To sum it all up it was an entertaining, gripping, fast-paced, and an easy read with an unexpected and exciting ending. Highly recommend!! i recently read Gone Without a Trace, which delivered a similarly claustrophobic reading experience, as you get immersed in the perspective of a character whose world seems to be disintegrating and can no longer trust their own mental faculties. which would be horrifying in real life, but delivers a chillingly pleasant intensity when you're safely reading. This has to be the thriller of the year! There were times when I was holding my breath, gripping the book so intensely I thought I would break my e-reader. It was that crazy. B.A. Paris’ “The Breakdown” is an emotional psychological thriller. It grips you from the first sentence and keeps hold till the last. I was really excited to read this one. I had loved Paris’s first book, Behind Closed Doors. How does it work that I loved one of her books but basically hated the other? I hear of reviewers loving both or hating both, but I don’t seem to have many others in my one-love, one-hate club.

Triggers & warnings: Severe psychological abuse; non-violent but very disturbing. There is also a dog - I'll just leave it at that *sob* Whew! This was certainly one creepy and screwed up story. I expected it to be really messed up, but not in quite the way that it was. A pervasive sense of uneasiness stayed with me the entire time that I was reading this book. Creepy...Very creepy. I couldn’t wrap my mind around how Grace was going to get herself out of the situation she was trapped in. While I thought there were a few opportunities that presented themselves, I could understand her trepidation and the need to protect her younger sister. Millie turned out to be one of my favorite things about the story. Was it just me or did she have way more guts than Grace?No, this book is not exactly like the author's debut novel, but it stands on its own merits and was a very solid psychological thriller in its own right. Is Cass crazy? Is she suffering from early onset dementia like her mother did before her? What is happening? Filled with some huge twists and a fast-paced plot, I can see why this book has been receiving so much hype. I wouldn't have been able to put it down had life not gotten in the way. It is a truly addictive read. Behind Closed Doors is easily the worst thing I’ve read in 2016. I should thank Shelby for sending this to me, but I kind of feel like she April Fooled me a month late. Whatever the case, I’m moving on to better things – namely porn . . . The beginning of The Breakdown is like a scene out of a horror movie. I could picture it. Cass Anderson is in a rush to get home....it's raining and the weather is only getting worse. She speaks with her husband, Matthew and he cautions her to drive carefully and makes her promise not to take the shortcut through the woods. It's not safe at night. However, at the last second Cass veers off the main road to the shortcut she just promised she wouldn't take. She decides what Matthew doesn't know won't hurt him. She just wants to get home as fast as possible.

But since then, she’s been forgetting every little thing. Where she left the car; if she took her pills; even the alarm code. I’m on my way,” I tell him, fumbling for the door handle in the dark. “I’m just getting in the car.” But since then, Cass has been forgetting every little thing. Where she left the car, if she took her pills, even the alarm code. The only thing she can’t forget is that woman. And now that Cass keeps receiving silent phone calls, she can’t quite shake the feeling that someone’s watching her… Paris grabs the reader from the beginning with a powerful and electrifying tale. Behind Closed Doors, a novel sure to make one's skin crawl, also reveals no one truly knows what does go on behind closed doors.”— New York Journal of Books

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This is a fantastic psychological thriller, complete with a monster so sadistic. I had no idea what was going to happen next. Every time I put the book down I tried to figure out how this horrific monster would possibly be defeated. Going over and over different scenarios in my head. Vira bruscamente no sentido do atalho, e... após uns quantos percalços mais ou menos aterradores, eis que Cass chega a casa sem mazelas!

There are bends coming up ahead so I shift forward in my seat and grip the wheel tightly. The road is deserted and, as I negotiate one bend, and then the next, I pray I’ll see some taillights in front of me so that I can follow them the rest of the way through the woods. I want to phone Matthew, just to hear his voice, just to know I’m not the only one left in the world, because that’s how it feels. But I don’t want to wake him, not when he has a migraine. Besides, he would be furious if he knew where I was. Cass is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods. It was on the winding rural road, in the middle of a downpour, and a woman was sitting inside—the woman who was killed. She’s been trying to put the crime out of her mind; what could she have done, really? It’s a dangerous road to be on in the middle of a storm, and she probably would have been hurt herself if she’d stopped. Not only that, her husband would be furious if he knew she’d broken her promise not to take that shortcut home.

It took me just an afternoon to read this book and by the end, my heart was pounding. If you like fast and frantic stories, you'll love this." — The Sun It’s far-fetched that Cass would get her hands on Rachel’s burner cell phone and it’s far-fetched the way it happens (though actually, I give the author credit here for ingenuity). Cass is literally having a mental breakdown after the murder of a local woman is discovered…a woman she could possibly have helped. 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! Okay, while I found this story to be really fun and exciting for the most part I must say that I did find some of it to be a little predictable and tedious in parts but it sure made up for it though with its heavy buildup of anticipation, the thrilling climax, and the unexpected and surprising conclusion to make this an extremely good read.

I think we have all heard those stories about stopping to help a stranger whose car has broken down. It’s the perfect setup for serial killers looking for their next victim, and has been the opening for countless eerie ghost stories. As badly as you might feel for the person, would you risk your life on a dark, lonely highway in the middle of a storm, with no cell service? 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. 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. I find it impossible to believe that Cass wouldn’t have noticed that hubby must have switched out her appliances—washer, dryer, and microwave. New appliances would not look exactly like her old ones. No way!

Stop over-explaining. Show me, don’t tell me. I thought the author broke that rule at the end. It’s like she was afraid maybe we wouldn’t understand it all. We did. For one, I thought it was unnecessary for Cass to read all the texts and then to go to places and people to confirm what she had read. NetGalley and St. Martin's Press provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available! Cass is beside herself with guilt, could she have saved this woman? or would she herself have been murdered if she'd stopped to help? No matter how cliched that sounds, nothing sets the atmosphere and tone quite like a stormy night on dark and desolate highway.