A review by asthornton
The Jump by Doug Johnstone

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.