Slide by Jill Hathaway

2012 DAC

ARC courtesy of Net Galley

From Good Reads:


Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth—her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered. 

Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed “friend” when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body. 

Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can’t bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting off lately, more distant, especially now that she’s been spending more time with Zane. 

Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.


My thoughts:


I really enjoyed this book!  The concept was interesting and the story line was suspenseful and unpredictable.  Vee's ability to slide into other people's minds is both horrifying and fascinating.  


The pacing and plot of the book are well done.  Vee's gift/curse is explained  in the opening chapters of the book and the reader learns important information about Vee's sister and social scene at their high school.  Vee's  relationship with Zane, the new boy, and Rollins, her best friend, is also well developed.  This is not a romance book yet the small amount of relationship angst works well with the plot.  What I liked mostly about the book is trying to figure out who the murderer was, and the killer's true identity and motive is well hidden to the very end of the book.  


Overall, a great debut and one that I will enjoy recommending to my students.  

Pregnant Pause by Han Nolan

From Good Reads:
Nobody gets away with telling Eleanor Crowe what to do. But as a pregnant sixteen-year-old, her options are limited: move to Kenya with her missionary parents or marry the baby’s father and work at his family’s summer camp for overweight kids. 

Despite her initial reluctance to help out, Elly is surprised that she actually enjoys working with the campers. But a tragedy on the very day her baby is born starts a series of events that overwhelms Elly with unexpected emotions and difficult choices. Somehow, she must turn her usual obstinance in a direction that can ensure a future for herself—and for the new life she has created.

My thoughts:
Open this book with the cute name and cute cover and discover a moving story about sixteen year old Eleanor Crowe,who is indeed pregnant.  Unsure about whether the baby with just be a pause in her life or if the baby will forever change her life, Elly has a lot of decisions to make and growing up to do.

I really liked a lot of different aspects of this novel.  I really liked Elly to begin with.  She is honest and real and has flaws that really bring her character to life.  Elly knows she has made a lot of mistakes in her life, and even as she makes some positive changes for the baby's sake she is still an immature, child/woman who does not know what to do. Elly does not have a strong support system and that made me feel empathy for her character.  Elly's immaturity, especially with relationships, made me feel exasperated with her at times.  Finally Elly's compassion for the campers and her baby made me love her.

This story does not glamorize teen pregnancy in any way and I really liked that.  It is clear that Elly's life is forever changed, no matter what she decides to do with her baby.

While this book tackles a hard topic and does have references to sex, drug and alcohol use, it does so tactfully and in a way that I think will make people NOT want to engage in these types of behaviors.

The conclusion to this book contains several unexpected, an emotional, twists. I enjoyed the story and the find the outcome very thought provoking. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes edgy realistic fiction.

Fracture by Megan Miranda

2012 DAC 

From Good Reads:


Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it? 

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening? 

For fans of best-sellers like Before I Fall and If I Stay, this is a fascinating and heart-rending story about love and friendship and the fine line between life and death.


My thoughts:


Fracture is a great debut novel!  I found the story to be quite a page turner and I really liked the author's writing style.    Delaney's story is very interesting- from the fracture in the ice to understanding how Delaney has been changed by her accident.  


In addition to the supernatural elements of Delaney's strange ability to predict death, the story has a nice amount of relationship and family dynamic issues.  For example, Delaney feelings for her best friend and neighbor, Decker.  I also enjoyed knowing a little of how  Delaney's parent's felt about the accident and the changes to their daughter.  

The cover art on this novel is great!  I found myself studying the cover some as I read the book.  I also think the cover will entice students to pick this book up off the shelf.  I know people say to never judge a book by its cover but as a high school librarian I know that students do judge books by their covers!  

I highly recommend this title and look forward to talking it up at school!