Welcome to my library

After 26 books so far this summer, I finally decided it was time to give myself a permanent presence in the blog world. I enjoy recommending and critiquing books that I have read, so I figured that this would be a great place to have my reviews of books I read in one central location. Like it or dislike it if you will, but here it goes.

I have read too many books this summer to do them all, so I figured I'd pick one a day and see how it goes. So, book one:

Fracture by Megan Miranda

Fracture centers around our protagonist, Delaney Maxwell. Eleven minutes after falling through the fractured ice of a lake near her house in Maine, Delaney is pulled from the frozen depths by her best friend, Decker Philips. Delaney's heart and brain had ceased to function: for all intents and purposes, she was dead. But, defying all logic and to the surprise of her loved ones and doctors, Delaney awakened seemingly fine. However, as Delaney tries to regain her hold on her op life, she begins to notice that all was not as before. She feels an inescapable pull toward the dying. Unaware if her brush with death has altered her brain or if something more sinister is afoot, Delaney struggles to understand this pull and what she is supposed to do with it.

Enter Troy Varga. Having emerged from a coma with similar feelings, Troy tries to help Delaney come to terms with what these urges are and why they are plaguing her. But, the closer the two become, Delaney begins to wonder about Troys motives. Does he really want to help her or does he have something darker up his sleeve?

In the beginning, this book moved a little slowly. You struggled to find the internal motivations of many of the characters as well as why they existed at all. Several characters seem to serve as cannon fodder and are there merely as a distraction for the characters. Early on, you can tell that Decker's feelings for Delaney are more complex than they appear on the surface, as are Delaney's for him, but, like many teenagers, you follow as they struggle to know what to do about it. You also struggle to understand exactly how and why Delaney's parents interact with her the way they do.

As the book continues and Troy is introduced, the plot thickens, as they say. Delaney begins to feel her heart pulled in two directions as her head struggles to accept the fact that she knows that people are going to die, and what she is supposed to do with that knowledge. Miranda manages to weave together complex characters, deepening our understanding of the complex webs we weave with the people in our lives and the impact we have on one another.

This book also deals with the controversial subject of euthanasia. At what point do we have the right, whether with the person's knowledge and permission or not, to determine how and when a person should die? Miranda touches on this subject with grace and refuses to judge too much one way or another. I believe this subject is done in a way that young adults can understand without being preachy.

All in all, I wholeheartedly recommend this book. I am anxious to see how Miranda writes the sequel; however, I was disappointed to find out that it will not grace the bookshelves until 2014.