Fracture

Starred review from October 24, 2011
Miranda’s debut is a captivating and intelligent story of love and death with a dash of the supernatural. Seventeen-year-old Delaney Maxwell “dies” after falling into a frozen Maine lake. Rescued and revived by her best friend Decker after 11 minutes under the ice, Delaney spends six days in a coma and awakens with an itch deep in her brain that, again and again, leads her to people who are on the verge of death. Unresolved feelings and guilt over the near-drowning put tremendous stress on Delaney and Decker’s relationship, which is further complicated by Troy, a secretive older boy who is also drawn toward the dying. Delaney continues to struggle in the accident’s aftermath, and a devastating prediction of death only makes matters worse. Miranda’s riveting plot drives to an equally tense climax as she gracefully weaves together themes of suffering, compassion, jealousy, friendship, and trust. The fluid writing, empathetic characters, and big questions raised elevate this paranormal romance into a haunting meditation on what it means to be human and to truly live. Ages 12–up.

November 15, 2011
Eleven full minutes pass before 17-year-old Delaney's best friend Decker pulls her from beneath the ice of a northern Maine lake. Can she recover from the bizarre results of her long period without oxygen? Or, perhaps more importantly, can their relationship, evolving from being soul mates for years toward being romantically involved, survive? Even though the doctors say Delaney should be severely brain damaged, the only aftereffect she can discover is that she's suddenly aware of--and irresistibly drawn to--those around her who are about to die. It's through that fixation that she meets handsome, intriguing Troy, who seems to share her new compulsion, but he has dark, disturbing secrets in connection to it. Delaney's mother begins an emotional disintegration that results in her trying to keep the teen drugged with sedatives, adding an unnecessary complication to the plot, and Decker becomes involved with another girl, leaving Delaney no one to confide in. Her first-person narration and her issues with Decker largely ring true, but her mother's problems feel contrived. Teetering between tired, predictable romance and edgy thriller, the breathlessly scary moments of this effort provide sufficient pizzazz to keep the plot moving forward, even though it's sometimes bogged down by Delaney's too-trite soul searching. An occasionally thrilling paranormal romance with enough spellbinding incidents to overcome the clichéd components. (Paranormal romantic thriller. 11 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

February 1, 2012

Gr 8 Up-When Delaney Maxwell, 17, falls through the ice, her best friend, Decker, saves her, but not until 11 minutes have passed. After six days in a coma, she wakes up with few side effects. Her MRI indicates brain damage, but she seems to show no signs of it. Of course, it causes concern that her hands tremble, and she is strangely drawn to people who are about to die. Delaney meets mysterious Troy, 19, who knows all about her situation and is drawn to the same dying people. Decker is obviously in love with Delaney, and she with him, even though they are both trying to fight this change in their close friendship. With the additional tension that Troy adds to the mix, Delaney's strange attraction to people on the brink of death, and strain among their circle of friends and families, readers are never sure if the pair will ever be together. The story sometimes seems to be headed toward the supernatural, and then it suddenly makes a sharp turn toward realistic science, and then back again. The love triangle, combined with the allure of danger, will carry readers through this story that pulls them back every time they might feel ready to give up.-Jake Pettit, Thompson Valley High School, Loveland, CO

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