Don't Breathe a Word

By: Jordyn Taylor

Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya, Reba Buhr

Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

"A fast-paced, exhilarating story about a boarding school shrouded in secrecy and the girl who will do anything to right the institution's wrongs." (Jessica Goodman, Indiebound best-selling author of They Wish They Were Us)

Critically acclaimed author Jordyn Taylor weaves an addictive thriller perfect for fans of Truly Devious.

Eva has never felt like she belonged...not in her own family or with her friends in New York City, and certainly not at a fancy boarding school like Hardwick Preparatory Academy. So, when she is invited to join the Fives, an elite secret society, she jumps at the opportunity to finally be a part of something.

But what if the Fives are about more than just having the best parties and receiving special privileges from the school? What if they are also responsible for keeping some of Hardwick’s biggest secrets buried?

1962:

There is only one reason why Connie would volunteer to be one of the six students to participate in testing Hardwick’s nuclear fallout shelter: Craig Allenby. While the thought of nuclear war sends her into a panic, she can’t pass up the opportunity to spend four days locked in with the school’s golden boy.

However, Connie and the other students quickly discover that there is more to this “test” than they previously thought. As they are forced to follow an escalating series of commands, Connie realizes that one wrong move could have dangerous consequences.

Separated by sixty years, Eva and Connie’s stories become inextricably intertwined as Eva unravels the mystery of how six students went into the fallout shelter all those years ago...but only five came out.

©2021 Jordyn Taylor (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Great premise and execution

A YA contemporary set in a boarding? Automatic preorder.

Though I’m closer in age to narrator Connie, the part of the story set in 1962 than Eva, the narrator for the story set in 2021, I thoroughly enjoyed DON’T BREATHE A WORD from start to finish.

In many ways, Eva and Connie are similar, both followers, eager to fit in and go along with the crowd even when the voice inside them tells them it’s wrong. Neither is a profile in courage, in the beginning.

Jordyn Taylor brilliantly wrote 1962 accurately, from first names, to teenage slang. Born in 1964, I’m a few years too young to remember hiding under desks for nuclear war drills but that and McCarthyism was recent history. I constantly wanted Connie to make better choices.

Eva’s in her first year of boarding school, sent away because her mother and stepfather never really wanted her and they didn’t tolerate her typical teenage behavior. I understood why Eva wanted to be part of the secret society, even when she knew it was a bad fit.

DON’T BREATHE A WORD is fast paced, alternating between Connie’s and Eva’s points of view. I enjoyed every minute of the story, though not a typical mystery of thriller, I was very much invested in how the story played out.

DON’T BREATHE A WORD is a must read for anyone who loves boarding schools and secret societies.

Great read!!! extremely entertaining.

Loved it !!! Well written and narrated. you'll not want to stop as it keeps you engaged.

Story was okay, narration was mixed

I found the main narrator for Eva to be really dramatic and annoying. Everything she said was so drawn out and sickeningly sweet. I liked the narrator for Connie but she was considerably less of the story. I liked the premise but wasn’t completely “wowed.” Still listened to the whole thing