
The Book:
Breathless by Amy McCulloch
Published May 3, 2022 by Anchor
Date read: January 29, 2023
The Characters:
Cecily Wong
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
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The Plot (from Goodreads):
Journalist Cecily Wong is in over her head. She’s come to Manaslu, the eighth-highest peak in the world, to interview internationally famous mountaineer Charles McVeigh on the last leg of a record-breaking series of summits. She’s given up everything for this story—her boyfriend, her life savings, the peace she’s made with her climbing failures in the past—but it’s a career-making opportunity. It could finally put her life back on track.
But when one climber dies in what everyone else assumes is a freak accident, she fears their expedition is in danger. And by the time a second climber dies, it’s too late to turn back. Stranded on a mountain in one of the most remote regions of the world, she’ll have to battle more than the elements in a harrowing fight for survival against a killer who is picking them off one by one.
How did Breathless end?
The Review:
I ADORED this book. I can’t even put my finger on what it was. That’s why I never wrote a review until now–I can’t find words for how much I liked this book. Even the mountaineering descriptions, which I can see other readers finding slow, were absolutely thrilling to me. I’m a hiker, although definitely nothing this intense–and after reading Breathless I don’t think I want to do any of the hikes in the Death Zone.
In 2017 I did a guided hike up Salkantay in Peru, and that’s what I was picturing while I read this book. It was nothing at all like Cecily’s hike–only 6000m, and it was a hike, not mountaineering, but it was the hardest multi-day hike I’ve done.
I felt like I was right on the mountain while reading Breathless. Every description was perfect, and I was so hooked on this story. The tension was so high and I just couldn’t put it down. I did find the culprit to be somewhat predictable, but the journey was worth the ending.
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