Title: Fracture
Author: Megan Miranda
Target Audience: Young Adult
Pages: 264
Chapters: 20
Rating: 9/10
Genre: Romance / Drama
Person: First
Tense: Past
Blurb (quoted):
“A lot can happen in eleven minutes. Decker can run two miles easily in eleven minutes. I once wrote an English essay in ten. No lie. And God knows Carson Levine can talk a girl out of her clothes in half that time.
Eleven minutes might as well be an eternity underwater. It only takes three minutes without air for loss of consciousness. Permanent brain damage begins at four minutes. And then, when the oxygen runs out, full cardiac arrest occurs. Death is possible at five minutes. Probable at seven. Definite at ten.
Decker pulled me out at eleven.
By the time Delaney Maxwell was pulled from a Maine lake’s icy waters by her best friend, Decker Phillips, her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead.
But somehow Delaney survived – despite the brain scans that show irreparable damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be fine, but she knows she’s far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can’t control or explain, Delaney now finds herself drawn to the dying, and when she meets Troy Varga, a boy who recently emerged from a coma with the same abilities, she is relieved to share this strange new existence. Unsure if her altered brain is predicting death or causing it, Delaney must figure out if their gift is a miracle, a freak of nature – or something else much more frightening.”
Summary:
Delaney Maxwell was under the ice for eleven minutes. She was dead… or at least, she should have been. But when she emerges from a week long coma with no signs of brain damage despite brain scans claiming she should be ‘damaged’, she returns to her same old life – only everything is different now.
Everyone she knows is treating her differently, including parents and best friend, but only she knows that something really is wrong with her. After being drawn to strangers and friends who had later died, Delaney is forced to ask some hard questions: is she sensing death, or causing it?
When she discovers Troy Varga, a boy who emerged from a coma with the same ability, she’s relieved to feel less alien – but is the mystery man with a temper really to be trusted? Delaney begins to wonder what kind of friend she’d made after countless suspicious occurrences.
But most troubling is Delaney’s best-friend-since-childhood, Decker Phillips, is suddenly showing interest in another girl and Delaney doesn’t have a clue why that bothers her so much.
Judgement:
I’m not sure if it was because I had a lot of time on my hands, or if I was addicted to this book, but I found myself picking it up repeatedly over two to three days until I turned the last page.
The story line and plot is one I haven’t actually come across before (which is rare, considering the amount of books out there), which was great for a fresh spin on things. The characters had individual personalities and habits, which is always a must-have for me – I don’t want to be reading about a group of clones!
At first I found the length a little intimidating – not because I don’t normally read large books, but because I wanted to finish it before school went back (two days later), but I honestly flew through it. Also, I like that it was a book you really want to pick up and read, but it’s not going to keep you up all night or distract you from other tasks.
I enjoyed the setting (I live somewhere without snow, so the book being set in a snowy-winter was great). It really draws you into the setting, putting a stream of images through your mind.
However, I have to say the first few chapters were… they weren’t bad, but it wasn’t and instant hook that had you page-turning. The writing style didn’t get on my nerves either, which does happen with some authors, so I was glad when I found I was able to settle down into it.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable read and I recommend (though not HIGHLY) it to others.
About the Author:
Megan Miranda was a scientist and high school teacher before writing Fracture, which came out of her fascination with scientific mysteries – especially those associated with the brain. Megan has a BS in biology from MIT and spent her post-college years either rocking a lab coat or reading books. She lives near Charlotte, North Carolina, where she volunteers as an MIT Educational Counsellor. Fracture is her first novel.
