Friday, February 1, 2013

Review: Slide by Jill Hathaway

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 distant lately, 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. (From Goodreads)

Best Bits: Vee was an interesting protagonist. She doesn't like her ability, in fact she does everything she can to avoid sliding into someone else's consciousness (she's self-medicating). It's really fascinating, and she has to be careful not to touch anything that might hold an emotional charge. That's new to me, although there is a similar line of paranormal fiction. Over the course of the book she realizes just how important her power is, even though it leaves her vulnerable. The reader gets to see how vulnerable when we experience a past traumatic experience of Vee's from another person's eyes. I can say that the ending surprised me, although I had earlier suspected them. Hathaway made each character believable as the killer, so up until the end I was guessing. I'm really looking forward to reading the follow up novel, Imposter, that's out this March. 

Nit Picks: My nitpick for slide involves the romantic relationships. So, it's pretty obvious that Rollins is into Vee. She doesn't quite trust him with her secret, and he knows that there's something that she isn't telling him. I wish that hadn't been a point of conflict for them, because their friendship was deep enough that I'm not sure I believed her excuses for not confiding in him. Her relationship with Zane would fall into the insta-love category. Rollins' withdrawal from Vee and Zane's understanding of loss makes it just believable enough, but I still felt like it needed to be fleshed out.

Slide
By Jill Hathaway
250 Pages
Published by Balzer + Bray
Rating: A 

1 comments:

T.V and Book Addict said...

Oooh I'm very curious now! I saw a picture of this book the other day, but hadn't read much about it. Nice review!

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