Jill Hathaway
Slide #1
Published March 27, 2012 by Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins)
YA paranormal mystery
Bite-Sized Review
Slide was an excellent debut novel: it had suspense, drama, mystery, and humor, and I really cared about the characters. I definitely recommend this one to anyone who thinks it sounds even vaguely interesting.
King-Sized Review
Sylvia Bell has a unique ability. If she’s touching something with emotional value when she falls asleep, she slides into the body of whoever values the object. Vee regards this ability mainly as a curse until she finds herself in the body of a killer. With no way to explain and everyone else believing Sophie committed suicide, it’s up to Vee to investigate.
Having to be a mother for her younger sister after their own mom died made Vee more mature than most YA heroines, which was a refreshing change. Vee’s obvious affection and concern for Mattie was very well done, as was the occasional flare-up of resentment for her father for not always being there for his daughters. Vee was more than a girl with a strange superpower; she was a well-rounded character with a story that existed before and after the pages of this book.
The murder mystery aspect of the book was also excellent. I never guessed who the murderer was, though I did suspect numerous other people throughout the course of the book. Discoveries I thought were unconnected to the main plotline turned out to be bound together, which really makes me want to re-read Slide at some point to see how everything fits when I know who the culprit is.
The only issue I had with the book – and it was a minor one – was that occasionally the way the breaks in the story were written made it difficult to tell how much time had passed. The story would stop in the morning, and in the next section it would be the following morning, with no indication of how the intervening time was spent. However, it didn’t really detract from the story except for those few moments, and it wasn’t too complicated to pick up what was going on after a few sentences.
Overall, Slide was a great book, and I hope to see more from Jill Hathaway in the future.
Quality: Good
Enjoyability: Excellent
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I am so happy you loved this one. I liked it, but unless I sit and think on it and my thoughts change before my review goes live...I didn't LOVE it. I hated the plot between Zane and Vee, and I had some issues with how flat a lot of the characters (secondary) felt. So it's really cool to see a totally opposite review. :)
ReplyDeleteWell, I have to admit, this one really intrigues me. I think this will have to go to my tbr bile. Great review.
ReplyDeleteYay! I'm really glad you liked it. Great review! I agree with a lot you say. I also had a minor issue with a too simple ending, but I definitely enjoyed it and thought it was a great debut. :)
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