Author: Sarah Mlynowski
Publisher: Delacorte
Rating: WORTHY!
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration of any kind for this review. Since this is a new novel, this review is less detailed so as not to rob the writer of their story, but even so, it will probably still be more in-depth than you'll typically find elsewhere!
This novel, yet another unfortunately in first person PoV (I'll try to deal, but it's getting harder and harder!) begins with an introduction to a group of friends living in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, NYC, who were evidently not always freaks! They only became 'freaks' when they got their annual flu shot and developed telepathic powers. I'm not kidding. That's the premise, and you know what, I don't care how stupid it is. You can sell me the dumbest premise on the planet, if you can tell me a good story. It's that simple! So let's go with it and see what's on offer here.
Just a few thoughts on the choice of title (again!): this is yet another novel which could have used a more wisely chosen title. As appropriate as this title is, given the actual story, there are several other novels out there with this exact title. I often wonder if other authors ever even do a survey to see if someone else has used their title already. There is, of course, nothing to stop you using a title that's already out there, but you have to stack that against how deeply you want to see your novel buried when people are trying to recall the title and end up perhaps buying someone else's novel thinking it's yours?! It could happen. Then again, if you go with Big Publishing™, you may well not be given any choice over your title, and that's something I'm not willing to cede to someone who has far less interest in my success than I do.
Olivia Byrne, Cooper Miller, Mackenzie Feldman hang out together. Initially, I got the impression that someone other than one of those three was telling the story, but then I learned that all of them (and then some!) are telling it at the same time, so it's a bit confused - this 1PoV stuff - when it's multiple 1PoV all at the same time and so, in effect, is 3PoV. But as it happens, it's very readable, so this was the first pleasant surprise here. The next one was that the humor in it is really enjoyable, so the author immediately had me on board. This ESP phenomenon spreads throughout the entire class (save two), all of whom seemed to have had that flu shot.
One thing I have to ask about here what's this with giving children last names as first names. Cooper? Mackenzie? I know people do this, so it's not a problem that an author uses these names. They've just always seemed so pretentious to me and so defining of a less than brilliant YA story. But that's just me; in the end, you have to mine where the gold is I guess, and if there are kids out there with these names it would be rather odd not to include them in your novel, wouldn't it?! So like it or leave it. Again, fortunately for Mlynowski, she writes this so well that it was never a problem.
The story continues with a believable progression of discovery and fear, and of discomfort and joy, and so seemed to me to be quite a realistic portrayal of what might happen were this flu virus phenomenon real. The premise makes no sense genetically, but once you decide, as I did, to let that slide, the story is really a lot of fun. That aside, there were only a couple of real issues I had with it. One was that these teens seemed to be obsessed with who was making out with whom or who any given one of them might be making out with if they had chance! They seemed to have very little else on their minds, and I found this to be sad. I hope it's not true that teens are like this these days. I fear for our national future if they are! Perhaps a younger audience than I represent will not find this as odd or as disillusioning as I did.
The other issue was that this 'who is making out with whom and whose secrets are being spilled now' went on a bit too long to be completely enjoyable. It started out fine, but I felt that some editing between the middle and the end was merited. That said, this was a really fun novel overall and I enjoyed it. Generally speaking, the relationships were not unrealistic - which believe me was a real joy to read in a YA novel - and they showed largely intelligent behaviors amongst the main characters. It was based on a rather absurd premise, but if you're willing to put that aside, and you're willing to cope with some teen angst that, as I mentioned, drags somewhat, then this will entertain you and reward you for your patience in reading it. I very much liked the ending. It's nice to read a novel where teens make smart and independent decisions
