REVIEW: Every Breath by Ellie Marney

Title: Every Breath (Every #1)

Author: Ellie Marney

Genre: Young Adult, Crime/Mystery.

Publication Date: September 2013

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Format: Paperback

Pages: 335

Rating: 5/5

Rachel Watts is an unwilling new arrival to Melbourne from the country. James Mycroft is her neighbour, an intriguingly troubled seventeen-year-old genius with a passion for forensics. Despite her misgivings, Rachel finds herself unable to resist Mycroft when he wants her help investigating a murder. And when Watts and Mycroft follow a trail to the cold-blooded killer, they find themselves in the lion's den - literally.

A night at the zoo will never have quite the same meaning again...

You know that shaking feeling you get right after you finish a really amazing book? THIS. This right here. Not only did I shake uncontrollably after finishing this book, because I finished it at about 11pm, I lay awake for half the night thinking about it. It’s been months since a book has made me feel this way.

Every Breath first caught my attention when my favourite author, Nansi Kunze, reviewed it. Nansi said ‘If you want to see how YA crime should be written, look no further than Ellie Marney’s debut novel’ and from then I decided I had to pick up the book for myself. Admittedly, it took me a little while to buy the book for myself but (unlike every other thing I own) it didn’t sit on my bookshelf for more than two weeks before I picked it up.

It started off very differently than I imagined it would, but I found that I really liked the direction that it was going. Unfortunately, I was a little bit busy on the night I started it so I didn’t get to get very far into it at all. I managed to pick it up the next night and I read the last two hundred and something pages in the space of two hours, with a little break in between for a cup of tea. I think that probably explains my feelings about this book.

In case you don’t know, Every Breath is sort of a modern day Sherlock but we have Mycroft and Watts instead of Sherlock and Watson. Rachel Watts is our main character, she’s recently moved from the country into the city. Personally, I’ve always lived on the outer suburbs of the city so I’m sort of more used to it than Rachel is but I understood how she found it difficult to settle in. James Mycroft is insane, in a good way, he’s an ‘eccentric genius’ and he is, ultimately, just like Sherlock. I love both of them so much, so much that it’s probably not healthy or normal. I found I could relate to Rachel, she’s smart and she’s not completely boy-obsessed. Mycroft, on the other hand, well...basically, I want my own James Mycroft to love forever and ever. He’s my new literary boyfriend, and I think he’s going up there with Sirius and Augustus. That’s a big deal considering I only fell in love with him a few days ago.

Moving on from Mycroft (only briefly), my absolute favourite thing about Every Breath is that I feel like it was written for me. It’s a YA crime/mystery with a hot, intelligent boy set in Melbourne. Chami/other people who know me well, does that not sound like my perfect book? Well, it is, and I loved it more than I could have ever imagined. I don’t think I can even put into proper words or quantify how much I love this book – it’s just not possible to explain.

Even writing this review now, I still feel a bit shaky and it’s been over 12 hours since I finished the book. Wow, 12 hours, does that mean I can re-read this yet? Every Breath has definitely become a new favourite, in fact, I’m thinking it’s going to be one of my all-time favourite books for the rest of my life now. If you haven’t already, you should read Every Breath and then we can all obsess over Mycroft forever (though, he’s all mine really). In advance, I’d like to apologise for all the fangirling I’m going to do about this on the blog from now until the end of time. Also, I need recommendations, because what the hell am I going to read after something this amazing?