One Moment

May 7, 2012
Maggie Reynolds is eagerly planning the summer before her senior year, which will include hanging out with her best friends Shannon, Tanna, and Adam, and losing her virginity to Joey, her boyfriend of two years. But when daredevil Joey dies cliff-diving with Maggie and she can’t remember the moment before his fall, an investigation ensues. Initially Maggie blames herself for the accident (“What if one small thing changed? Would we all be hanging out right now, listening to music while Joey laughed at something stupid”), but when Adam refuses to answer questions about the last 24 hours of Joey’s life it becomes clear that both Adam and Joey were hiding something from her. As Maggie’s memories gradually return, she collects clues to uncover the truth. McBride (The Tension of Opposites) skillfully interweaves Maggie’s flashes of memory with present action, making for a tense and absorbing psychological mystery. The dynamics among the tight-knit group of friends are well-drawn, and Maggie’s voice persuasively conveys her guilt, disorientation, and pain as she uncovers her friends’ secrets. Ages 14–up. Agent: Alyssa Eisner Henkin, Trident Media Group. (June)■

May 1, 2012
Heading into summer with her closest friends, Maggie feels like she has it all, including a perfect boyfriend. She even plans to step up the level of intimacy with Joey. The day after a wild party, they're at one of their favorite hangouts--a gorge where everyone but Maggie has leapt off a cliff into a swimming hole. This time Maggie decides she's ready, if Joey holds her hand. Something about the bracelet on Joey's wrist tugs at the back of her mind as they climb, and in the moment before they leap, she stops. Joey doesn't, twisting in midair as he falls to his death. Adam finds Maggie cowering in the bushes on the trail with no memory of what happened. Maggie's first-person account meanders between comforting flashbacks of Joey and her struggle to confront her fear that she caused his death. Fragments of the incident return, revealing some unwelcome truths about Joey and their friends, some of whom are grieving for very different reasons from those she could have imagined. Like a puzzle, pieces of Joey's life start to fall into place, making Maggie realize that there might have been a reason not to trust him after all. Good, solid drama about the power of secrets to test the bounds of friendship, with just enough tension to satisfy teen readers. (Fiction. 14-17)

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August 1, 2012

Gr 9 Up-Maggie and Joey are the perfect couple. He's outgoing and a little crazy, while she's a little more cautious and calm. They have a fantastic group of friends, and the summer between their junior and senior year stretches out in front of them. They're looking forward to parties, hanging at the pool, and the jumping hole. Everyone has jumped numerous times, except Maggie. Her fear of heights has always stopped her, but this time is different. As she prepares to jump with Joey, everything goes blank. There is yelling and her friends find her hiding in the bushes. And Joey is dead. Maggie can't remember a thing from the cliff top and the police are asking questions. Her friends are falling apart around her. Then little things start to happen that make them all begin to realize that Joey was not the legend they thought he was and that they all have secrets. The question becomes not will Maggie remember what happened, but will their friends survive this trauma. One Moment explores themes of loss, friendship, love, grief, and betrayal, and McBride does an excellent job of keeping them from becoming overwhelming. Readers will feel the bond between the teens and their pain. The big reveal is a little obvious, but it doesn't detract from the compelling story.-Melyssa Kenney, Parkville High School, Baltimore, MD

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2012
Grades 9-12 Sixteen-year-old Maggie has five close friends, whom she has known from earliest childhood. Her boyfriend, Joey, is one of this group, as are best friend Adam, the fair-minded Tanna, and the ornery Shannon. McBride opens this complex but realistic story with Joey's death and the onset of Maggie's inability to recall the final moments of his life, which they shared atop a gorge that he plunged off of, missing the water below. As the weeks pass, Maggie, grudgingly and with the guidance of a psychologist, explores the moments she can't remember and the secrets behind what she had assumed for years about Joey, Shannon, and Adam. Tension builds steadily as the true relationships and feelings among these characters become clear to Maggie and the reader alike. Realistic dialogue and a first-person narration that leaves adults outside the circle of interest mark this as a quick read that offers an aftertaste of thoughtfulness. Like Mindi Scott's Freefall (2010), McBride's story of death's effect on the living is both artistic and authentic.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)