizzing through. I read this during the last couple of days of the Christmas holidays and I really didn't want to put it down. It captured my interest and had me searching to find the answer.

Alex is a freelance journalist, who has been having a rough time, her marriage broke down, lose of a baby and she is an alcoholic. Her life is in bits and she has been told if she doesn't stop with the drinking she will be dead within the year. The problem is she has lost everything and feels she hasn't got a lot to live for. That is until she stumbles across Amy, during the research for her news article.

Amy is the same age as Alex and lived in the same area as her, however when Amy was 15 and was attacked which has left Amy in a coma like state. Amy has been there years and throughout the book the reader gets to go on the journey with Amy into before and during the attack. Amy is responsive through brain activity and although cannot talk can communicate in other ways through her brain.

Amy had a boyfriend, Jacob. He now has a wife and a baby on the way but can't seem to let go of Amy and regularly comes to visit her. Amy, though had a secret and disappeared the day she was attacked. No one has ever been caught and convicted, Alex begins to dig for answers and her investigation takes her in lots of directions.

We read the story through many points of view, Alex, Amy and Jacob are main, however we occasionally get another characters perspective too. These characters are well developed and all have their own reasons for either wanting to help Alex or not.

I think this is a well written and I enjoyed all aspects of the story. I thought it was a complete surprise and I liked the fact I was left hanging so long before I found answers. The only thing I would say and the reason I gave this 4* and not 5 was that there were some unfinished things for me in this book. I felt it could have been wrapped up a little better, I wanted to know what happened to Amy after. I also would have liked to know a little more about Alex, especially with aspects about her health.

This I feel is going to be a massive book this year and one if you like psychological thrillers to get your hands on.

I would like to thank the publisher and RealReaders for sending this in exchange for an honest review.