The Breakdown by B.A. Paris is a mesmerizing page tuner that will make you jumpy and questioning reality. Cass sees a woman sitting in a car on the side of the road during a bad storm. Later, she finds out that the woman was murdered that very night. Knowing this, Cass becomes nervous that the killer saw her and is now after her. At the same time, she is starting to show signs of dementia and no one finds her credible. Who can she believe when she cannot even trust her own memories? The Breakdown is an amazing psychological thriller that will keep you at the edge of your seat throughout the book until you finish. It is the first novel that I have read from this author and I can’t wait to pick up more! I highly recommend this book, but only if you have time set aside and can finish right away. Fans of Gone Girl would love this book. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Amazing book with a great twist! This is definitely my book of 2017.

I was really excited to get approval for an advanced reader edition of The Breakdown from Netgalley because I absolutely loved Behind Closed Doors. This one, while I won't say it disappointed me, wasn't the kind of book that hooked me and kept me reading all night long. I guessed the "bad guys" in the very first chapter and was kind of disappointed when I was right. That said, I think the writing style is really good. It just felt like a book subject that's been done before, and I didn't feel that it really stood out as great. I wasn't really invested in any of the characters and the ending felt rushed to me. As a second book, it wasn't horrible. I think she set the bar really high with her first book and it would have been very difficult to top it. Would I recommend it? Sure. Just not in the same way I would recommend Behind Closed Doors. I do look forward to future books from B.A. Paris.

Imagine going along a deserted road through the woods, the weather is horrendous and you see a woman in a car alone pulled over, what do you do. Cass made a choice and is now having to live with that choice. Stressed out and going over everything Cass feels like she is starting to loose it, things are happening, her memory is going, she can't operate things she could yesterday and Cass has a secret from her past that is making everything worse. Is Cass losing her mind or is someone actually after her?

Ooooh this is the second book from this author, you don't have to have read the first to read this as they are both standalones. I started suspecting everyone and everything almost from the start, Cass got under my skin and initially really irritated me. As the book goes on I actually felt quite sorry for her and at times caught my breath as her mental state took a knock. As Cass starts to fall down a black hole the hairs on the back of my neck went up, imaging not being able to trust your own judgement or feel safe in your own home.

Paris has a skill for creeping the reader out and creating some of the darkest sides of humanity, I absolutely love it. Freaking out your reader and engaging your audience from practically the first chapter is no easy feat. 5/5 for me this time, I really enjoy this authors writing style and await her next!

Most of you know that Behind Closed Doors was one of my favorite books of 2016. It was addictive, gripping and fast-paced: it made me feel angry at first and I was incredibly satisfied when it ended. I knew that The Breakdown would be a different kind of read because I read a lot of reviews, so I wasn't as excited as I would've been otherwise. This isn't a matter of simply being disappointed.

I must say I had some issues with The Breakdown. On the one hand, I wanted to know what was going on (I'm always curious) and it was an easy read, just like BCD was. On the other hand, the first half of the book, maybe until 60% was quite repetitive and I didn't think it was going anywhere. Yes, we get it: Cass is forgetful. She is confused, she forgets things. But is she really forgetful or is someone messing with her head? This is a psychological thriller, after all.

My main issue with the plot was that there were too many situations that felt coincidental and seemed too contrived for my taste. Unrealistic, even. I don't want to dive into spoiler territory, but for example, there's a scene where our main character, Cass, discovers the truth about something and it was so freaking improbable that I couldn't believe that was actually happening. And once we all begin to learn the truth, there were too many coincidences, just so everything could be connected. Like the weapon thing. I mean, really? Why would someone do that?

Still, I really liked how the ending played out, maybe because it reminded me of Behind Closed Doors and I'm a fan of this type of situations. But I can't ignore all those coincidences. Don't take the easy way out.

Cass is driving home one rainy night--taking the back road to her house--when she sees a woman stopped by the side of the road. Cass pauses to help her, but eventually drives home without making any contact. She feels bad about not assisting, but the crazy storm prevents her from even seeing who is in the car. It's only later that her husband tells her that someone was murdered that night, and Cass realizes that it was the same woman she saw. Eventually Cass realizes it was a woman she knew, Jane, and she feels even worse. After, Cass is consumed by Jane's murder. She feels watched and is convinced the murderer is calling her house repeatedly. She's forgetting things, unable to work her household appliances, and receiving items she swears she never ordered. Is Cass truly going crazy--and is the murderer coming for her next?

This book was a weird one for me. I'm one of the few who didn't read Paris' first novel, but I'd heard all the hype and was curious to try this one. The novel relies on the unreliable narrator trope big time; I was certainly befuddled early on whether Cass was indeed an unreliable narrator going mad, or whether someone was messing with her. The problem, for me, was that I was expecting an amazing thriller, but I found the novel rather predictable from the get-go. I figured things out early on. Still, I have to give it to Paris: I felt compelled to keep reading despite it all. The book is a page-turner, for sure.

However, the plot is based on silly secrets and a lack of communication (both huge pet peeves of mine). Cass won't go to the police about seeing Jane's car simply because she doesn't want to tell her husband she took a shortcut she promised she wouldn't take? Seriously? Her friend's life is worth less than that? Further, she won't tell anyone about her dementia fears and forgetfulness. It was very frustrating and often times, I found myself more baffled than intrigued by the mystery.

In the end, this was an interesting one. I found it very predictable and honestly felt like I'd read this novel already (I swear I've read a book with a very similar plot: something that will drive me crazy forever). Still, it was compulsively readable and easy-to-read. Overall, probably about 2.5 stars for me. However, it seems like most people loved this, so take my review with a grain of salt!

I'd advise future readers not to read any reviews as there are spoilers everywhere! I saw one early on, and they're called spoilers for good reason. The book blurb will tell you all you want to know.

In B. A. Paris' first book I disliked the characters and didn't care much for the writing either, but the ending was pretty good. This book is not as psychologically disturbing as the first, but I am going to say pretty much the same thing as before. I disliked the characters and wanted to slap Cass more than a few times, and the execution of the mystery did not work for me. The fact that so much time was spent illustrating daily "silent calls" and that Cass just kept falling for it every single day was too repetitive and became tedious. Maybe I have watched classic movies like Sorry, Wrong Number and Midnight Lace too many times. Obviously Cass has not seen either. Also, Cass, did you know you can turn off the ringer and turn on the answering machine on a landline phone?

But the ending again saves the day and raises the likeability factor at least one star. The author's talent lies in how her femme fatale exacts her revenge. She just needs to work on putting more mystery into her mysteries.

I am not sure this is the author for me. But I am grateful to have received ARC copies from both Goodreads firstreads and from NetGalley. Can't wait to see what my book club says.

(Channeling the late—and truly great—Rod Serling, in the spirit of his timeless Twilight Zone opening narrations). . .


Cat Ellington: You're about to meet Cass Anderson, age 35. Occupation: 9th grade History teacher at Castle Wells High School in the English market town of Castle Wells.
Cass Anderson, affluent, compassionate, empathetic, and free spirit of habit. As you will witness, within the pages of this grasping tale of cold deception, Cass is a troubled woman who has recently had her insouciant lifestyle disrupted by an otherworldly turn of events.
You see, while driving home, by way of a shortcut through the woods, to the quaint and homely cottage—which she shares with her husband, Matthew—on a wickedly stormy night, Cass, seeing a seemingly stranded car with its tail lights aglow, drives up alongside of the "idle" vehicle and comes face to blurry face with a woman whose situated in the driver's seat, unmoving. Fearful of stopping to help the other woman, suspecting that it's a trap to lure her to violent harm, Cass decides to leave the still woman behind.
And Cass, learning the very next day that the same woman was found brutally murdered, begans to suffer from the sharp fangs of guilt—gnawing away at her conscience—for not assisting the woman when she spotted her in the dark, climatically tempestuous woods on the fateful night before.

In this bizarre tale of eerie suspense, we follow Cass as she's casually escorted farther and farther towards the perimeter of abstraction. Because what we soon come to realize is that Cass is not just any other ordinary woman. And her picturesque life is not at all what it presents itself to be.
This happens to be the Twilight Zone-like sophomore effort of one B. A. Paris. And our apprehensive protagonist, Cass, is about to find herself suddenly pushed over the edge and violently yanked, head first, down into a jet black and mind-devouring bottomless pit...of unmitigated madness.



The Breakdown, told in the first person, diary formatted narrative of its main protaganist, is an astonishing composition in the wake of its freshman predecessor, Behind Closed Doors.

The gifted Paris has yet again outdone herself with this highly recommended and completely enjoyable page-turner. For it is a rapidly paced title superb in structure, exceptional in both plot and character progression, true to its alarming description, and assertively commanding—where a five star rating is concerned.

Too good. Too good!

The Breakdown is a supremely fascinating novel—even one of those goose bump-inducing suspense thrillers that lovers of the genre hate to see come to an end. And here, the ending is one you won't see coming.

Incredible work.
. . .Incredible writing.




• It is my kindly pleasure to thank St. Martins Press, as well as NetGalley, for the advanced copy of "The Breakdown," in exchange for my honest review.

Analysis of "The Breakdown" by B. A. Paris is courtesy of Reviews by Cat Ellington: https://catellingtonblog.wordpress.com

Date of Review: Sunday, June 04, 2017

A fast paced, heart pounding thriller, with a unpredictable twist in the ending!

B.A. Paris is a master of psychological thrillers and making the reader question everything they think they know. ~ Heather, White Hot Reads

This is my second B.A. Paris book and I jumped for joy when I was the recipient of an ARC from the publisher. It is hard to put into words, how I feel about it, even almost a day later.

From the first to the final word, I constantly questioned everything I read. There were moments, I thought I had it figured out, to then second guess myself and decide that I was wrong, to start my theories all over again.

The authors prose is so amazing that I felt as if I was driving down the roads, living in Cass's home and sitting in her garden. The picture she paints makes me want to visit.

"If you can't trust yourself, who can you trust?" <---- This sums up the who book for me perfectly. It's simple. Life is about trust and when we find ourselves unable to trust anyone, especially ourselves, it makes us question every, single thing. Just like I did as I read it.

my sister kept on going on about this book how good it was but i felt that i had read a lot of books like this and wanted to try something different but in read it and am so glad i did. fabulous.

Quick easy read. I read this in one sitting. I thought the plot would have been better. It was easy to work out the guilty parties. I thought the story was dragged out a bit longer than it could have been.

I've been in the mood for a good thriller, so I was excited to receive a copy of the new novel from B.A. Paris, writer of the hit Behind Closed Doors. In my opinion, a successful thriller must have two key components - 1. A quick pace that makes you turn page after page and before you know it, hours have zipped along, and 2. An unexpected, surprising twist with a satisfying ending.

With that in mind, I thought The Breakdown succeeded. To fill you in on the story a bit, narrator and teacher Cass Andersen leaves a get-together in a terrible storm. Wanting to get home as soon as possible, she takes a more dangerous side road. She notices a car stopped and pulls over. She sees a woman in the other car but doesn't know what to do - is her car broken down? Is she okay? Seeing that the woman never signals Cass in any way, she moves along home. It isn't until the next morning when she hears the news: the woman she glanced at in the car had been brutally killed on the same road. Terrified, Cass starts developing anxiety and becoming paranoid as guilt sets in. She receives silent phone calls which she assumes are from the killer. Things move around in her house, but her memory no longer seems reliable.

I thought I predicted the ending within the first 10% of the book, which would have been disappointing. However, events took a turn in a way I didn't expect. I was glued to the book by that point and determined to see how things unfolded. My only critique was the very end felt abrupt and not as flushed out as other sections. Still, this is a worthy thriller that I recommend you try once it hits shelves July 18th.

I was totally swept away by the suspense and mystery of The Break Down. Cass and Matthew have a great life together although she has secretly feared she will end up with dementia like her mother. Things begin to fall apart when Cass realizes that a murdered woman is someone she knew, and that she passed her car on the road in a terrible thunderstorm on her way home the night before. She becomes fearful that the murderer may be after her next. She starts to forget things, minor absent-mindedness at first but then it escalates to the point that she can't remember ordering packages that have been delivered, or how to work her own coffee machine. Is it just the stress? Is it the start of dementia? Or is it something more? Could someone be gas lighting her? Or will she be the next murder victim? A true thriller with a satisfying conclusion.

Cass and her husband, Matthew, live in a house far away from many things. Only a couple of neighbors down the road but it is quiet and peaceful. That is, until one stormy night on her way home a woman is stranded on the side of the road. Cass made the decision that she would later regret: she does not help her. The next morning, the woman is found dead.

Riddled with the guilt of not having done anything, and horrified that this could happen in her small and remote neighborhood, Cass gets spooked and lives in fear. When she discovers that the woman was her new friend, Jane, she nearly falls apart. Does the murderer know that it was Cass who passed by?

Let me begin with the end. The end of the book really ties everything together and makes up for the redundant middle of the book. Although many thriller books are compared to Girl On The Train, I will add this one to the list for this very reason. I gave up on Girl On The Train because the middle was so redundant on how she is drunk every day. I later had the book spoiled for me and wished I had carried on. I almost did the same for this book. The middle of The Breakdown becomes cumbersome to read as it does not feel like much of anything is progressing. The daily actions of Cass waking up devastatingly convinced to have early onset dementia like her mother had, taking pills, falling asleep, waking up again to pretend to be normal when her husband comes home, and going to bed again happens so often. However, there are snippets of clues subtly dropped within this chunk of monotony that it is easy to miss them. I would not say that this book is something that I could not put down. For a lot of the book I had a hard time actually picking it back up, but I am glad that I did as the ending makes up for everything.

I would recommend this book for anyone who could endure Girl On The Train. I also recommend this book for readers who enjoy getting in the mindset of the narrator. This reads in first-person narrative and does not jump back and forth between past and present.

For those who may be offended, there are themes of manipulation, stalking, murder, early onset dementia, and overdose.

It's happened to all of us, at one point or another. A forgotten meeting, a misremembered number, or some other innocuous slip of the memory. For Cass, a series of escalating incidents ultimately causes her to question her own sanity.

Ever since the night Cass passed a car on the side of the road--a car in which a woman was later found murdered--she can't think of anything else. From the start, Cass feels a strong sense of guilt about the fact that she didn't get out of her own car that night and offer to help the woman.

In the days and weeks following the murder, Cass's mental health slowly deteriorates. She can no longer remember how to do simple tasks, like how to start her washing machine or coffeemaker. She forgets where she's parked her car. She can't remember making appointments with her friends. She doesn't remember buying things, even after they're delivered to her house. Beyond all this, a pervasive sense of paranoia takes over, as Cass repeatedly receives silent phone calls every day that gradually chip away at her sanity.

Nothing is as it seems in The Breakdown, even up to the final pages and its shocking conclusion. Following her suspenseful debut, Behind Closed Doors, B. A. Paris has created another compelling work of psychological fiction and domestic horror. Highly recommended.

Cass is driving home in a storm and takes a shortcut through the forest. Along the way she sees a car along the side of the road. Too freaked out from the weather and the thought of it being a set-up, she doesn’t help. The next day she finds out a woman was killed. The rest of the book drags along. Cass starts to receive mysterious calls she assumes are from the killer. At the same time, she starts to think she is getting early onset dementia, like her mother did. This goes on for a long, long time with really nothing knew being added to the plot line: mysterious calls, Cass taking her medicine, Cass finding out she did something she doesn’t remember doing, rinse, repeat. Finally, with about 50 or so pages left, something happens that reveals what is really going on and then the story ends. I had hopes that the story wouldn’t end up the way it actually did. I think perhaps this genre has jumped the proverbial shark. A twist like this might have worked 5 years ago, but readers now begin a book knowing what they are reading may or may not be reality. Twists need to be cleverer, build ups need to be more creative. Sadly, The Breakdown didn’t do that.

3 stars--I liked the book.

I completely gulped down this short novel. It's a fast read, and, in my opinion, engaging. Cass, the narrator, is really fragile, and it's apparent right away that something is very wrong in her life. I felt a lot of empathy for her.

I thought it was pretty obvious what was going on, and even obvious who had to be involved, but that didn't decrease my enjoyment of the book. Fun and fast, this suspense novel kept me up too late reading and had a very satisfying ending. Recommended for readers of the genre.

I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review; I appreciate it!

Loved this book a good easy read which will keep you hooked from the first page. Found it hard to put it down and took every available opportunity to pick it up and read.