anetq's review against another edition
4.0
This is a novel about unimaginable grief and how people try to live with it: Out main character has lost her son to suicide - without any explication or warning signs. Her husbond has delved into conspiracy theories to find an explanation. She swims and goes to the bridge her son jumped off in a daily ritual. One day she saves another teenager about to jump off the bridge - and this might have turned into a story about consolation and dealing with grief, but there is that pesky detail about the bloody clothes he's wearing... This is also very much a crime mystery and there will be blood!
Very nicely written and again; like the best of the scots - a crime novel with different motivations and background story than the run of the mill psycho killer.
Very nicely written and again; like the best of the scots - a crime novel with different motivations and background story than the run of the mill psycho killer.
sarahs_bookish_life's review against another edition
4.0
Ellie is a mother that is still very much trying to come to terms with the loss of her son who jumped off a bridge to his death at the tender age of fifteen. To lose a child is awful but to lose one to suicide must be torture. The never knowing why and constantly thinking if there's more that you could have done. My heart ached for her and what she is going through.
When she comes across Sam who is about to do the exact same thing as her Logan, Ellie for some reason thinks she is getting a second chance and she very much intends for it to not end in the same way. I don't think Ellie realises quite what she has got herself into but either way she is determined to be Sam's guardian angel and she finds herself involving herself in things that really would be best left to the police.
As the author is from Scotland and so far all the books I have read of his have all been based there. It actually felt quite atmospheric and it felt like I was with Ellie at the bridge experiencing the sights, sounds and smells as well as her emotions all for myself.
The Jump is yet another good read from this author. The story is full of mystery and suspense and I felt like I was on tender hooks all through out the book. Very much looking forward to reading more of the authors books.
When she comes across Sam who is about to do the exact same thing as her Logan, Ellie for some reason thinks she is getting a second chance and she very much intends for it to not end in the same way. I don't think Ellie realises quite what she has got herself into but either way she is determined to be Sam's guardian angel and she finds herself involving herself in things that really would be best left to the police.
As the author is from Scotland and so far all the books I have read of his have all been based there. It actually felt quite atmospheric and it felt like I was with Ellie at the bridge experiencing the sights, sounds and smells as well as her emotions all for myself.
The Jump is yet another good read from this author. The story is full of mystery and suspense and I felt like I was on tender hooks all through out the book. Very much looking forward to reading more of the authors books.
booksavvyreviews's review against another edition
4.0
"But how could you pay attention to the world
when you were barely in it?"
This book touches on a horrifically difficult topic, which is suicide. A difficult thing in and of itself, but add into the equation that this novel is about a 15-year-old boy named Logan who previously had exhibited no signs of depression or any 'cries of help,' he leaped off a bridge and left his parents in the devastating wake.
Ellie and Ben are the struggling parents of Logan. It's been six months since the jump and while they're alive it's clear that they are not living. Both have taken on neurotic habits, Ellie especially, but it's due to her neurotic routine that she is able to rescue Sam, a desperate 17-year-old, from the same demise as her son. Suicide.
Ellie sees something in Sam, something she wants to save and maybe she has to. But she isn't prepared for the tangled mess that encompasses Sam or his family and that this second chance is going to be far more difficult than she had anticipated.
This is the first piece of work I've read from Johnstone and I have to say he made this an emotionally driven read, you could feel all of their pain. Add in the twists and turns that this tale takes it surprises you until the very end. I didn't see the near ending coming at all!
I truly enjoyed the ending, too. I felt like that was a huge positive shift in the mood. Hope. Life. Change for good.
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scotsbookworm's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic! It's been a while since I have read a book which has had me hooked from the first page but this one certainly did.
Kept me hooked throughout with a couple of twists and turns I didn't expect.
Being Scottish, having visited the area where the booked was based, driven the Forth Road Bridge many a time it was lovely being able to vision everywhere the author wrote about.
This is the first novel I have read by this author and won't be my last.
Highly recommend to fans of crime.
Kept me hooked throughout with a couple of twists and turns I didn't expect.
Being Scottish, having visited the area where the booked was based, driven the Forth Road Bridge many a time it was lovely being able to vision everywhere the author wrote about.
This is the first novel I have read by this author and won't be my last.
Highly recommend to fans of crime.
asthornton's review against another edition
4.0
I had very little in the way of expectations for this book. I knew the synopsis and knew I had to read it by August 1. When I started it last week I certainly didn’t expect to finish it in a day. This is the perfect thriller/suspense novel for someone with a short attention span (that would be me). Johnstone wastes no time getting to the plot, and each page turn has new plot reveals, more excellent character development, and invokes more stress on the reader (WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO THESE PEOPLE!??).
Here are some of the things that I loved:
1. Johnstone made the main character, Ellie, who lost her son 6 months ago to suicide, a perfect amount of emotionally unstable/irrational. Her attachment to the boy she prevents from jumping off the same bridge her son jumped off of is a little intense. But in a totally realistic sense. No normal woman would have gotten herself in the mess that Ellie got herself into in this novel.
2. The marriage. I figured this novel would depict the remnants of a family who have lost their one and only child the same way most do: circling the drain. They certainly (and understandably) had their issues, but I love how their storyline resolved.
3. As I mentioned before, this novel is a quick read. The length of it is perfect! Long enough to include all the details without bogging the story down. To me, there were no wasted words.
I would definitely recommend this to any lover of thriller/suspense novels.
raven88's review against another edition
5.0
The Jump, immediately draws us into the world of Ellie, a middle-aged woman struggling to come to terms with the seemingly inexplicable suicide of her teenage son, Logan, and the fractured relationship this has caused within her marriage to Ben. Living in the shadow of the Forth Bridge, where Logan ended his life, and succeeding in talking down another suicidal teenager, Sam, Ellie finds herself with a second chance in helping Sam, and gaining some kind of redemption from the sadness that defines her life. However, in becoming so closely involved with him, and his younger sister, Libby, Ellie becomes enmeshed in a family that is filled with secrets, far darker and more dangerous than she can possibly imagine…
When people decry genre fiction as somehow not being as worthy or the compare of ‘literary fiction’, I have no hesitation in drawing their attention to books such as this. The Jump possesses an emotional intensity and sensitivity that is rarely encountered in any genre, harnessing emotional, and by their very nature, contentious issues that many writers in the ‘literary’ field would struggle to address in such an affecting way as Johnstone achieves. Obviously, the book is very much centred on the theme of suicide, both the causes of, and the aftermath for, those left behind by this devastating act, and in the character of Ellie, Johnstone personifies all the linked emotions, doubts and blame that those left behind have to process. I loved the marked difference that Ellie and her husband exhibit in their reactions to the loss of their son, and the way that they too are faced with a leap of faith to restore their relationship to what it once was. Also with the interaction between Ellie and troubled teenager Sam, Johnstone blurs the lines between Ellie’s response to him as a mother, and a strange sense of sensuality, not sexuality, that seems to permeate their relationship. As we discover more about Sam, and his family (no spoilers from me), Ellie seems to undergo a marked change, and discovers a real inner core of strength that has been suppressed by her grief, and her journey back to her former resilience is moving throughout. With so much of the weight of the plot and the emotional issues therein on her shoulders, there was always a chance that Johnstone may have strayed down the route of mawkish sentimentality. He doesn’t, and must be applauded for his very sensitive, and most importantly, utterly real characterisation that Ellie embodies. As the plot unfolds into a very dark tale indeed, this sense of brutal reality persists, and is both shocking and redemptive in equal measure.
Another facet of the book that I enjoyed greatly was the absolute attention to sense of place, that Johnstone consistently shows in the book. With the incredibly visual depiction of this small riverside community, dwarfed by the architectural scale of the bridge itself, and the threatening power of this mass of water, Johnstone also draws a contrast of the smallness of our lives in the face of nature. His description of the life of the river and its environs, and man’s attempts to harness it, raises some interesting questions on our place within the natural world, but equally how the power of nature can provide succour in times of emotional uncertainty. I thought the description of Ellie’s wild swimming, where she sheds her land-bound skin, almost like a folkloric Selkie, to calm her restless spirit, was incredibly effective, and how this physical and, at times, perilous act brought her a closer connection with her son. It was beautifully done, and further ingrained in the reader’s sensibility the inescapable link that the water holds for Ellie in all spheres of her life.
You know how you sometimes encounter a book that just swirls around your consciousness in the wake of its reading, and pops back into your head at odd moments- well, this is most definitely one of those. The Jump is one of the most emotive and intense books it’s been my pleasure to read, and despite the weighty issues it explores, and the inherent sadness within its pages, ultimately one of the most satisfying. A brave, yet sometimes difficult, subject wonderfully handled. Prepare to be moved.
When people decry genre fiction as somehow not being as worthy or the compare of ‘literary fiction’, I have no hesitation in drawing their attention to books such as this. The Jump possesses an emotional intensity and sensitivity that is rarely encountered in any genre, harnessing emotional, and by their very nature, contentious issues that many writers in the ‘literary’ field would struggle to address in such an affecting way as Johnstone achieves. Obviously, the book is very much centred on the theme of suicide, both the causes of, and the aftermath for, those left behind by this devastating act, and in the character of Ellie, Johnstone personifies all the linked emotions, doubts and blame that those left behind have to process. I loved the marked difference that Ellie and her husband exhibit in their reactions to the loss of their son, and the way that they too are faced with a leap of faith to restore their relationship to what it once was. Also with the interaction between Ellie and troubled teenager Sam, Johnstone blurs the lines between Ellie’s response to him as a mother, and a strange sense of sensuality, not sexuality, that seems to permeate their relationship. As we discover more about Sam, and his family (no spoilers from me), Ellie seems to undergo a marked change, and discovers a real inner core of strength that has been suppressed by her grief, and her journey back to her former resilience is moving throughout. With so much of the weight of the plot and the emotional issues therein on her shoulders, there was always a chance that Johnstone may have strayed down the route of mawkish sentimentality. He doesn’t, and must be applauded for his very sensitive, and most importantly, utterly real characterisation that Ellie embodies. As the plot unfolds into a very dark tale indeed, this sense of brutal reality persists, and is both shocking and redemptive in equal measure.
Another facet of the book that I enjoyed greatly was the absolute attention to sense of place, that Johnstone consistently shows in the book. With the incredibly visual depiction of this small riverside community, dwarfed by the architectural scale of the bridge itself, and the threatening power of this mass of water, Johnstone also draws a contrast of the smallness of our lives in the face of nature. His description of the life of the river and its environs, and man’s attempts to harness it, raises some interesting questions on our place within the natural world, but equally how the power of nature can provide succour in times of emotional uncertainty. I thought the description of Ellie’s wild swimming, where she sheds her land-bound skin, almost like a folkloric Selkie, to calm her restless spirit, was incredibly effective, and how this physical and, at times, perilous act brought her a closer connection with her son. It was beautifully done, and further ingrained in the reader’s sensibility the inescapable link that the water holds for Ellie in all spheres of her life.
You know how you sometimes encounter a book that just swirls around your consciousness in the wake of its reading, and pops back into your head at odd moments- well, this is most definitely one of those. The Jump is one of the most emotive and intense books it’s been my pleasure to read, and despite the weighty issues it explores, and the inherent sadness within its pages, ultimately one of the most satisfying. A brave, yet sometimes difficult, subject wonderfully handled. Prepare to be moved.
heatherreadsbooks's review
4.0
Struggling to come to terms with the suicide of her teenage son, Ellie lives in the shadows of the Forth Road Bridge, lingering on its footpaths and swimming in the waters below. One day she talks down another suicidal teenager, Sam, and sees for herself a shot at redemption, the chance to atone for her son's death. But even with the best intentions, she can't foresee the situation she's falling headlong into - a troubled family, with some very dark secrets of their own.
The Jump is emotionally charged and addictive. Tut as you might at Ellie's actions and harshness on others, the terrible way in which she handles certain situations, the mad places she puts herself in, you have to know what happened. Have to.
Despite being a morbid and grim story from start to finish, there is a note of optimism, an attempt to find a second chance at life after the loss of her son. A few times you want to reach into the pages and tell her to tone down the attitude a little, but it's one hell of a blend between tugging on the heartstrings and being a page turner.
The Jump is emotionally charged and addictive. Tut as you might at Ellie's actions and harshness on others, the terrible way in which she handles certain situations, the mad places she puts herself in, you have to know what happened. Have to.
Despite being a morbid and grim story from start to finish, there is a note of optimism, an attempt to find a second chance at life after the loss of her son. A few times you want to reach into the pages and tell her to tone down the attitude a little, but it's one hell of a blend between tugging on the heartstrings and being a page turner.
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