Fracture by Megan Miranda Review

Title: Fracture
Author: Megan Miranda (Twitter)
Publisher: Walker Children's
Publish Date: January 17, 2012
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 262
Source: ARC Trade

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 - despite the scans that showed significant brain damage.

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?

Delaney died that night. She was standing on the ice, and the next thing she knew, she was waking up in the hospital with only brief memories of what happened to her. Eleven minutes. That’s how long it took for her to be rescued from the icy water below the surface, and in those eleven minutes, Delaney touched the other side. But things are different now. Delaney is drawn to the dying, and she feels a sort of pull towards the other side. Everything’s changing, and Delaney needs to make sense of what’s happening to her – and why her feelings for her best friend, Decker, have suddenly changed.

I like drama. It’s no secret. I like it when things are messy and in disarray (in novels, of course, not real life). Fracture is one of those novels that touches on everything that is a little bit messy and out of place. Focusing more on nature of relationships and sense of self than anything else, Fracture touches on the very soul of humanity and brings it to light. Author Megan Miranda has crafted a delicate novel that perfectly merges dark with light, broaches difficult topics such as death and dying and captures a host of beautiful characters in a poignant and powerful novel. Merging a beautiful story line with sweet, poignant prose, Fracture stands out. .

I’m not a huge fan of love triangles or quadrangles, and that’s no secret, so having read a few reviews for Fracture, I was a bit concerned. Once I was about halfway through the novel though, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the nature of Fracture focused more heavily on Delaney, her condition and the aftermath of the trauma of her accident than anything else. Delaney was a great character. She was so relatable and honest, painful and pure. There was an innocence about her that resonated throughout the events of the story and fueled the plot forward. Decker, too, was a brilliant character, perfectly embodying the loyal best friend role. I will say, however, that the numerous secondary characters, including Janna, Troy felt a bit flat for me. There were so many issues, actions and inactions that felt unresolved when I closed the final pages on Fracture that I felt a bit let down. While I loved that Fracture stepped boldly into a realm of God complexes, survivor’s guilt, stress and everything messy that has to do with death and dying, I think it could have been fleshed out a bit for more power. The novel was hard-hitting, indeed, but I felt it moved too fast to leave any strong, lasting emotions in me. .

Overall, I think Fracture is going to make a powerful in the statement in the YA community. It’s a rich idea with great writing, and though there were some flaws, in my humble opinion, it wasn’t a bad book by any means. I give it a 3.5 out of 5, and I recommend it to all fans of YA, especially those who enjoy contemporary and paranormal fiction. .

Waiting on Wednesday: 172 Hours on the Moon

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill from Breaking the Spine, and specifically spotlights upcoming novels we can't wait to read. As always, there are some amazing upcoming books, but this week I'm particularly excited for...

Title: 172 Hours on the Moon
Author: Johan Harstad, Tara Chace
Publisher: Little, Brown BYR
Publish Date: April 12, 2012
Genre: YA, Thriller, Sci-Fi
Pages: 355

Three teenagers are going on the trip of a lifetime. Only one is coming back. It's been more than forty years since NASA sent the first men to the moon, and to grab some much-needed funding and attention, they decide to launch an historic international lottery in which three lucky teenagers can win a week-long trip to moon base DARLAH 2 - a place that no one but top government officials even knew existed until now.

The three winners, Antoine, Midori, and Mia, come from all over the world. But just before the scheduled launch, the teenagers each experience strange, inexplicable events. Little do they know that there was a reason NASA never sent anyone back there until now - a sinister reason. But the countdown has already begun...

There are three ways I would absolutely hate to die. The first would be drowning because, heck, I'm a swimmer. That would blow. The second would be fire because, frankly, it's not like freezing to death, where you just go to sleep. The third would be to die all alone in an endless vacuum like space. 172 Hours on the Moon sounds ridiculously creepy, a touch sadistic and like it might just have that horror element I'm loving so much lately. From what I can tell, it's a translated/edited version in English, and I'm certainly thrilled to get lost in this one. That cover, alone, is eerie! What do you think, and what are you waiting on this week?

Harbinger by Sara Wilson Etienne Review

Title: Harbinger
Author: Sara Wilson Etienne (Twitter)
Publisher: Putnam
Publish Date: February 2, 2012
Genre: YA, Paranormal
Pages: 320
Source: Author

When sixteen-year-old Faye arrives at Holbrook Academy, she doesn't expect to find herself exactly where she needs to be. After years of strange waking visions and nightmares, her only comfort the bones of dead animals, Faye is afraid she's going crazy. Fast.

But her first night at Holbrook, she feels strangely connected to the school and the island it sits on, like she's come home. She's even made her first real friends, but odd things keep happening to them. Every morning they wake on the floors of their dorm rooms with their hands stained red.

Faye knows she's the reason, but what does it all mean? The handsome Kel tries to help her unravel the mystery, but Faye is certain she can't trust him; in fact, he may be trying to kill her - and the rest of the world too.

Faye doesn't really know what her place is in the world. Holbrook Academy is meant to rehabilitate her, and when her father drops her off, she's even more unsure then before. She feels drawn to Holbrook and her surroundings, but there's an odd sort of charisma on the island, too. It's dark and terrifying. and though Faye feels at home for the first time in her life, weird things keep happening, and she knows it has to be because of her. To top it all off, Faye feels drawn to Kel, but there's something different about Kel, too. He's good, but there's a touch of darkness around him. Can she figure out the mysteries of her existence, Holbrook and Kel before it's too late?

Now, it's no secret that I love me some straight horror stories, but there's something to be said about stories that are silent and deadly. Harbinger is very much one of those. Twisting in an ever-churning maze of darkness and unease, the story winds and writhes, spinning the reader into its deadly web. Sara Wilson Etienne has crafted a one of a kind story that is equal parts psychological thriller and drama. There is a rich, vivid starkness to the pages that, though complex, envelops you into a world that smothers you with an incredible tale from which you both long to remain within and break free. Nothing and everything in Harbinger is real, and by the time you close the last page, you'll be questioning your reality, too.

Gosh, I've been dying to read Harbinger for so long! I love it when stories teeter on the edge of insanity, just seconds from spilling over, but walk that line with precarious ease. Harbinger perfectly portrays the lost teen in Faye that wants so desperately to be normal, and yet wants to be herself, as well. Her internal battle is mimicked quite fluidly in her surroundings within Holbrook Academy. The vividness of the details of Faye's visions was incredible. Harbinger paints a scene of an overwhelming, smothering tidal wave that very nearly envelops the reader, too. Every character, whether primary or secondary, is fleshed out with intricate detail to create a multifaceted mystery. Touches of romance enhance the plot with a rich sweetness, but it's never cloying or overpowering. Rather, the story of Faye and Kel merely serves to strengthen the overall plot of Harbinger. Most of all though, Harbinger is non-stop action from start to finish. Whereas many stories within the genre span months, this one takes place in one week. It's a lot to push into a single novel, but Harbinger bears the burden easily, presented a vivid and haunting story.

I was thoroughly impressed by Harbinger and the author's incredible story-telling, and I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to read it. I give it a 4.5 out of 5, and I highly recommend it to all fans of YA, especially those who enjoy paranormal and dark stories.

I received this book free of charge from the author in exchange for an honest review. This, in no way, affected my opinion or review of this book.

In My Mailbox 1/29

In My Mailbox is an amazing weekly meme hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren that features the books we have received during the week. It's so much fun because we get to see what our fellow bloggers stumbled upon this week and add even more to our piles of books! Without further ado, this week I received the following books:

Article 5 by Kristen Simmons (ARC) - Thank you, TOR Teen 

This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers (ARC) - Thank you, St. Martin's Griffin

So Pretty it Hurts by Kate White (ARC) - Thank you, HarperCollins 

Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott (ARC) - Thank you, Candlewick