Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine
-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?
Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?
For fans of best-sellers like Before I Fall and If I Stay, this is a fascinating and heart-rending story about love and friendship and the fine line between life and death.
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Recommended: Yes.
Available as: Paperback $10.80 from Amazon.com,
E-book $9.99 from Amazon.com's Kindle Edition
Recommended Ages: 16 and Up
Hardcover: 272 pgs.
Publication: January 17th 2012 by Walker & Company
This is one novel that sure knows how to grab your attention in terms of suspense. In Fracture, Delaney Maxwell an average teen girl along with her best friend Decker are braving to cross a frozen lake while on a daily walk out during winter. Everything is going well when the ice cracks and Delaney shockingly spills through the fractures of this ripple in the lake. Delaney accounts to us in deep moments of deep desperation the thoughts of fearing death.
She wants to live for something! In these dark moments a voice calls to her in a whisper to "Rage against the dying of the light". Here's where Fracture may very well capture anyone's attention. Delaney seizes to be a regular girl but a girl who has escaped death. Her new life begins again when Decker resuscitates her with CPR. Everyone soon in her town from hearing on her miracle is now awed or cautious around her. Her own family proves to slowly break at the seams when Delaney's mother seems to think her dear baby Delaney isn't right. Delaney sadly has to face problems from everywhere herself. Also occupying her mind is her best friend of many years, Decker who has been completely loyal and a rock to stand by. Even so, she can't understand his episodes of occasional jealousy towards her relationships with other guys. Leading to tough disputes between themselves. So when Troy a man who is like how Delaney is now, she can't help but believe she finally doesn't have to be alone anymore.
Fracture has a very mellow writing style to follow that is entertaining to just take in. In terms of characters Delaney will sure turn out to be a likable character. She's not your regular convention of a character. She projects everything through her thoughts and actions that play well. Decker while not the main character can be felt at times through scattered mentions in the novel. Such as when Delaney wants him to read to her in the hospital after her accident."Actually, I already did," I picked up Catch-22 and clutched it to my chest." "I need to read this. But can't. Headaches." I held it out to him and smiled. Decker shook his head and leaned backward. " I don't read assigned books. Goes against everything I believe in." I smiled wider. " I'll be your best friend."I can't believe I begged my parents to let me come here for this." he said. But he took the book all the same. He sat facing my bed, feet propped upon the edge, knees bent. And he began to read. " It was love at first sight...."
He looked at me over the pages, " I feel ridiculous."
"Shhh, Shhh, Shhh, you're perfect."
It's not just Delaney and Decker though, other characters are all very three-dimensional.
It's obvious Fracture aims at having a story of life vs. death and love vs. friendship punctured with the paranormal. For the most part it succeeds quite nicely with its use of pleasant if not complex relationships and mystery of the elusive paranormal.
Overall: Touching read
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Mystery/Suspense, Romance
Contains: Complex Relationships, Paranormal Elements
About the Author
Megan Miranda is a scientist - turned - teacher - turned - stay-at-home-mom - turned - writer. She is not nearly as indecisive as she sounds. She lives near Charlotte, North Carolina, where she volunteers as an MIT Educational Counselor, does the mom thing by day, and writes by night.
Her first novel, FRACTURE, will be published by Walker/Bloomsbury in early 2012.
