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 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.

My Review:

Slide is a stunning murder mystery book with an amazing plot and well-done characterization.  This book reads like a contemporary YA book in many parts of it, but it has one paranormal aspect to it (the sliding).  It kept me reading until the end because I wanted to know who the murderer was, and I couldn't guess the answer.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

This book has a very unique paranormal element to it.  This paranormal element is the sliding.  Everyone Vee knows thinks she is narcoleptic, but she isn't really.  When she has an episode and passes out, she is sliding into someone else and seeing the world as they see it.  To slide into someone else, she must be holding an item that the person has left an emotional imprint on.  This often happens without Vee realizing she has an item that that person touched.  In the book, she learns to control her power.  She learns how to find an item and slide at will, and she learns to control the person that she slides into.

Vee is a fantastic main character.  She's strong, even though she has to deal with strange things like sliding.  When she first found out about her sliding, she told her dad, and he made her go see a shrink.  Since then, she's learned to keep it to herself.  She's the only one who knows her younger sister's friend, Sophie, didn't kill herself.  She knows Sophie was murdered, but she can't tell anyone without explaining sliding.  She keeps everything she knows a secret and goes sleuthing on her own to find the murderer.

The two boy characters in the book are both well-developed.  Rollins is Vee's best friend who is secretly in love with her.  They would always have movie nights on Friday together.  Rollins keeps many secrets from Vee, and he never lets her come to his house.  They grow distant during the book due to Zane's arrival at school.  Zane is the sweet new guy who Vee begins to fall for.  He likes her too, and they kiss in the book.  Despite Zane's mom, I think that Zane himself is a genuinely good guy.

My favorite part of the book are the scenes with Vee and Mattie.  Vee and Mattie are sisters, and Vee is sometimes like a mother to Mattie.  Mattie is also in high school, but she is a few years younger than Vee.  Their mom died when they were young, and their dad is a surgeon who has work long hours.  Mattie feels guilty because she was friends with Sophie, but she let their other friend, Amber, play a prank on Sophie.  She thinks the prank was the cause of Sophie's suicide.  Vee wants to tell Mattie that Sophie didn't kill herself, but she knows she can't say that.  There are some great scenes with the sister's after Sophie dies, and then after Mattie's other friend, Amber, dies too.

If you YA murder mysteries with a paranormal element, read this book.

Katie