The Breakdown

Product Information

She starts struggling to remember things. Knowing her mother had been diagnosed with early onset dementia made all of her forgetfulness convince her that she too had the disease. Mysterious parcels arrive, silent phone calls, she is doubting her own sanity. Is she actually losing her mind or is something or someone else to blame. If you can't trust yourself, who can you trust? This one has everything you look for in a great psychological thriller! Though I had this one figured out early on, it didn’t take away from my enjoyment at all! Highly recommend! THE BREAKDOWN epitomizes “summer reading.” This psychological thriller begs to be read by the pool on summer vacation. There’s just something about B.A. Paris’ writing that is fun—it’s not too serious, not too stuffy, and boy, does it move. I read this book in two sittings, I just couldn’t put it down. B.A. Paris has crafted a wholly entertaining story that hinges on the main characters’ deteriorating memory: I was totally absorbed as I watched Cass’ mental state fall apart. Paris ratchets up the tension bit by bit, bringing readers along as Cass goes from confused to alarmed to downright hysterical—a structure that kept me itching to see what she would do - and what would happen to her -next.

Stop the sniveling. And please say something interesting. No need to add much here; you already know what I think about the main character, Cass. I will say that the other few characters weren’t snivelers, but they weren’t interesting either. The dialogue was super boring, like: Hi, when did you get up? Oh, around 8. Okay. See you later. Cass’s continual highs and lows will cause you whiplash, and you will FEEL her frustration as she grasps at straws (tongs, and cans of hairspray) to keep her crumbling life together! Playing on real fears and putting the reader inside the mind of a person living through those scenarios allows us to feel their confusion, experience their doubt, and understand their anguish. But, of course, we all know, there is something truly ominous brewing, and it is not clear who can be trusted, even Cass- or especially Cass. Now imagine seeing a stranded motorist, waffling on the decision to stop and offer assistance or pass on by, then ultimately deciding it was safer to drive on past, especially since the driver didn’t appear to be injured and did not indicate they wanted help. Her husband Matthew is worried about her, and when the doctor says she may have early onset dementia, a disease which took her mother, Cass is naturally terrified.The Breakdown is a suspense-filled psychological thriller about a woman who is slowly having a nervous breakdown brought on by a car that breaks down.

Exploram os caminhos tortuosos da mente, quando confrontada com situações limite. Esta tende a armadilhar-se num emaranhado de emoções, que se viram contra o próprio, convertendo-o no seu mais temível inimigo!...

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

The Breakdown'was, most of all, an addictive read. From the moment I started it, I couldn’t put it down. With each and every chapter I was more confused and more enthralled with everything. The fact that the story was fast-paced made me devour this thrilling read in one sitting. Cass’s story was filled with suspense from the first chapter, so yeah, the book definitely starts with a bang. I liked how the suspense aspect was blended with the psychological one. The suspense was fantastically done and I loved how it grew with each and every chapter. It held me at the edge of my seat as the story unfolded and the fact that our heroine wasn’t a reliable narrator made me love this story even more. THE BREAKDOWN by B.A. PARIS is an interesting, thrilling, suspenseful, and cleverly written psychological thriller that takes you on a very emotional and apprehensive tale here questioning the psyche of our main protagonist, Cass. Is she really having a breakdown, early onset dementia, or is there something more sinister at work here?

Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. I would give this a 2ish.... Like B.A's first novel... the characters just got on my DAMN nerves. I was super annoyed overall by Cass.... and it made me sometimes want to stop reading the novel.It was only after turning 50 that B.A. Paris began writing, when one of her daughters suggested she enter a writing competition advertised in a magazine. While she didn't win, this led her to write her first novels, including her internationally bestselling debut Behind Closed Doors. She is published by HarperCollins Publishers in the UK and St Martin's Press in the US. Then imagine hearing that the person you left all alone on the side of the road was murdered. If you had stopped, would that person still be alive?

Cass clearly presents with paranoia due to driving home one evening and seeing this woman on the side of the road in a storm and she does not stop to help her and the next morning finds out that she has been murdered. Cass starts receiving random phone calls with no one speaking and feels like she is being watched. Cass starts to forget things and believes she may have onset early dementia (a disease her mother had) and it just continues to tumble down from there..... ehhh Cass is about to make the worst decision of her life when she decides to take a shortcut home on a dark and stormy night. The drive home takes her on a rural road through the woods during a torrential rainstorm. She passes a car parked near the woods with a woman inside, and she stops the car momentarily, thinking the woman will approach her if she needs help. The woman doesn't get out so Cass drives off. The next morning she discovers that the woman was later found dead in the car - and had been brutally murdered!

After the murder, Cass is terrorized and spends every second looking over her shoulder. And we do too. My heart was in my throat throughout most of this book, petrified for Cass, wondering if she was in danger or if she was imagining everything. B.A. Paris did an incredible job keeping the readers on the edge of their seats. I wanted to tear through the book as fast as possible but didn’t want to miss a second of it. The Breakdown took a while to build up speed and tension. Obviously you know something will happen, but you don't know what or when. For a while, Cass' character really started grating on my nerves because she was just a sniveling mess, falling to pieces at the slightest thing, yet taking all sorts of risks. And then...BOOM. B.A. Paris throws in a twist which, while not utterly surprising, really turns the plot on its ear and sends the book careening to its conclusion. She’s almost certain she’s suffering from early onset dementia—the condition that has stole her mother’s life—and no one, not even her husband, will believe that someone is out to get her. Cass' days are spent feeling convinced she's being watched, worrying that someone is trying to break into her house, and someone keeps calling her house but not saying anything. She's coming utterly unglued, and to make matters worse, she's starting to forget things—plans she's made, occasions she's planned—even whether she took her pills or activated the burglar alarm. The only way she can seem to cope is by taking pills to calm her anxiety, but they leave her in a drugged stupor, much to the chagrin of her husband.