FRACTURE by Megan Miranda

Reading level: Ages 12 and up

Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Walker Childrens; 1 edition (January 17, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0802723098

Source: BEA
Rating:♥♥

A striking debut, readers will be spellbound by this
unforgettable story of life and death . . . and beyond

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.

My Thoughts:

Upon reading the back cover blurb of FRACTURE I was instantaneously intrigued. I loved Before Before I Fall and If I stay (some of my all time favorites) and to have the premise with a supernatural twist seemed more than I could hope for in a book. Yet, I should know better than to fall prey to comparisons of my beloved reads for it really smarts when it does not live up to it's promise.

FRACTURE is a novel about Delany Maxwell, a teenage girl who dies and remains that way for almost eleven minutes, but is resuscitated, returning with a slight "other wordly" ability. We all know that being dead for that long and to return does not render favorable results, yet despite test results and previous medical examples Delany is amazingly function-able. It is not long before Delany's character begins to feel odd sensations of being pulled towards the dying and it is only with help from a new boy named Troy that she begins to find understanding of her new condition for he has suffered through similar circumstances himself. Too good to be true, right? It is not long before Delany realizes that something is rotten in the state of Denmark and his name is Troy.

After reading FRACTURE I had to take my time and contemplate on what I read and how I felt about it. So, I decided to give myself some time and hopefully come back with a clearer perspective. And so I return with my many thoughts as to why I wanted to like this novel more than what I did. This book had the makings of what I consider a great read, especially the comparisons to favored novels with this paranormal edge. Yet, this story did NOT remind me of those beloved novels and the paranormal edge wasn't even a nudge...a touch..maybe but not enough. Delany's new found ability was never truly explored, for all intent and purposes she should have been reduced to a vegetative state, surviving on life support, yet that was not the case and I wanted to know why???? Was it a medical miracle...? but the fact that she could sense the impending death of others only caused me to need something more from the story. Why did I strive for this clarity I do not know? Maybe it is due to the fact that I could not feel sympathy for Delany's character or that I did not fully understand her. Either way it drove me bananas. I also did not care for the roller coaster relationship she had with Decker. She liked him...she didn't like him....blah blah blah.... and don't get me started with the Troy, the obvious bad boy. He gave off a creepy vibe right from the beginning.

Although this novel did not appeal to me Megan Miranda did create some tension filled moments that were truly reminiscent of a nail biting mystery movie. Certain situations were well laid out and described and the hairs on the back of my neck were definitely raised. I liked the initial concept of FRACTURE, but I wished that I could have enjoyed it for what it was instead of wanting for something much more.