Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Don't Breathe A Word: A Novel
    Don't Breathe A Word: A Novel
    Don't Breathe A Word: A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    Don't Breathe A Word: A Novel

    Written by Jennifer McMahon

    Narrated by Lily Rains

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    “Don’t Breathe a Word is a haunting page-turner that kept me up, spine shivering and enthralled, way past my bedtime.”
    —Joshilyn Jackson, author of Gods in Alabama and Backseat Saints

    “Jennifer McMahon never flinches and never fails to surprise…as [she] weaves a young couple into a perverse fairyland where Rosemary’s Baby could be at home.”
    —Randy Susan Meyers, author of The Murderer’s Daughters

    Two young lovers find themselves ensnared in a seemingly supernatural web that ties them to a young girl’s disappearance fifteen years earlier in this dark and twisty tale from the New York Times bestselling author of Island of Lost Girls and Promise Not to Tell. Jennifer NcMahon returns with a vengeance with Don’t Breathe a Word—an absolutely chilling and ingenious combination of psychological thriller, literary suspense, and paranormal page-turner that will enthrall a wildly diverse audience including, among others, avid fans of Keith Donohue (The Stolen Child), Laura Lippman (I’d Know You Anywhere), and Tana French.(In the Woods).

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateMay 17, 2011
    ISBN9780061988882
    Author

    Jennifer McMahon

    Jennifer McMahon is the author of twelve novels, including the New York Times bestsellers The Children on the Hill, Promise Not to Tell, and The Winter People. She lives in Florida with her partner, Drea. Visit her at Jennifer-McMahon.com or connect with her on Instagram @JenniferMcMahonWrites and Facebook @JenniferMcMahonBooks.

    More audiobooks from Jennifer Mc Mahon

    Related to Don't Breathe A Word

    Related audiobooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Hide

      May 18, 2022

      RELEASED 24 MAY 256 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Kiersten White Publisher Del Rey “The book you need after Squid Game!” yells the hype for Kiersten White’s latest. Well, sort of. In fact this well-written horror novel feels closer to The C

      1 min read

    • Article

      Cat World

      Oct 2, 2020

      Cat World
      12 min read

    • Article

      For a Good Time, Call

      Sep 30, 2020

      For a Good Time, Call
      15 min read

    • Article

      Manhattan, 2035

      Mar 26, 2021

      There were problems with being the daughter of a former it girl. First of all, the designation, which, as her mother grew older, warped slightly across the society pages, affecting her mood. Most people remembered her mother’s modelling stints, brush

      4 min read

    • Article

      Drawn to THE MOORS

      Feb 8, 2022

      Drawn to THE MOORS
      11 min read

    • Article

      Six Sonnets

      Jan 1, 2021

      Goldenrod, I could say, you know, everybody wants somethingfrom me, but, well, everybody wants something and nobody wantsnothing from me, goldenrod, towhead, beast. Goldenrod, you packthe meadows like gold-plated sardines. I have heart palpitationsbu

      3 min read

    • Article

      The William Trevor Reader: “Kinkies”

      Mar 15, 2022

      There’s a lesson to be taken from “Kinkies”—as writers, we hew to professionalized tastefulness at our creative peril. The post The William Trevor Reader: “Kinkies” appeared first on The Millions.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Esquire Fiction

      Aug 17, 2023

      Esquire Fiction
      14 min read

    • Article

      Lech

      Feb 8, 2022

      Lech
      4 min read

    • Article

      This Family Saga Finds Grace And Beauty In Ordinary Lives, Fully Lived

      Jun 10, 2021

      Simon Van Booy's new novel Night Came With Many Stars follows several generations of a Kentucky family, their crossroads and choices, their curses and hard memories, their luck and their chances.

      3 min read

    • Article

      STEPPING Out

      Feb 26, 2020

      STEPPING Out
      10 min read

    • Article

      The July War

      Sep 8, 2020

      In summer, our neighborhood quiets in phases. The quieting begins in May. Schools give their older kids, the seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds, a month off to prepare for the baccalaureate exams. Following a ritual as old as our parents, the students

      21 min read

    • Article

      Blackjack

      Jan 15, 2024

      Blackjack
      6 min read

    • Article

      HELLO It’s Halloween

      Sep 18, 2018

      HELLO It’s Halloween
      10 min read

    • Article

      A Double Life

      Dec 7, 2020

      Sadie is in the kitchen, already dressed in school uniform, fastening the clips on the violin she chose for her most recent birthday, when Gabriela heads downstairs the following morning. Seven years old: how the hell did that happen? Briefly, she wo

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Posting

      Jun 27, 2023

      The Posting
      35 min read

    • Article

      The Way Things TURN OUT

      Jun 3, 2020

      The Way Things TURN OUT
      7 min read

    • Article

      Restless Souls

      Mar 6, 2018

      Restless Souls
      8 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      High Rise

      Aug 6, 2021

      High Rise
      24 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Jan 6, 2021

      REVIEWS ANNABEL LAWSON It’s only January but this will surely be my best novel of 2021, and it’s Alderton’s first. Nina has a dream job, owns a bijou flat in North London. She had a good relationship which lasted seven years. Her ex lost no time in m

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Don't Breathe A Word

    4/5

    98 ratings56 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Creepy but very good.
    • 3/5
      According to the Book of Fairies, if you are privileged to hold the book, you've been chosen to bring fairy lore--and to promulgate the fairy race--into a new generation. Lisa was sure she was the one from her generation to carry this burden and to enter the fairy world through the woods behind her house. She filled the heads of her cousin Evie and her little brother Sam with story after story of the ways "fairy" had shown itself in their parents' and grandparents' generations.Then, one hot summer night when Lisa was 12, she walked into the woods and never came out. Had she really entered the fabled land of the fairies? Was King Teilo really waiting for her to be his queen?Fifteen years later a grown-up Sam has no use for fairy tales. And then odd things begin to happen to make him question his own sanity and what he believes to be true about the world.This title moves quickly and keeps the reader engaged, wanting to know what will happen next. Is it all real? Is there really a fairy land where Lisa was carried off to? Or is it all just mirrors and smoke?Unfortunately the ending just wasn't very satisfying. It's too bad because this story was pretty intriguing--and the book has one of the best covers ever!--but this reader was left terribly disappointed.
    • 5/5
      Don’t Breathe a WordI loved this book. It wasn’t anything like I expected. This isn’t a average fairy story. You are better off without any preconceived notions about this story, so I’ll be brief on its description. A 12 year old girl, Lisa, tells her brother that she has found a door into another world and is leaving to meet the King of the Fairies. She goes to Reliance, a mysterious abandoned town of the past within the woods behind her home, and disappears. Nobody seems to know what exactly happened to her.Years later, Phoebe becomes involved with Sam, Lisa’s brother, and questions Lisa’s disappearance, the fairies, and Reliance. Her quest for the truth leads to so many twists and turns I couldn’t begin to describe them all. The characters in this book are so real. I soon forgot there are no such things as fairies…or are there? The character descriptions and imagery are strong. An imaginative tale that kept me glued. A creepy and entertaining read.
    • 1/5
      Lots of tropes and twists. Not much else.
    • 3/5
      Hello creepy fairy story.This book is a thriller, no doubt about it. It had all the elements of a creepy, spine-tingling terror, mixed with dark fantasy, mixed with just... strange family stuff that makes up the perfect page-turner.Don't Breathe a Word alternates between Lisa, 15 years before the present time, and Phoebe, in present time. Lisa and Phoebe have a connection in that Phoebe had heard about Lisa's disappearance and visited the house where Lisa lived, and while she was there she glimpsed Sam, her current partner.Phoebe's been through her tough knocks, but that's nothing compared to the family that Sam comes from. Filled with strange characters from Evie to his Aunt Hazel and his own parents, this story went from dark and spooky to incredibly creepy and twisted in a hurry. I have one real complaint however, and it tends to be a common complaint with these types of books. The climax is carefully worked toward in the first 75% of the book and it felt like the last 25% was just a haphazard rush of trying to spring the "TADA" on the reader all at once. There was so much happening, so much that didn't make a lot of sense and I'd have to go back and read it two or three times to understand the impact it was supposed to have. I'm still not quite clear on a few things as well, which makes the resolution difficult. I just would have hoped for a more clear explanation, or the same care taken to give it as was taken to build the story up to it.I'm definitely interested in checking out more of Jennifer McMahon's books, however. I love getting caught up in a thriller and am always on the lookout for authors who craft an interesting story.
    • 5/5
      When Phoebe was twenty, she was passing through Harmony, Vermont living a wild life. She stops outside a housed where a young girl, Lisa has disappeared, amid rumors that she was taken by fairies.Fifteen years later, Phoebe is living in Harmony with Sam, Lisa's younger brother. Phoebe is fascinated by Lisa's story that she ran away with the King of the Fairies. Sam believes none of it, just that she was abducted and he refuses to talk about it. Then Phoebe gets a call from a little girl telling her and Sam where to find Lisa's old book, The Book of Fairies. Sam gets a call from his cousin Evie, who lived with Sam and Lisa that summer along with her mother, Hazel. Sam and Phoebe go spend the weekend with Evie and her husband Elliot. Weird things start to happen. An old woman comes to the cabin singing a song Lisa used to sing. She then stabs Evie and Sam and Phoebe run after her. But nothing is what it seems and they have no idea what is happening. No one is who they seem to be and they wonder if Lisa is still alive.The narration alternates between Phoebe today and Lisa fifteen years ago. Lisa is fascinated with the stories that her family is descended from the last remaining man of Reliance, a village that used to be in the woods near Harmony, a village where everyone just disappeared. Phoebe has her own issues as she had a bad childhood and has nightmares of a shadow man that would come through a trap door under her bed.This story was captivating, dark, and very mysterious. There were so many twists and turns that I didn't know who to trust and what to believe. This was less a supernatural novel than a thriller yet a disturbing fairy-tale like story. It was almost like following a treasure map and even when I got to the end, I'm not sure what I found but I did have the shivers.This is the second McMahon novel I read, after Promise Not to Tell. While I enjoyed that one, this one really went up a couple of notches. I could not put this down and it stayed with me even after I was done.I highly recommend this one!my rating 5/5
    • 2/5
      This book had a few flaws that kept it from being fantastic. I still enjoyed reading it and would recommend it particularly to V.C. Andrews fans as it has the same combination of dark family secrets and Gothic elements. The characters were well done; that was definitely one of its strengths. Where it fails is in its combination of the supernatural and reality which can be tricky for a writer to pull off. The author didn't seem decided on whether or not the characters believed in the supernatural elements. I can see a character believing strongly one way or the other or not knowing if they believe or not but these characters seemed to change from page to page and that made it a less satisfying read.
    • 5/5
      Really enjoyed this one. Whimsical ,yet frightening. Kept me turning the pages.
    • 1/5
      This book held my attention somewhat. At least enough to finish it. I kept waiting for the story to clarify but t just continued to be convaluted. Not worth the paper it't written on.
    • 5/5
      An Early Reviewer win. (And I have to say that when I read about this book, I felt like it was written just for me.)Twelve-year-old Lisa lives near the town of Reliance. Reliance no longer exists except as ruins though since the whole place, everyone in it, the animals, all just disappeared one day. Except for one baby. Lisa is not that baby--she's far too young for that. But she is convinced that fairies live in Reliance. She's seen them. She's gotten presents from them. And she knows that one day she will be Queen of the Fairies. And then she disappears, just like Reliance.Years later, Lisa's brother, Sam, and his girlfriend Phoebe receive a call from someone claiming to be Lisa, home from Fairyland. Phoebe grew up convinced that something was waiting for her, something that came through trapdoors under beds, something she didn't want to let in.Sam doesn't know about Phoebe's childhood terrors. And he doesn't believe Lisa became Queen of the Fairies. But he does want to know what happened to his older sister.I loved this book. It plays hard with our ideas of fairies. In the wayback longago (I just invented that era), fairies were scary things, beings without souls who would take children away and leave sickly fairy children, changelings, who would undoubtedly die in a short time. (In some stories, the children were even made of sticks and leaves). These were not Disney's fairies. (Although Tinkerbell wasn't really that nice even in Disney's version of Peter Pan.) Fairies were immoral and we could never understand their motives. The were the other, the ultimate outsider. They weren't little flower-clad children with wings. And while Lisa may have an image more akin to Barker's flower fairies, the hints we're given about them assure us that there are not your daughters' fairies. I alternated between being unable to put this book down and not wanting to finish it. I not only didn't want it to be over, but I didn't want to find out that fairies weren't behind Lisa's disappearance. I didn't care how immoral or evil they might be, I didn't care that they kidnapped a little girl. I just wanted the fairies to be real. But you know, even if the fairies weren't real (and I'm not sayin' one way or the other), it was a damn good read.
    • 5/5
      Don't Breathe a Word is the third Jennifer McMahon book I've read. I loved Promise Not to Tell and was highly disappointed by Dismantled. So, this really could've gone either way for me. Not only because of my previous thoughts on her book, but also because I've been going through a bit of a reading slump lately, so it's been taking a lot longer than usual for me to be impressed by a book. Luckily for everyone involved, I loved Don't Breathe a Word (and am completely cured from my reading slump). Don't Breathe a Word is a novel that is VERY hard to classify because it has a little bit of everything. It's a horror, fantasy, psychological thriller, fairy-tale, and so many more things. Usually when an author throws everything but the kitchen sink in a book I get annoyed because very rarely is it done well. But in this book, it was done extremely well. I enjoyed all of the elements embedded in it and it didn't make the book seem like the author couldn't choose which direction she wanted to go in and just decided 'to hell with it'. While all of those genres are my favorites, I definitely enjoyed the horror and the psychological thriller aspects of it. This novel is creepy. Seriously, chill up your spine type of creepy. The weird thing is that Don't Breathe a Word didn't affect me when it got all dark and shadow-like at night, but it freaked me out during the daytime. I was alone in the house and getting a pen from my bedroom when I heard this huge, house-shaking type of grumbling sound. My first irrational thought was "Oh my God, it's Teilo, the King of the Fairies." I kid you not. It just popped into my head and then I rolled my eyes at my own stupidity (of course it being May 21st, 2011 my second irrational thought was "Those people are right. The world is ending!" A second eye-roll occurred.) I think I was so creeped out because we're taught as little kids that fairies are these cute, sweet, yet somewhat mischievious magical creatures (Tinkerbell, anyone?). Yet in this book, they seem very malevolent and for some reason, that scared the hell out of me. However, my absolute favorite part of the book (in that whole "what the hell? Can this be more disturbing?!" kind of way) were the family dynamics between all of the characters. It was seriously twisted. So much that I had no idea what the hell was going on most of the time and what imagined was not even half as bad as what actually occurred. In fact, that may have been more creepy than the evil fairies. All in all, I highly recommend Don't Breathe a Word. It's creepy, twisted, unpredictable (and this is coming from someone who tends to predict everything that happens in these types of novels), and one hell of a page-turner. If you're going through a particular brutal reading slump, pick this up. If you're not going through a particular brutal reading slump, pick it up anyway. You won't be disappointed.
    • 5/5
      Any book that keeps me reading incessantly for 2 days has to be rated 5 stars in my book. I seriously could not put this book down! I had never thought of fairies as evil or creepy until I started this book. Lisa, Evie, and Sam were all young children 15 years ago when they started to have contact with the fairies that lived in the woods. Many years before that, a small village had reportedly disappeared overnight in the woods and nobody knew what had happened to the people. After Lisa (then 12) went missing (stolen by the Fairy King?), Sam and Evie were left not knowing exactly what had happened until Lisa made contact with them and seemingly reappeared from the land of the fairies. Each character in the story had their own secrets regarding their role in Lisa's disappearance which they hadn't shared with the others, including the primary character, Phoebe, who just happened to come upon the town after Lisa had been abducted. Throughout the entire story, the reader is left not knowing what to think? Is this a fantasy book about fairies or did something more human and evil take place in the woods many years ago? This "fairy tale" was magical, intoxicating, creepy, and thrilling. Though the book left some threads hanging and the character development wasn't very deep, the constant movement as the story unwound from alternating viewpoints (past and the present) kept the action moving at a breakneck pace. I was enraptured by this story and would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a little whimsy and a suspenseful and creepy storyline to keep them up at night!
    • 2/5
      Don't Breathe a Word is the story of the disappearance of Lisa, a young girl who lives near the abandoned village of Reliance. When a mysterious note is discovered supposedly from Lisa, the mystery begins to be revealed.When I started reading this book, I was expecting a nice, light, fantasy novel. This is not what I got.This book started off really well. However, as the novel progressed, it got very strange. I was very frustrated at times. Some clues were obvious, yet the characters in the novel took FOREVER to figure them out. Despite this, I was unable to predict the ending. Occasionally, I had a hard time keeping the clues and facts straight, and there were jumps in logic that seemed unrealistic. Some of the events that occurred in the novel would be impossible in practice (ones that were supposed to be possible without supernatural help).Also, I was not happy with ending. The whole plot line was huge and deep and confusing. The end was a disappointment. Some awful things happened to Lisa, as well as the other characters in the book. It was hard to read at times.While I found this book riveting, the ending ruined the book for me. However, if you enjoy a good mystery, this book should definitely be on your "to-read" list.
    • 2/5
      There was always something a little bit odd about the small town of Harmony, Vermont. It’s proximity to Reliance, where all the residents, save one crying baby, disappeared in one day didn’t help its reputation. But it was home to Lisa, Sam and their cousin Eve. Lisa was always fascinated by fairies – what little girl isn’t? But her stories began to include a dark fairy king who wanted to take her to be his queen – then, one evening she walked into the woods behind her house and disappeared. Fifteen years later Lisa’s mysterious fairy book reappears and Sam begins getting telephone calls from someone claiming to be Lisa. Could it truly be Lisa or some cruel hoax?

      The story sounds intriguing doesn’t it? In many respects it was, and it managed to keep me enthralled for about 2/3 of the book. Then the story began taking so many different twists and turns (which I usually do not mind), but I could get past the feeling that Ms. McMahon had many plot ideas she wanted to explore and tried to fit them in to the last third of this book. I lost a little bit of interest and found myself skimming just to get it read. That didn’t do the book justice, so when I got the end I was a bit disappointed.
    • 4/5
      Excellent book! What starts as a whimsical fairy tale takes a dark turn. Characters are complex, flawed, and so interesting. Couldn't put it down.
    • 4/5
      This was one of several books I checked out from the library recently after seeing ads for it on Goodreads. I'm glad I did, as this was a perfect blend of mystery and fairy tale that kept my guessing even after I was finished with it. There was a startling twist every few pages and I never could figure out what was coming next. I plan on checking out the rest of the author's books and I'm really glad I discovered her.
    • 4/5
      In a word, weird. This book started out very weird, a little too off-the-wall for me. I thought, "Here we go." but then it evolved into this intriguing mystery that I couldn't put down. I needed to know what in the world was going on and then after every twist and turn imaginable, it came to an end that I didn't like but I guess it fit the bill.Would I recommend this book? I would but I'd forewarn the reader that's weird.
    • 4/5
      I want to say this was a fantasy story but I’m held up by reality on this one. Did I like this book? Yes and no. Yes, in that the story was well paced, full of twists, and slightly disturbing in a way that makes you keep reading because you must absolutely know what happens and are afraid to put the book down for fear of not finding out. No, in that sometimes reality is too disturbing and you want to walk away and forget what you read and imagined and go back to a life happy without disturbing images in your head. Lisa is an imaginative child so much so that she not only imagines but believes she has found the fairy king in the woods behind her house. Woods full of strange tales, horror stories, and dilapidated stone homes. When she goes missing, there’s more to the story of a girl and a fairy king and it’s so much more disturbing than anyone, especially her brother, may have wanted to imagine. Her brother, now a man in his twenties happy in his life and relationship with his girlfriend, Phoebe, Sam would rather forget parts of his childhood and move on but it’s not meant to happen. When a woman claiming to be his sister appears saying she’s returned from the land of the fairies, the simple life Sam and Phoebe have together is ruined. Sometimes when you’re reading, especially a story about a young girl gone missing, you know it’s going to turn out badly and all that was at work was sad, despicable, human behavior. But sometimes you also want to believe there is another fantasy world where she could have been taken and McMahon does a good job of making you really wonder about that. Is it all an elaborate ruse to fool you and hide psychotic behavior? Why can’t there be a happy ending here? I can tell you, without ruining anything, there is no happy ending here and yes, at times you will find yourself repulsed by the characters behavior. You’ll be uncomfortable with the lies they yield and live. You’ll be utterly disgusted and disturbed by what they do. Sadly, it’s also compelling and I’ll admit I had a hard time reading and putting this book down. That’s also what’s making me a little wishy-washy on this. Did I not like it because it made me uncomfortable? Well written books should do that to a certain extent. But ultimately, I can’t say I loved it and I don’t honestly know if it was because of the subject matter. Having a visceral reaction to something I read doesn’t mean it’s not good if my reaction was negative, does it? Either way this book gets credit for holding me nearly hostage for several hours to finish it before my heart stopped pounding. If nothing else, McMahon knows how to get hold of a reader.
    • 5/5
      I loved how the story alternated between past and present! It's a psychological thriller, a fantasy,and a fairy-tale that will keep you on the edge of your seat! The characters are well written and very likable.It also has strange dark really creepy characters that will make you want to scream! The story is enchanting,unpredictable and at times Down right eerie!It's A great read! I highly recommend it and look forward in reading more of Jennifer McMahon's books. ♥:
    • 2/5
      What do I think? It's written well enough(but in a disjointed way, due to chapter by chapter changes in time frame) but, honestly, I wish I had never read it. It's creepy as heck and a really unpleasant story.
    • 4/5
      Jennifer McMahon has become a master of suspense. Her stories are unique and intense. In that regard, this one is no different.Before Lisa disappears, at age 12, she tells her younger brother Sam a fairy tale where she is the Queen of the Fairies. He never believed in fairies but remembers this, and her disappearance, as he grows into a practical solid young man.Now grown, Sam and his girlfriend Phoebe, receive a strange call that leads to odd events. Phoebe grows increasingly concerned, while Sam is confused. He begins to question everything he thought he knew. Suddenly he is forced to reckon with a promise he made long ago, as it comes back to haunt him.In alternating chapters, we are told this story by Lisa, fifteen years ago, and Phoebe in present day. It is a story of mixed suspense, fantasy, and psychological thriller. It will keep you guessing and wondering. When all is said and done, the book is a bit disturbing and unnerving, which I believe it is meant to be.
    • 3/5
      Missing children and fairies. This novel alternates between current time and the time that the little girl Lisa disappeared. Apparently, the fairies took her. Or she went with the fairies willingly. Or she was kidnapped. Whatever happened, she is gone, and modern-day Phoebe is in love with Lisa's now-grown brother, Sam, and is dragged into the mystery..This sounded like an exciting book, but it just dragged on too long. I thought I'd never stop reading about the dang fairies. The six-fingered glove, and multiple dysfunctional families. The tale was rather convoluted, and I occasionally had to stop and think about who did what to whom. The story got quite dark towards the end, but I really didn't care much about the characters and the suspense certainly didn't keep me reading until the wee hours of the morning.
    • 3/5
      To be honest, I've had mixed emotions with this book from the get go. I didn't like the prologue and it took a while for things to get interesting, but when they did I found myself wanting to keep going. Things never play out the way you’d expect in this story and I think that is truly what makes it worth a read.“Don’t Breathe a Word” of Lisa, a twelve year old girl who went missing in the woods behind her house. Lisa was a young girl that believed in fairy tales and fairies, things...moreTo be honest, I've had mixed emotions with this book from the get go. I didn't like the prologue and it took a while for things to get interesting, but when they did I found myself wanting to keep going. Things never play out the way you’d expect in this story and I think that is truly what makes it worth a read.“Don’t Breathe a Word” of Lisa, a twelve year old girl who went missing in the woods behind her house. Lisa was a young girl that believed in fairy tales and fairies, things children like to believe in, but it’s those very things that cause trouble in her life. But it’s not just her life that gets turned upside down, her beliefs – they impact her family, too.While I may have disliked “Don’t Breathe a Word” in the beginning, the payoff at the end made me change my mind. Jennifer McMahon crafts a lovely mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Not everything is what it appears to be.
    • 2/5
      In Jennifer McMahon’s latest, a young girl, Lisa, disappears - supposedly whisked away to the fairy world by the Teilo, King of the Fairies, though few believe it. Fast forward fifteen years, and the girl’s now-adult brother, Sam, is confronted by his past: a strange book reappears after years of absence, as well as sudden mysterious phone calls and people from his past. Something strange is going on, and Sam and his girlfriend Phoebe determine to get to the bottom of things, even if it means uncovering family secrets.Told in third person, but alternating perspectives between the pas (as seen from Lisa’s perspective), and the present day (as seen from the perspective of Phoebe), this is a story with lots of twists and turns, suspense and mystery.What I liked was the “page-turner” aspect of the book, and of course the suspense of wanting to find out “what-really-happened”. What did happen to Lisa? Was it really fairies? Or did something far less-supernatural occur?What I had a harder time with in the book was the lack of character development, some muddying of the plot after the halfway mark, some unresolved twists and turns at the end, and generally wondering what the point of this whole story is meant to convey. Yes, it is perfectly fine to have a book that is just somewhat fun and quick to read, and completely escapist, and this is definitely one of them. But, this wasn’t my favorite escapist read ever, and I probably wouldn’t recommend it.
    • 4/5
      Twelve-year-old Lisa loves fairy tales. One summer night, she tells her brother, Sam, that she is going to meet the king of the faeries and become his queen. Once she leaves the house, Sam never sees or hears from her again. Fifteen years later, Sam and his girlfriend, Phoebe, receive a strange call from someone claiming to be Lisa. She says she has returned from Fairyland and they are to meet her at the old town in the woods where she disappeared from all those years ago.The book alternates between present day and fifteen years ago as it slowly reveals what Lisa experienced on the days before her disappearance, and what Sam and his girlfriend Phoebe are going through as they prepare for her “return”. This book is in no way a cute little fairy tale. It is dark, mysterious, supernatural and very creepy. It’s rife with mystery, family secrets, and supernatural elements. You never know where the story is headed. As soon as you think you have it figured out, it takes another twist. It balances on a precarious cliff between being believable and totally ridiculous, and that is what makes it work so well. This is an Adult fiction book, but older teens may enjoy it. I wouldn’t recommend it for younger teens.(Advanced Readers Copy courtesy of NetGalley)
    • 3/5
      If I had stopped reading halfway through, I would have regretted it. Halfway throughI wasn't sure what the story was meant to be. I only knew that the one character that I found appealing was dead.That never changed.A young girl walks into the woods and vanishes. She was twelve when it happened and she left behind a younger brother, a cousin and a mother. There was a search, but she was never found. Fast forward fifteen years. The brother, Sam, is a man now, and oddly, his significant other is a young wman who had made her way to the town where he had lived as a boy, to see what there was to see when the young girl vanished. She is older than he is, and had left her own home to find her own life. Her name is Phoebe. Phoebe has never told Sam of her visit to his home town. She never told him that once there, she saw him through a window. That she was in the woods where his sister had once played then vanished was a secret too. The book is filled with secrets. We time travel often in this book.. back to when Sam was a boy, and back to the present where he is a grown man, trying to carry on with his life. Things begin to happen in the present that are echoes of the past. Evil echoes. Sam isn't sure what to believe, or who to trust. Phoebe is a great keeper of secrets. There are some she should have told. But she never breathed a word.
    • 3/5
      A young girl disappears in the woods, leaving no real clues where she’s gone or who might have taken her. She told her brother and cousin she was going to live with the King of Fairies. It couldn’t be true, could it? Except her brother had chased after fairy bells in the woods, too.Fifteen years later, Lisa is still missing. Her brother, Sam, hasn’t gotten over her disappearance. His girlfriend, Phoebe, has her own suspicions about fairies. When they receive a mysterious call that leads them to Lisa’s Book of Fairies, they reunite with Sam’s cousin, Evie, at a remote cabin. Evie “knows” things, including that Phoebe may be pregnant. An old woman shows up at the door, singing Lisa’s childhood songs, only to stab Evie and run off, stripping off a disguise and revealing she’s a young woman. Phoebe and Sam give chase, but the young woman tells police the couple abducted her. Back at the cabin, there’s no trace Phoebe and Sam stayed there and no sign of Evie.Once home, Phoebe and Sam discover the Evie they met at the cabin isn’t the real Evie. They find themselves drawn deeper and deeper into the mystery of Lisa’s disappearance. Was she taken by the King of the Fairies? Or was a more sinister, all-too-human villain behind her disappearance?The bones of a good story lie beneath Jennifer McMahon’s Don’t Breathe a Word. What starts off as a young teen’s desire to believe in something magical, to be something more than ordinary pick up a sinister undertone as the plot progresses. As McMahon writes, “What if things happened to you—special, magic things—because you’d been preparing for them? What if by believing you opened a door?”Chapters flip between Phoebe’s investigation into Lisa’s disappearance and 15 years earlier to Lisa’s attempts to contact the Fairy King. The chapters from Lisa’s point of view are stronger. McMahon does well when writing about the transition to being an adult while wanting to cling to parts of childhood like believing in fairies. Her teen and preteen characters are believable, making mistakes and assumptions that real teens would. The plot in these chapters is a bit muddy at times, but that can be excused by gaps in Lisa’s knowledge of her family’s history.The Phoebe chapters are more problematic, with some inconsistencies in how characters act and one too many plot twists and reverses. A hint of deus ex machina in the form of a late-introduced character to provide answers doesn’t help.As those answers come, the end of the novel feels rushed as information is dumped on the reader through a discovered diary. The full scenes McMahon was able to portray of the young Lisa give way to quick flashes and hints of scenes that may have played better if more fully developed.
    • 4/5
      “Once you go through that door out there, you can’t come back, no matter how bad you might want to.”Twelve year old Lisa went missing in the woods behind her house 15 years ago and was never found. That summer, Lisa, her brother Sam, and their cousin Evie, were beginning to hear strange sounds emanating from the woods, the site of the abruptly abandoned town, Reliance. Locals whispered that the Devil lived there, and many said they heard bells ringing, muttering in a language no one could recognize, and some saw green mists in the shape of body. Legends claimed that there was a door that led to another place, a place where Lisa believed that she would meet Teilo, The King of the Fairies. “What if things happened to you—special, magic things—because you’d been preparing for them? What if by believing, you opened a door?”15 years after Lisa’s disappearance, Sam and his girlfriend, Phoebe, receive a mysterious phone call from a frightened girl instructing them on the hiding place of a book no one has seen since that fateful summer—The Book of Fairies. Who was the girl? Why was she frightened? What did she know?As Sam and Phoebe scramble to find the answers, and learn once and for all what happened to Lisa so many years before, they will have to untangle the web of lies they’ve been told, and figure out who they can trust in a crime that is steeped in myth and fable. “Storytelling wasn’t about making things up. It was more like inviting the stories to come through her, let themselves be told.”A skeptic of all things supernatural, Sam believes that Lisa’s disappearance had nothing to do with fairies, or silly stories told by mothers to keep their children out of the forest. But Phoebe knows about things that go bump in the night, of haunted and hunted people, of doors that shouldn’t open, but nevertheless, do. Jennifer McMahon does a wonderful job of balancing the supernatural and realistic throughout this darkly atmospheric novel of the loss of innocence and the corruption of a soul. The suspense builds to an explosive climax, maintained throughout this long tale. Though rereading some passages was necessary, this is a fast read; I finished it in a day, simply because I could not put it down. At the end, it is certain the reader will come away with more questions than answers, which makes it an even better read.
    • 4/5
      Summary: Phoebe and Sam don't talk a lot about their pasts - Phoebe because of her dangerously unstable mother, Sam because of his sister, Lisa. Lisa disappeared the summer that she was twelve and Sam was ten, the same summer that she was obsessed with fairies. She claimed she'd found a doorway to Faerie in a ruined house in the woods behind their Vermont home, and that Teilo, the King of the Fairies, would meet her there and take her away to be his queen. When she disappeared, some people believed that she really had been abducted by fairies, but Sam has always maintained that it was a thoroughly un-supernatural kidnapping. Until now: fifteen years later, when he and his girlfriend Phoebe start receiving notes and calls with information that only Lisa could know. And then strange things start happening that make them wonder if Teilo is real after all... real and coming back to claim his end of some long-forgotten bargains.Review: There are a lot - a lot - of fairy-related books on the market at the moment. But Don't Breathe a Word is the first that I've read that takes the skeptic's point of view, and as such, the first that I've read that I think would appeal more to mystery/thriller fans than fantasy buffs (although fantasy readers will certainly enjoy its take on the genre conventions, as well). The book is told in alternating chapters from Phoebe's point of view, and flashbacks to Lisa's point of view during the summer before she disappears, and McMahon does an excellent job at ratcheting up the tension in both storylines to a fever pitch, and maintaining it at that level throughout the book. Everything and everyone is just a little shady, a smidge of not-quite-right, a half-degree shift away from normal, that you can't ever figure out who to trust, or what's really going on. I absolutely loved the fact that as I read, I couldn't ever decide whether or not I thought there really were fairies, or if the explanation was something more mundane - both explanations seemed simultaneously completely implausible and yet the only possible explanation. It's a hell of a balancing act, keeping the reader constantly second-guessing everything they thought they knew, and McMahon pulls it off right through the very last page. Her prose is not the smoothest I've ever read, and there are places where the writing got noticeably choppy or info-dump-ish. Likewise, her characterizations were not always particularly deep or multi-layered, and sometimes the characters seemed to be keeping secrets or acting like jerks for no good reason. But even when I noticed these things, they didn't really bother me; I was far too hooked by the story. 4 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: I think if you go in expecting either a straight-up fantasy novel or a straight-up mystery, you're going to be disappointed. This book vacillates between the two, and if you want a book with a clear genre, that vacillation might be seen as a weakness. But if you're looking for a book that can flirt with the conventions of both, while using that uncertainty of genre as a means of building suspense, then definitely give Don't Breathe a Word a chance.
    • 4/5
      I first discovered Jennifer McMahon when I reviewed her novel, Island of Lost Girls, back in 2008.Her latest book, Don't Breathe A Word, is a page turning thriller, drawing again on the exploration of past influencing present, and how childhood beliefs shape the future. But, boy oh boy, does she do it in a very creepy fashion!Fifteen years separate the two stories being told. In the past, Lisa, her brother Sam and cousin Evie all lived in the small Vermont town of Harmony. They often played in the woods behind their house. And in those woods there once was a small village called Reliance. All that is left are the stone foundations. Or is it? It is said that all the residents simply vanished one day, leaving only a baby crying in his cradle - Sam and Lisa's great grandfather. And then Lisa vanishes too.... "Three nights ago, she went into the woods behind her house and never came out again. She said there was a door in those woods, somewhere in the ruins of an old town long abandoned. She told her little brother she'd met the King of the Fairies and he was going to take her home to be his queen." Phoebe is just drifting through Harmony that day and follows a strange little girl into the woods to 'just have a look'.Fast forward 15 years. Sam and Phoebe are lovers, a chance meeting bringing them together before Phoebe realizes who Sam really was. When Lisa's 'fairy book' resurfaces and they start receiving calls from someone claiming to be Lisa, the past is reopened, re-explored and remembered in alternating chapters, past and present.When we're little we pretend there are fairies and fairytales enthrall us. But some of them are frightening as well. "You know how sometimes, sometimes when you're just sitting there, you catch this movement in the corner of your eye - just a shadow, really - and you blink, sure you imagined it?"What if those tales were based on reality? Or could it be some lowlife using those tales to lure a girl away?I have to say that McMahon kept me guessing right up until the very last page. One moment I was convinced the story was headed one way, only to be proven wrong in the next chapter. A truly odd mixture of suspense, thriller, mystery and fantasy. But intriguing? Oh yes!On a sidenote, I've always been intriged by McMahon's choice of cover art. All of her novels involve children and each cover has featured a child with striking eyes that seem to look right at you.