Review: Slide by Jill Hathaway

Slide
By Jill Hathaway
256 Pages
Published by Balzer + Bray

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.

**Review copy received through the Debut Author Challenge ARC Tour. THANK YOU!!!**

So, as soon as I read the synopsis for Slide I knew that I wanted to read it. When I saw that it was going to be part of the Debut Author Challenge ARC Tour, I requested to participate and crossed my fingers. Joy!

About five pages into Slide I thought I had it all figured out. And in my defense, I did get one thing right, which I will not reveal in the interest of not being a spoiling jerkoff. In fact, I figured out a few of the twists before they happened, but it didn’t matter because it was still enthralling to watch Vee try to sort things out. At one point I was like one of those people who scream things out to the characters in horror movies – “Don’t go into the basement, girl!” “Don’t go to that summer camp where all the kids got filleted, even if it’s finally open again and they tell you it’s perfectly safe!” I think seeing where a lot of things were going actually added to my reading experience because it kept me on edge hoping Vee wouldn’t do dumb things.

As far as the characters in the book themselves, I found Vee very likeable. I also really liked Rollins, though I didn’t understand why their relationship seemed so adversarial at times (or at least, I didn’t while I was reading – thinking back on it now I kinda get it). I didn’t care for Zane at all and I didn’t understand what Vee saw in him, but apparently he was pretty cute I guess? Also, ok, I realize I’m not a teenager anymore but I’m not exactly old. I honestly don’t remember there being mean girls like this in my high school. Was I just lucky? Granted I was, erm, a cheerleader (I find it hard to believe myself) but we weren’t mean! We were just normal people who did normal stuff, like dressing up in ridiculous costumes and throwing each other dangerously into the air to celebrate young men in shoulder pads and helmets slamming into one another at high velocities. There might have been a little kerfuffle here and there but certainly nothing equivalent to what went on in this book and a lot of the YA I read. Yikes.

I think the best part of the book, to me, was Jill Hathaway’s writing. There’s a scene where Vee is walking down a street looking at Victorian houses and listening to the leaves crunch, and without getting too detailed, something about it reminded me of the movie Halloween. You know, the scene where Lori is walking down the street and she keeps thinking she hears something behind her, and the dude in the William Shatner mask keeps ducking behind the hedges? That scene. Hathaway’s writing was descriptive and really put me in the mood of the book. I also liked the fact that this was unlike anything I’ve read before. With as much paranormal as I read that’s not easy to pull off. It’s just such an original idea.

I would have liked more information about why Vee slides and how it came about in the first place, but since this is book one I’m giving the benefit of the doubt that it’ll be explained in more detail in a future book.  My only other complaint is that it got that old Goo Goo Doll song stuck in my head and I cannot STAND that song.

Looking forward to the next book in the series to see where things go with Vee and her ability.

 

4/5 Stars.

Posted by attackthestacks on March 22, 2012

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