Don’t Breathe A Word
Paperback | Kindle
By Jennifer McMahon
HarperCollins
Release Date: May 17, 2011

In Don’t Breathe A Word, a 12-year-old girl named Lisa disappears without a trace. Fifteen years later, Lisa’s younger brother, Sam, is in a relationship with a woman named Phoebe. Sam gets a mysterious phone call that sends him and Phoebe on a crazy journey to find out what really happened to his sister fifteen years prior.

When I started on Don’t Breathe A Word, I was very apprehensive about reading it. A story about fairies was something I was not really looking forward to reading. The description of the book started to really sell the book for me. A story of a young girl disappearing in the middle of the night without a trace intrigued me a little. The cover also caught my interest. The girl on the cover said something about the book in general that was innocent yet spooky. The aspect of the book that changed my opinion was around the first couple of chapters in the book when Sam got a call from a relative from his past and the whole story took a dramatic and suspenseful turn.

Author Jennifer McMahon has a great skill with her writing. McMahon has written several books before Don’t Breathe A Word, but this story has sold me on effective storytelling. She structures the book with a series of alternating flashbacks with Lisa, then returns with present-day events with Phoebe and Sam. I really liked the parallels between Lisa in the past and Phoebe in the present. I also really enjoyed the cast of characters that weave in and out of this story that ultimately affect the overall shocking conclusion to this suspenseful tale.

Don’t Breathe A Word is definitely a twisted tale about fairies, but don’t let that discourage you from reading the book. Fairies are only one small part of a bigger and more thrilling tale of mystery, suspense, and intrigue. Don’t Breathe A Word is a book that I highly recommend if you want something a little different from the norm.