Fracture

Fracture #1

by Megan Miranda

By the time Delaney Maxwell is pulled out of the waters of a frozen lake, her heart has stopped beating. But Delaney pulls through. Outwardly she has recovered, but she knows something is wrong. Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying, is her brain predicting death or causing it?

Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance, Mystery, Contemporary, Fiction

261 pages, Paperback

First published January 5, 2012

About the author

Megan Miranda is the New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls; The Perfect Stranger; The Last House Guest, which was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick; The Girl from Widow Hills; Such a Quiet Place; The Last to Vanish; The Only Survivors; and Daughter of Mine. She has also written several books for young adults. She grew up in New Jersey, graduated from MIT, and lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children.

Her next thriller, You Belong Here, will be published on July 29, 2025.

Follow @MeganLMiranda on Instagram, @AuthorMeganMiranda on Facebook, or visit www.meganmiranda.com

Reviews

[Kat Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did you ever watch Christian Slater in Heathers?


Other girls my age were watching My Little Pony while I was obsessively borrowing Heathers from the vidoe store (remember those?) I was like six years old and I thought Christian Slater was the shiz. Now it occurs to me, what the fuck were my parents thinking? I feel like this personal tidbit alone explains a lot about me. Where's my therapist's number? I think it's time for another session.

Well, we'll get into why I mentioned Christian Slater, but for now, it's simply because I'm being nostalgic.

Delaney Maxwell falls in ice water and dies. Yet she lives. Marvel at the paradox! But coming back to life has given her some super creepy powers and she has to deal with that whilst resolving long-standing issues with her bestfriend, Decker. All of this is complicated by Troy, who I imagine as looking a lot like Christian Slater did in Heathers.

And it's not because Troy is sexy, charismatic, mysterious and a little bit of a dramatic, emo psychopath.

Okay, maybe a little.

For a debut novel by Miranda, this was pretty good. The writing was decent, most of the characters were complex and well written.

The themes seem to surround how one deals with an impossible situation. Delaney spends a vast majority of the novel trying to cope with her survival and the lingering repercussions as well as her relationship with her mother and Decker.

The novel was mostly gripping, if not confused about what in wanted to achieve. Troy was sufficiently unsettling and yet sympathetic.


Once again, absolutely no reason why I'm bringing him up. But read the novel for yourself and see if you don't get Heather's flashbacks!

Delaney was a bit of fresh air in that she had goals and purpose in her life that exceeds the usual YA standards of wanting to procreate with the love interest. She also had a complex and rich relationship with her parents. Who were, you know, actual parents and did actual parent-like things. Another big breath of fresh air. That's a pretty sad commentary on the state of YA.

I think the novel fails by trying to do too much of many things and not enough of other things.


At first I thought it was too few abs (Christian Slater), but then I realized that maybe it was too much whining (Winona Ryder)

Overall, it was pretty good but not without its flaws. There's potential here, and not just for more pictures of 80's Christian Slater, further proving my truly tragic taste in men as a child, but for real depth of story telling and emotion. I'm just not sure how fully it was achieved here.

Maybe the problem is that it took itself so seriously. Heathers was great because it was full of camp, but I am digressing... or regressing. Maybe both. But the novel had no humour about itself and when your love interest is a hot teenage badboy psychopath - it pays to have some self awareness.

Or Christian Slater.






[image error]
Or not... gosh he's old!


*Also, now other women my age watch a whole bunch of cool movies - my favourite show atm? My Little Pony! That's right, bitches! I'm a brony!

[Emily May · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

For the first 160 pages (approx) this book was just okay. I liked it, the ideas weren't particularly original but the writing was decent, the characters were not quite as annoying as some I've read recently... things were going well but I wasn't blown away either. It was a spooky, easy to read novel with a relationship that made me smile instead of the usual insta-love, overbearing melodrama I've come to expect.

But I had problems too with these first 160 pages. One character - Tara - is introduced for the sole purpose of being the school slut, she is described by the clothes she wears ("tight" and "revealing") and/or by her sexual behaviour. Even if I could stand to read about slut-shaming (which I can't), what is the point of introducing such a useless, throwaway character. She is not a person, she has no personality, she is merely an example of the kind of girl our protagonist is not, and supposedly undesirable because of it.

Then there's the matter of no less than three contenders for Delaney's heart. One in particular was obviously never a real possibility - so why was it in there in the first place? As it happens, Delaney's relationship with one of the possible love interests really pleased me. I won't spoil the story but I thought it was well-told and believable. Oh yeah, and about that story... Delaney should have stayed dead when she fell through the icy lake and spent eleven minutes under water, but by some miracle she starts breathing again and appears to be completely healed. It isn't until Delaney starts being drawn towards the dying that she realises something really isn't right... and then there's Troy, the strange boy who's also always there when people are about to die... is he just like her? Or is Troy up to something more sinister?

And those last 100 pages I didn't mention before?

I thought these were a huge improvement, the novel went from one I enjoyed but would soon forget to a very touching and interesting novel that explored various ideas about death, life, euthanasia and guilt:

"I hoped he'd take his dog and drive down to the ocean. I hoped there was still time. I pictured him sitting on the grey rocks with the waves crashing and spraying white foam. Maybe he'd hear something in the roar of the ocean, feel some limitless power, believe that there's something greater. Something more. Maybe his heaven was at the coast, with a dog's head in his lap, with nothing but water and depth from there to the horizon."

I especially loved the discussions about euthanasia, particularly the involuntary kind. How can you know if an unconscious person would rather have the chance to fight? The chance to wait for a miracle like Delaney experienced? Is it wrong to prolong suffering? Or is it more wrong to give up on human life? A really thought-provoking read.

[Jennifer Rinehart · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eleven minutes of fun then deadly jazz hands.

Think about your favorite fictional characters, the ones you truly love, now consider for a moment what you like best about them. If you are like me, your fave characters are the ones that most seem like friends or that if they were real you'd be friends with them. You know stuff about them, the things they don't share with the world plus all the other stuff that makes them who they are; the style of shoe they'd buy at a sale, whether they'd choose chocolate or vanilla, their hobbies, their crushes, their regrets and pet peeves. You come to accept their weaknesses and you root for them to overcome every challenge.

Frankly, I just never warmed up to Delaney. After an exciting opening where Delaney falls through the ice on a partially frozen lake and is saved by her friend and neighbor, Decker, her motivations are never explored enough for me to understand why she acts alternately placid and reactionary throughout the rest of the book. Adding to my confusion are the strange behaviors of practically every other supporting character.

I think part of the problem with the story is the fact that this is literary fiction with a thin veneer of the paranormal. But what really got my goat is the 'paranormal' aspect of Delaney's return.

Delaney dies and comes back with the ability to sense impending death, the description of this new skill is brief, mainly, her hands shake when she gets close to the dying. Shortly after her return she meets Troy, a boy described as handsome in a dangerous way, he also has the deadly jazz hands ability. Troy asks her out. What follows are several random encounters between Delaney and Troy.

Delaney + Troy meet up outside the house of a dying old man.

Delaney + Troy eat pizza on his lunch break. He agrees to tell her everything, his 'everything' is mainly a lecture about helping people to pass painlessly and quickly. Which DOES NOT makes sense at all, Delaney and Troy don't have any calming or painless powers, just the hand jitters. Their gift is about as useful as being able to smell aliens, in other words, not so much.

Delaney + Troy make out at his apartment. This was just about the least erotic or romantic make out session I've ever read.

Delaney + Troy make like characters in an abused woman-of-the-week tv movie as Troy suddenly turns possessive and Delaney runs away from a safe public place to a dark, deserted alley. Then she hides in a Funeral Home that leaves its back door unlocked.

The interactions between Delaney and Decker make even less sense. In spite of being 'best friends' they spend most of their time together being needlessly tense, taciturn and avoiding each other's eyes. Decker keeps making out with a tarty girl named Tara and Delaney keeps acting jealous and kissing other guys, but when Decker inexplicably professes his love for her she turns on him, telling him it's too late and makes a disturbingly suicidal response 'what's the point of anything?' Whoa there missy! I know it was a total shocker, she went from maudlin and irritated Delaney to crazy pants lane in the time it takes me scarf down a powdered donut

Also of interest is Delaney's mom. She cleans, forcibly medicates Delaney, shouts at her for being ill and sits on swings in the freezing cold staring at clouds. Yep, mentally, she's fragile as hell, but it wasn't realistic that her Girl Interrupted behavior is a recent phase. No one can go this far over the rainbow in such a short time with little to no explanation why she isn't medicated of under the care of a doctor with the letters PhD. after his/her name.

All in all, I didn't like the writing style, the story, the resolution of the story, the characters or the worldbuilding. In short, I cannot recommend this. I know people loved this book and so, obviously, opinions vary widely. For a little bit of comparison shopping, here are a few recent books I've liked; Starters by Lissa Price, The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges, Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep and Angelfall by Susan Ee.
Comment

[kari · Rating 1 out of 5]

So, I was going to give this one a weak two stars, but then I came to GR and saw that it is the first of a series and that deserves demotion in my book because no way am I ever reading any more about this miserable self-centered mess. No thank you.
I didn't like Delaney and she never gave me any reason to change my mind. This girl isn't merely a drama queen. That would be giving her too much reason for her behavior. She is actually more of a drama empress.
Example: p. 103 "First day of preschool, some girl dipped my pigtail in blue paint. Traumatic. I became decidedly unfriendly to my classmates."
So she is two or three years old and one small incident makes her hateful forever. And preschool paint isn't toxic and always washes out. Where are her parents to help her deal with this "trauma" and she has loving, concerned, involved parents. If she was so traumatized by this one small incident, they should have gotten her some serious therapy long before she fell through the ice.
This is simply irksome. "My permanent record was perfect and I intended to keep it that way. All As, advanced classes, no blemishes."
I am so tired of characters being AP straight A students who are actually incredibly stupid as well as incredibly full of themselves. She decides she will not take the medications prescribed for her, so she secretly spits them out. When her mother finds out and makes her take them, she "had never felt so violated." I don't know but maybe doctors know a bit more about what she might need than she does. If she is hallucinating, she wouldn't be aware of it, so maybe, just maybe she needs the meds. But, no, she is just so much smarter than everyone around her.
Neither of the romantic relationships felt real, not Troy and not Decker. I know I'm supposed to feel something for them, but I don't. Could be because Delaney is so down-right cold and nasty that I didn't think Decker should waste any more of his time on her. When he tells her how he feels about her. p.215 Her respone: "But it's too late"... "What's the point, Decker? Really, what the point of anything anymore?"
She simply over-reacts to everything.
Someome barfs in the car she's driving which she then refers to as "the ruined car" and come on, someone was sick, the car isn't ruined. Way over the top reactions.
And she never tells anyone ever what is going on with her. There is no real reason given for her not telling, other than I guess she just doesn't want to. She doesn't think it through and wonder if anyone will believe her, she doesn't look up near death experiences or drowings where people have survived to see if she can find out what's happening to her. No, she is just surly and angry to those trying to help her.
The supernatural stuff is really just somewhat silly. Her hands get twitchy when someone nearby is about to die. This doesn't do anything, she can't change anything or improve anything. And she makes bad decisions, ultimately resulting in someone's death, more than once. When confronted by a killer, does she immediately use her cell phone while she is standing in the well-lit lobby of a movie theatre or does she instead run outside into the dark, deserted-with-no-way-out alley? I'll just let you guess the answer to that one.
Again, if she is this super-smart girl you have to show me that she's super-smart by what she does. Telling me that she's super-smart and then having her behave in ways that are not smart at all simply doesn't work.
If you know without any doubt that someone you cared about, someone who is in the car with you, sitting right there, was about to die, you would drive them directly to the hospital and sit in the parking lot until either something happens for which they need medical attention in which case, snap, you're already there, or you'd wait until the twitchy fingers was long gone and you could safely be on our way. Yes, the friend might think you had gone slightly round the bend, but that friend would also be alive to think whatever they want. Delaney isn't smart enough to think to do that. Okay, then.
One more thing, she is told that the story of her near-death or death and recovery was not reported in the paper because she is a minor. That is absolute rubbish. News is news and they don't ask permission to write about news. A young girl surviving drowning is news. I get that the author wanted to show that Troy was being untruthful, but there needed to be a way to get there without this. News is reported.
The ending is abrupt and something of a non-ending, but then as I've just discovered, it's a series, so I suppose that's to be expected.
So, I don't recommend this one.

[Arlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating Clarification: 2.5 stars but closer to 3

Lots of spoilers….

The average person can live 3 minutes without oxygen…. but Delaney Maxwell was stuck in a frozen lake for 11 minutes before her best friend Decker pulled her out and saved her life. She should not be alive, but she is however not without consequence. Her brain is significantly damaged, but she’s functioning at a normal rate except for the strange ability to tell when someone is about to die. Miracle or paranormal? Your guess is as good as mine.

Overall, there was just too much happening in Fractured with no clear direction on where to focus. For example:

You have the protag Delaney that’s not only battling survivor’s guilt, but she’s also dealing with her feelings for 3 boys and kissing them all as she tries to figure it out. Also, after her miraculous recovery, and about half way through the book, she starts to suddenly use her ability to ask people, “If you knew you had one day to live, what would you do?”

Next you have her best friend and hero Decker, who has a few guilt issues of his own. It took him 11 minutes to pull her out of the lake, but she never would have fallen in if he hadn’t led her to the middle of a fragile lake. Him not going after her was not his fault though, he was being held back until their friends got a rope, but that doesn’t stop him from beating himself up about it. Then when she’s in a coma, he making all these deals with God that begs the question, “How much are you willing to sacrifice to keep the one you love?”

Then you have Delaney’s parents that are battling with almost losing their only daughter. While the dad is worried about the hospital bills, you have the mom who is struggling with holding on too tight or not enough because she can’t lose Delaney again.

Everyone is battling with guilt including Delaney, her parents and Decker, which makes for a busy book. I’d suggest a focus on one character and flesh that out to make it feel more real.

Later in the story, Delaney meets Troy who is just like her. However, Troy uses his fractured brain to identify people who are dying and suffering and puts them out of their misery. First, I have a huge issue with God Complexes. You can never justify ending someone’s life prematurely, especially if you have a nineteen year old with little medical education making that decision. Second, if that’s his MO, why did he try to kill Delaney in the hospital when she was not “suffering” but rather “healing” and fighting to survive? What he did was conflicting IMO.

In terms of character development, I’ll keep this one simple… make Delaney more likeable. She seems cold and not just because she was stuck in a frozen lake for 11 minutes. The way she treats her friends when they come to visit her and Decker needs to remind her to “Be Nice”; the way she feels about old people; the way she treats Decker who saved her life… all pretty harsh IMO. The reader has to like her in order for us to want her to survive.

Lastly, I have a few open issues I feel should have been resolved, including the incident between Janna and Delaney at the funeral. It was both awkward and completely unresolved. The author rushed the ending and sacrificed any additional insight or resolution to this matter. Then, what happened at the lake with Troy and Delaney was a bit odd and sudden. He never seemed suicidal before. It seemed he found a way to deal with his condition and to try and bring Delaney down with him, was that depression or jealous rage? That needed more explanation. The ending was too abrupt and out of place, and with Decker and Delaney leaving the scene of the accident to go make out was a bit weird to say the least.

Overall, the plot needs to be fleshed out, the character development needs some attention, the grammar errors need some fixing and the conclusion shouldn’t feel rushed. In short, I feel this book really has potential so I hope there’s still an opportunity to tighten this story up before its release.

[Christen (GoldiloxReads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gasp. I loved this book. Get it, read it, do it now!

Er...okay, let me back it up. Fracture is the story of what a teenage girl faces after surviving a near-death experience that really should have killed her. And, oh yeah, there's some paranormal stuff too.

Delaney Maxwell fell through the ice at a local pond in the middle of winter and it was eleven minutes before she was rescued by her best guy friend Decker. The story begins with Delaney waking up in the hospital and realizing what she has been through. As the story continues, the reader experiences everything Delaney goes through as she transitions back into her regular life and discovers something unusual about herself...she is now 'pulled' toward people who are dying. Delaney struggles to understand this, and to decipher whether she feels drawn to these people because they are dying or if they are dying because she is drawn to them. She also feels pulled by a different sort of attraction...to Decker. There have been underlying feelings between the two for a while, and after Delaney's almost death, both teens struggle to come to terms with these awkward feelings. Along the way, Delaney tries to learn how her 'new brain' works, finds out who her real friends are, and meets another who suffers from the same unnerving condition. But is he trying to help her, or hurt her?

This story was amazing. I typically stick to all things paranormal, and the paranormal element here was light. This story was more about Delaney, Decker, and the other people, and not as much Delaney's new 'gift'. However, I was thoroughly entranced and impressed by new author Megan Miranda. Her writing style is smooth and real and I loved being inside Delaney's head. No part of the story was overdone. Despite the supernatural ability Delaney gains, Miranda still manages to keep the story fully realistic. I loved seeing how Delaney and Decker's relationship developed as the story went on and appreciated how believable the awkwardness was. It was exactly as one might expect real teenagers to act. I also loved how Miranda made me feel such a range of emotions when it came to another character, Troy. I felt pity, dislike, longing...and that was all in one chapter. Overall, is a must read this winter for paranormal and contemporary young adult fans (and perhaps even those who don't usually read young adult).

An advance copy of this book was provided was Book Divas.

Read more of my reviews at goldiloxandthethreeweres.blogspot.com

[Susan's Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast-paced, edge of your seat reading. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

For eleven minutes, Delaney was trapped in the lake under a sheet of ice.



On her way to a party, Delaney and her best friend Decker take a short cut across the frozen lake. Alas, she slips and then falls through the ice, drowning under the solid ice of the lake. Decker manages to locate her beneath the ice and pull her out and administer CPR. Miraculously, she survives, but remains in a deep coma. When she suddenly wakes up from her coma - she seems to have suffered no brain damage, despite all of the doctors previous predictions.

A spooky story with many twists and turns. This was a great read - highly recommended for one of those days when you just want to lose yourself in a good story!

[Giselle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delaney died, for 11 minutes she was under freezing water. Miraculously, she survived but now she can sense when someone is going to die. This concept is definitely intriguing. It was even moreso for me, who hadn't read the blurb in months and had no idea what I was getting into. Going in blind made Delaney's ability as much a mystery to me as it was to her. It was a lot of fun simply going with the flow - not knowing more than the characters for once.

Delaney is a tough character to swallow. She can be a bit dramatic, sometimes cold. She reacts so suddenly to situations that a few times I thought I had missed something. I didn't particularly understand her enough to say I liked her or disliked her. She's just floating in between. I particularly didn't like how she leads Decker on, but then gets mad at him for finding someone else. Or how she was deathly scared of Troy one minute (which, to me, seemed strange and sudden), but the next she was off to find him. What about this Troy? Him, I liked. He's sexy, charming, confusing, fearsome : he's one deep character. I loved the part that he played in the story. Even though his actions can be predictable, he has a strong, fierce personality that is perfect for the tone of the book. To put it bluntly - he's a crazy mofo!

One thing that I have to applaud is the writing. I loved how the complexity of the human mind was depicted. It's easy for the reader to see that Troy is mentally unhealthy. Whether it's because of his ability or his coma, his mental state of mind is unsettling. His character is very intense: You can feel how unstable he is and fear him for it. Though not just Troy, the whole plot has a very "touch it and it may shatter" feel to it, mostly due to the deep, even sophisticated prose. The genre itself, however, is very obscure. Subplots encompass many genres without focusing on one in particular: Thriller, romance, paranormal, mystery. I felt disoriented by this, not being sure where the story was going to go next. I feel like the book had a lot more potential- if it was simply more focused. In the end, however, I can say that I truly did enjoy the book overall. I love mysteries, and this one was a fun, deep and disturbing story. I wish things ended more resolved, but all in all I was satisfied with it.

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For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads

[Ceilidh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Once your publisher starts promoting your book and mentioning it in the same vein as two of the most well received books in YA in recent years, immediately you have a lot to live up to. While I didn't adore “If I Stay”, I thought it achieved its objective – to present a young woman's life and her existential struggles – with a deft hand, one that is difficult to pull off for even the most talented writer. For Megan Miranda's debut (which is also a standalone, a refreshing occurrence in a field that churns out more multi-book series than it knows what to do with), the personal elements are much more successful than other parts.

The relatively short “Fracture” has many ideas running through it and, perhaps inevitably, not all of them work. The main issue arises from a lack of a central focus, which leaves the narrative prone to wandering off and slowing down to almost a complete halt. Sometimes the book can't decide what it wants to be – does it want to be a romance? A mystery? An exploration of human nature and death? Each segment succeeds to varying degrees, although none is given enough time to develop into something truly gripping, although the potential is clearly there, especially in the mystery elements, where Miranda creates some surprisingly tense moments and even surprised me when I thought things were becoming too predictable. Some scenes feel rushed and/or have no real resolution. A strong editor could work wonders for this book and turn it from good to great.

I've read some reviews which levelled complaints with the heroine Delaney and her coldness, but I actually found this rather refreshing. She provided a welcome change from the usual selection of blank faces I've become all too accustomed to in YA. I can definitely see many readers having a problem with this though. Her multiple boy troubles, however, grated on me. No less than 3 young men are presented as possible love interests for Delaney and none are given any page time to develop into a viable option for her (although, to give huge credit to Miranda, she turns the tables when things seem to be following an all to familiar YA romance route.) The story needed to either develop the romantic element further, concentrating on no more than two boys (you know how much I just love my love triangles!) or getting rid of the sub-plot altogether.

There's one element of this book that I have to discuss. Once again, here's another YA novel with a female antagonist who serves no purpose to the plot other than to be promiscuous and act as a straw-figure to compare the heroine to. She genuinely does nothing of any important besides act as the most minor of road-blocks in the possible relationship between Delaney and best friend Decker, and is almost always described in terms of her tight clothing or promiscuous nature, constantly talking about sex or getting naked. At one point she is described as "pathetic in her too-tight clothes, desperate for attention." We shouldn't have to keep going over this, YA. Stop demonising girls who have sex as sluts! Stop using it as a cheap shortcut to avoid characterisation of the already clichéd and damaging teen female antagonist role! The character was of no consequence and really didn't need to be in the book, so her inclusion felt all the more bitter and forced me to knock half a star from the review.

The potential within “Fracture” is evident and there are moments where Miranda really shines, especially within the mystery elements and Delaney's inner turmoil, but it's a work that needs to be seriously fleshed out. If certain plot lines, characters and situations could be tightened up and built upon, the book could be a very interesting and gripping piece of work. As it is, it's a perfectly readable story that fails to satisfy in the way it has the potential to do so.

2.5/5.

“Fracture” will be released in USA on January 12th 2012. I received my ARC from NetGalley.com.

[Nafiza · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know for certain that there will be lots of mixed reviews about Megan Miranda’s debut novel but for me, it was a strong five star novel and I don’t hand out five stars lightly. The book isn’t perfect but its strengths are such that they overshadow the lesser elements and make the reader, well, me, forget the imperfections exist.

The premise of the novel is intriguing and I felt that the execution stayed true to it. One of the strengths of the novels is its characterizations, the way in which the characters are developed and grow throughout the book. Delaney is one of the strongest protagonists out there. She manages to absorb you into her world, into the events occurring in her life without seeming like a caricature of a person, or acting as though the emotions she is evincing are artificial. The emotions she expresses, her despair, her confusion, these are all so realistically rendered that I found myself feeling her emotions – and this doesn’t happen to me often. (Aside: I have become proficient at holding myself apart while reading a novel, firmly in the place of a reader as this is very helpful when doing a close “reading” of any novel so any book that can grab me so completely automatically confirms its awesomeness.)

The romance in this is complex. While other people will say there is a love triangle, I hesitate to label it as such because it manifests in a way that is not at all similar to other love triangles. There is a complexity in the relationships – actually, no, I don’t think it’s a love triangle at all. There are emotions yes, but as I said, they are complex and I appreciate how Miranda gave the age old trope a very different twist. I also like the way she played out another often used trope: the best friend dilemma. Decker may be the “other” guy, you know, the Jacob person, who usually loses out on the girl due to the appearance of sparkly creatures, and it would have been ridiculously easy to go that route but Miranda doesn’t and I am very thankful for that. Decker and Delaney’s relationship is layered, there are years, hours and lifetimes, of history between them. Neither of them are perfect and Delaney’s reaction (and hostility) towards him are warranted. Delaney doesn’t behave like a pendulum swinging back and forth between two boys and I am very thankful for that.

But you know, the main reason I gave this book five stars was because of the writing. I am not going to lie. It is the writing that gets me every single time. And the writing in Fracture is beautiful. I’ll leave you with an excerpt that will hopefully convince you to give this book (and Megan Miranda) a chance:

“I leaned against my door, struggling to catch my breath, and though that maybe hell wasn’t a place at all, but a thing. A contagious thing. A thing that could creep up the steps, seep through the crack under my door, grow horns and sprout fire – smelling faintly like sulfur. A thing that could sink its tendrils inside and take root, colouring everything gray and distorting a smile into a sneer. And while I got dressed for the play, I swatted at my back and kept running my hands over my stomach because I could feel it, I swear, I could feel it reaching for me, trying to grab hold.”

[♥Rachel♥ · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

I really wanted to like this book. The premise sounded so cool to me, eerie and suspenseful with a bit of romance thrown in. Unfortunately, after finishing this, I ended up being completely frustrated. I'm not saying there wasn't any good to this story, because there was, but to me the frustration overshadowed.

Delaney Maxwell plunges under the ice of a frozen lake and isn't pulled out for eleven minutes. She is pulled out and resuscitated by her best friend, Decker. She ends up in a coma for six days with the doctors expecting her to be in a permanent vegetative state. Miraculously, Delaney wakes up. Decker has been by her side for most of the time she's been out, inconsolable. This is when things get interesting. One night, while still recovering, Delaney feels an irresistible pull down the hall. She gets up and follows this pull to a room of someone dying. The doctors call a code blue and get Delaney back to her room. She finds out later that this patient dies. When Delaney gets out of the hospital she feels the pull again and again. Enter mysterious Troy. He starts talking to Delaney at a library while she is studying with a friend. He claims to know her through an article in the paper about her accident. Come to find out there is no article, creepy. Delaney finds this out pretty much right after meeting him. Delaney ends up spotting Troy every time she has one of her "pulls." She does some research on him and finds out that they have a lot in common, more creepy.

So this is the basic outline of the story. Add to this the romance plot which is not a triangle, which can be quite frustrating on its own, but a quadrangle. Scratch that, what's the word for five people entangled? Whatever it is…. that's the word, aka: kill me now!! Delaney has Decker, Carson, and Troy in the mix and Decker has Tara (barf). The actions involved in this very messy relationship drama was enough to have me looking to see how many pages I had left before this torture would end, and this was not a very long book (262 pages). Plus I felt that if Decker and Delaney were really that close and truly best friends a lot of these actions would not have taken place.

I feel really, really bad writing a review like this, especially when this is the debut for this author. Truly, this might just be me, and I would be willing to try this author's future work. As I said before, this story showed a lot of promise.

[starryeyedjen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please stop by The Starry-Eyed Revue for an interview with Fracture author Megan Miranda and a GIVEAWAY -- an ARC of Fracture and a bookplate signed by Megan! Giveway ends 2/29!

This story was so unexpected and surprising. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I almost didn’t even give it a try. I passed it up several times on Netgalley because I was afraid it would be too contemporary for my taste. I’m glad I did eventually read it, though, because it’s now going on my favorites shelf. Seriously…it’s not very often that I’m left completely satisfied at the end of a novel. And it appears that this is a stand-alone…bonus points for that.

The entire time I was reading this story, I kept thinking to myself, she could be writing about me. The mistakes, the heartbreak, even the academic aspect felt all-too familiar to me. At least, the teenage version of me. And yet, the story was unpredictable. It doesn’t skip a beat getting right to the action, and though it’s not explosive action, there’s never a lull in the storyline. When I wasn’t reading the book, I was thinking about it, and I stayed up way past my bedtime trying to find a good place to stop for the night. (There’s not one…I suggest you read it straight through if you can.)

Fracture is reminiscent of Kimberly Derting’s The Body Finder series, except instead of being lured by the imprints of dead bodies as Violet is, Delaney seems to be drawn to those who are on the brink of death. Even the best friend/potential boyfriend angle is similar, but it’s handled so differently in Fracture that that’s where the similarity ends.

The characters were very realistic, as were the character interactions. I never once thought, A real teenager wouldn’t say that. Delaney was impulsive and stubborn and afraid of being hurt, just like any other girl. Her relationship with her best friend Decker was strained after the accident because everything had changed, and he was harboring some serious guilt. Her parents treated her like she was someone else, someone they didn’t know. And yet Delaney persevered, threw herself into her studies to try to get back to normal. Enter Troy. Like matters weren’t complicated enough.

If the story itself wasn’t perfectly orchestrated, that ending sure was. Wow. I’m not one to be easily surprised either. I’ve been reading for a long time, and I’ve come to expect certain things from the writing in this genre, and most of the time, those expectations are met, be that good or bad. But with this novel, I can honestly say I did not see that ending coming. Actually, I didn’t see a lot of what was coming in this story. I know many are raving about this book, and I have to agree…this is definitely one book not to miss!

After reading Fracture, check it out on Facebook to read a short story told from Decker's POV from the eleven minutes Delaney was under the ice to when she wakes up, six days later.  Your only payment is a tweet or a Facebook share.  Enjoy!

This review also appears at The Starry-Eyed Revue.

A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley for review.

[i. · Rating 3 out of 5]

In spite of having read books with similar plots, that is people who come back with special powers, this novel didn't disappoint me . Although there are some parts which are a bit spooky for my taste , I must admit I am easily scared. The love triangle is more interesting than in other YA novels and darker as well. If you don't mind reading a novel in which the characters deal with death on a daily basis, you will certainly enjoy it.

www.theleisurediaries.blogspot.com

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

“If you had one day to live, what would you do?”

As soon as I heard about Fracture I knew it was a book I wanted to read. I’ll be honest though, I was a little unsure of it because it says it’s for fans of Gayle Forman’s If I Stay. Now, I didn’t like If I Stay so you can see why I was unsure to start with but let me tell you; Fracture is a heart-stopping, dangerous and thrilling ride and a fantastic debut novel by author Megan Miranda.

The blurb above pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the plot but what it doesn’t say is expect to be thrown into a captivating story from page one. From the get go I was completely fascinated with the story; it was everything I was hoping it would be and so much more. It was intense, heart-breaking, spine-tingly and what surprised me the most was the romance which was completely heart-warming and a fantastic edition.

The characters were lovely to read about. I loved Delaney, she was a normal girl who was very down to earth and had a normal life. When she dies, things change for her. She realises she is just going through the moments and that her family life isn’t as perfect as she once thought. Her best friend Decker, who is also the love interest starts acting weird around her and when he starts dating a girl named Tara, Delaney and Decker can’t help fighting with each other. They love each other but find it hard to talk about their feelings but their scenes together are very intense and you can’t help root for them from the start. And yes, I fell for Decker! How can you not? He is amazing!

There were also so many aspects of this story that I just adored, even though some of them weren’t the happiest of times but I just loved the world that the author created. The idea of someone coming back to life and then having the ability to feel other people dying but not only that, also creating someone else with the same ability was just brilliant. It was kind of like Good vs. Evil; Delaney being good and Troy being bad. You can’t have one without the other, like yin and yang and I adored the combination of it in this story.

Overall, Fracture was a fantastic read. Megan Miranda did an awesome job and I can’t wait to see what comes next from her. I’d highly recommend this to any reader but especially to people that weren’t fans of If I Stay, like me because it may just surprise them.

Thank you to Bloomsbury for giving me the opportunity to review this book.

[Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found the plot confusing and rather boring at times. I got through 2/3 of the book and just skipped to the end, and found no enlightenment in the conclusion. Also, way too many supporting characters. I will not be reading the sequel.

[Deanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

BEST! BOOK! EVER! I read it in one sitting and nothing or no one could make me tear myself away from it!!! What would I do if it was my last day? Well, read this book of course:).

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars: A near death experience, leaves Delaney with a startling new supernatural ability. 

Delaney bounds down the stairs, after wriggling into thermal wear, that has mysteriously shrunk since last year. Her best friend and next door neighbor, Decker is waiting for her.   It is December in Maine, and the pair is headed to the ice crusted lake to spend an afternoon engaging in a game of "manhunt" in the snowy woods.  Delaney slips into her bright red coat, she is going to stick out like a sore thumb against the wintry white background. They are running late, so Decker decides to take the short cut and head across the frozen lake.  Cautiously, Delaney trails behind Decker on the slick ice, trying to keep her footing.  As she reaches the half way point, she looks up to see Decker and the gang waving at her to hurry up.  Delaney picks up the pace.  Her foot slides and she falls onto the ice-covered lake.  The thin ice shudders and groans beneath her weight.  Spidery cracks form around her body and then the ice breaks.  The bitter cold water slams against her skin, sucking her breath away.  Her heavy winter gear drags her down into the dark, icy depths.  She is sinking and dying..blackness washes over her she fades into oblivion.  A bright light flashes against the backs of her eyelids.  Consciousness slowly pricks at her numb mind.  She overhears a voice, not an angelic voice, but a doctor.  He is telling her parents she may never wake, she might remain in a vegetative state for an indefinite period.  It has already been six days, the prognosis isn't looking good.  Wait...she thinks..six days? Delaney's eyes slowly flutter open, she is alive!  Miraculously, she seems almost untouched, after her arctic plunge, much to everyone's surprise and relief.  She spent eleven minutes trapped below the sheet of ice on the lake.  She should have died.  Decker nearly fell in after her, as he  tried to rescue her.  Turns out her red coat saved her life.  Delaney hopes to slip back into her normal life, but something isn't quite right.  She feels an uncontrollable itching sensation and a strange pull in her brain, guiding her to those souls, near death. Then she meets a mysterious boy named, Troy, who seems to know a great deal about her accident.  Why does she feel this strange tugging?  What is Troy hiding? 

What I Liked:

*The opening of this book grabs you and drags you right into the freezing depths of the lake.  The author does a terrific job in conveying the terror of falling through the ice and then the daze and confusion that follows waking up in the hospital. 
*Ms. Miranda, is an excellent story teller.  Her story flows smoothly as she takes you through Delaney's accident and recovery.  I enjoyed Delaney's voice.  She is funny, without being sarcastic.  She has some curves but takes it in stride. She does obsess a bit over her studies but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Delaney is a likable female protagonist.
*I enjoyed the strong friendship between Delaney and Decker.  They have been inseparable best friends since childhood.  The comfortable warm bond between them was one of my favorite aspects.
*I liked the real depiction of a girl who returns from the clutches of death.  The emotional upheaval that Delaney experiences as she plugs back into her real life, was eye opening.  The struggle to understand what happened and a bit of guilt blended with her strange new sense provide an interesting story line.  I appreciated gaining an understanding of  the strain her near death experience is for everyone around her.  This book brings to light the range of emotions that survivors and their loved ones encounter.
*I liked that the story resolves neatly and most of my lingering questions are answered but the door is left open for a continuation.

 And The Not So Much:

*While I loved the idea of Delaney returning from near death with a supernatural ability, it lacked a bit of originality.  Having just recently read, The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting and Soul Screamers by Rachel Vincent, I found Delaney's new sense had shades of both of these books.  While the best friends portion was reminiscent of Violet and Jay.  I found myself drawing comparisons to the other two series.  If I hadn't read these books before reading Fracture, I would have enjoyed the book more. Unfortunately, I found that Fracture suffered from a lack of originality.  Thus, the reason I gave it a lower rating.  It would have been a four star read otherwise.
*One of my favorite aspects of the book was the easy companionship between Decker and Delaney, I hated to see the relationship struggle a bit after the accident. 
*Troy, this character left me conflicted.  Even after his story was revealed, I couldn't feel warmly or sympathetic toward him.  I wanted to like him but I couldn't.   
*It seems that Delaney's mother suffers more from survivor's guilt than Delaney.  Interesting glimpses are offered on her mother's history that help explain some of her strange behavior.  At the end of the book I was left with a few remaining questions and left wondering if her mother was going to fully recover.

If you are looking for a new read with a slight touch of the supernatural, then I would recommend you pick up a copy of Fracture.  Especially, if you enjoyed Body Finder and Soul Screamers.  This book is reminiscent of both of those books, but still an enjoyable and entertaining read.  Megan Miranda's is another debut author I will be watching, her book shows she is a promising new talent.

 A copy of this book was provided by Walker and Company courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite Quotations:

"A man in white who was decidedly not God stuck a penlight into each eye, once, twice, and pulled a tube the size of a garden hose from my throat."

"There was a hole of time, and nobody would fill it."

"The house transformed into a living entity.  It smelled of life, fluttered with activity, absorbed sounds, and produced warmth."

"I wasn't athletic and had no desire to work out, so I watched what I ate.  Correction: I ate what I wanted and felt guilty."

"I loved the smell of books.  I kept breathing in until I felt too light, like I was inhaling all the knowledge from the books and there was no place for the information to go."

"Maybe hell was just an absence of something.  A void wanting to be filled."

"Decker was always able to believe in the impossible--that I could live when I was dead, that it could snow in August, that loving me was enough."

"Funny how everything can change in an instant.  From death to life.  From empty to full.  From darkness to light."

Originally posted on my blog: http://rainydayramblings.typepad.com/

[TheBookSmugglers · Rating 3 out of 5]

First Impressions:

Thea: Fracture has one of the most effective excerpts I’ve read in a long time (see the “On The Plot” section for that) – I was hooked by that little snipped and eagerly plunged into the book without really knowing what it would be about. Near death experiences that leave a protagonist inexplicably changed, usually with some sort of preternatural connection to death/the dying/psychic abilities/etc is a fairly common trope in speculative fiction, but I was keen on seeing just how Megan Miranda would spin it to fit her particular story.1 While Fracture has a killer beginning and an eerie quality to the writing that sticks with readers, I don’t quite feel like it lived up to the potential of its early chapters. It’s an enjoyable book and a quick read, but I can’t help but feel like there could have been more to the story.

Ana: I didn’t have any real expectations about Fracture beyond hoping it would be a good read. Overall, I pretty much agree with Thea on all accounts: the book starts off really well, the writing is competent, there are a few strong elements throughout and it was a breezy read. But toward the second half, the story lags considerably, the plot it’s all over the place and many things were just underdeveloped. I too, don’t think it lives up to its potential and I finished it feeling underwhelmed.

On the Plot:

"A lot can happen in eleven minutes. Decker can run two miles easily in eleven minutes. I once wrote an English essay in ten. No lie. And God knows Carson Levine can talk a girl out of her clothes in half that time.

Eleven minutes might as well be eternity under water. It only takes three minutes without air for loss of consciousness. Permanent brain damage begins at four minutes. And then, when the oxygen runs out, full cardiac arrest occurs. Death is possible at five minutes. Probable at seven. Definite at ten.

Decker pulled me out at eleven."

Thea: On a cold Maine evening, Delaney and her best friend Decker head out to meet friends for a night of fun. Things go terribly wrong when Delaney slips while crossing a frozen lake and the ice fractures beneath her.

For eleven minutes, Delaney is submerged in the freezing water.

When she awakens, she finds herself in a hospital bed, a week after her fall. For seven days, Delaney has been in a coma from which no one expects her to awaken, certainly not with all of her cognitive processes. Her medical scans show irreparable brain damage – Delaney should be a vegetable. But she’s not. Delaney is a bonafide medical miracle, back from the dead without any side effects…except for the strange pull she feels towards people who are about to die. Delaney soon learns that she’s not alone when she meets Troy Varga, an older boy who also survived incredible trauma and should not be alive. Both Delaney and Troy feel the pull of death, but the question remains: what will they do with their newfound power?

As I’ve said before, the near death experience leading to supernatural abilities is a fairly familiar trope, though it can be very fun and effective if done well. Fracture begins by hitting all the right notes – there’s a sense of foreboding in Delaney’s narrative as she heads out onto the ice, and later when she awakens in her hospital bed and the gradual horror of what has happened dawns on her. There’s a beautiful, creeping dread to the atmosphere of Fracture, which I credit in large part because Megan Miranda’s ability to tell a story plainly, without excess or embellishment. Delaney’s emotions are raw and vulnerable, and the novel’s prose sparing and restrained – take that excerpted section above, for example. I loved that the book is no longer than it needs to be, and that this story is complete in and of itself, without needing to drag things out over a series. Fracture is at its best in the quiet and the cold, and is a refreshingly contained book both in style and in substance.

Praises said, there were things that kept me from truly loving the book with wholehearted abandon. While the first chapters of the novel had so much potential, the book never quite lives up to that initial promise. While Delaney’s struggle to understand what has happened to her and her newfound “power” is an engaging conflict and I loved the way the story shifted and comes down to an ideological difference between Delaney and Troy, there was a missing sense of urgency to the novel. Delaney’s actions were so frustrating because instead of actually TALKING to people she loves and trusts, she bottles things up or quite incompetently, halfheartedly tries to save people from death – and when she fails, she takes it as a sign of the inevitable.2 Delaney is so reactionary, and for all her claims that she’s “smart” is headdeskingly dense. But more on that in a bit.

I guess the thing that was so disappointing for me about this book was that haunting sense of unfulfilled potential. Nothing new is tried with the familiar supernatural power after dying trope, Delaney’s passivity, and the predictable drama/quadrangle between Delaney, Troy, Decker, and Tara is tepid at best. There’s also some jarring repetition towards the later chapters of the book (Delaney’s repeated assertions that she’s a smart girl, the “if you only had one day to live” question, the incessant “I’m a miracle…I’m damaged…am I human?” loop through Delaney’s narrative), and some unresolved/half-baked threads between Delaney and her mother’s troubled past (where the heck does that fit in?) only detracted from the experience.

Ana: In the interest of full disclosure, as this definitely impacted on how I felt about the book – I am not really a fan of the “near death experience leading to supernatural abilities” trope. Having said that, I kind of feel that the supernatural element was out of place here and the strongest aspect of Fracture for me were the non-supernatural bits. From Delaney’s strong narrative voice to her relationships with family and friends; from her strained recovery after the accident to the psychological issues that stemmed from it which included a bit of survivor’s guilt and eventual realisation about how fragile life is. These are the things that made the book so readable and relatable. These elements were really well done and thought-provoking. I also quite liked the romantic elements of the plot and thought the whole relationship with Decker was quite sweet if predictable.

But then we also have the unexplainable supernatural pull of death that she got after the accident and to me they almost felt like an after-thought. Although the whole things do add a degree of suspense especially when it comes to her relationship with Troy, it was also the greatest source of frustration when reading the novel. How could Delaney not add one plus one when it came to Troy’s activities when it was all so obvious? Does everybody coming from a near-death experience get the “pull of death”? What does that mean to Delaney’s life in the long-term? Will she be going through life telling people to Carpe Diem? There is this incredibly slow build up in the first half and then the last part of the novel is so rushed up and so many things are left unresolved – at least for me – that I honestly thought the book was the first in a series.

On the Characters:

Thea: If I was initially won over by the writing, I was somewhat less thrilled by the characters. Delaney as a heroine has potential because she’s so introspective and open with her emotions, which I love, but dense, repetitive, and ultimately passive with her abilities, which is incredibly frustrating to read. Obviously, there’s a lot of soul searching she must do in this book and her examination of what makes a person human – a heart and two legs? A working brain? – is initially endearing, but goes cold by the end of the novel because of the constant repetition. I also wasn’t very impressed with her character arc and how easily she gives up on her abilities or exploring what she could possibly do with her gift for seeking out death.

From a secondary character perspective, I loved that there is a complicated relationship between Delaney and her mother, but the mother’s troubled family past comes out of left field and is never really convincingly integrated in the story. From the boy side of the equation, Delaney, predictably, has a close friendship with Decker that is complicated by more intense emotions that aren’t quite platonic. There’s the predictable tension and drama when Delaney meets Troy (an older boy who OF COURSE is hot and into Delaney instantly), and as Decker seeks his own solace in the arms of Tara (a girl that Delaney can’t stand). And, instead of acknowledging feelings or talking about things, when Decker confesses his emotions and lays his heart bare for Delaney, she frustratingly makes up some ridiculous excuses and refuses to deal with the issues at hand. It’s incredibly annoying, and felt less like a girl struggling to deal with her own issues than a device to continue to produce romantic tension.

Ana: Delaney is the narrator and one of my favourite things about Fracture is her narrative voice: sometimes she came across raw and vulnerable, sometimes naïve and cheesy and as much as she sometimes frustrated me I always felt her to be relatable in a very honest, realistic way. I enjoyed Delaney and Decker’s relationship and how it evolved from friendship to love and I loved how it wasn’t an easy thing. There were hurdles along the way and mistakes were made by both parts which only made it all the more genuine.

Despite its soap opera-inspired name, Troy Vargas was perhaps the most fascinating character of the bunch. He was truly, REALLY messed up and his actions were ethically, morally wrong but he was not an evil, downright black and white villainous character. I do feel that his eventual demise was a bit of a cop-out and I would have liked to see real consequences for his actions. There is also a secondary plot-line involving Delaney’s mother and her breakdown about her own past which is thrown in left-field and was never truly integrated in the story.

Finally, I disliked the way some of the secondary female characters were described in the book as most of their descriptions included their too “tight” clothes and it felt too close to slut-shaming for my tastes and it did leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Final Thoughts, Observations & Rating:

Thea: I loved the initial setup for the book and the atmospheric writing, however the characters and ultimate plot fell short of living up to its true potential. Fracture is a quick, diverting read, but I can’t help but feel like I needed a little more.

Ana: Fracture was a very uneven read. It has a strong start, good writing and a thought-provoking theme but it lost itself in its faltering pacing, unresolved issues and unnecessary paranormal shenanigans. It is not a bad book but it could have been much better and ultimately, I was rather disappointed.

[Aydan Yalçın · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5 okumasam-da-olurdu yıldız.

Gizem gerilim konusunda beklentileri kesinlikle karşılamıyor.

[aidanadia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Occasionally, I come across a book and realise how difficult the reviewing process is. Fracture by Megan Miranda was one such book. Despite the amount of content and drama, I was left feeling thoroughly ambivalent, as though there was something missing, something fundamentally dissatisfying about this tale. All the aspects of this story attempted to make some remark and strike a chord within the reader, but ultimately fell short.

Fracture tells the story of Delaney, a girl who falls through ice and ‘dies’, yet manages to recover from her comatose state and continue living. She is truly a miracle. However, she starts to feel estranged from her life and self. Delaney starts to experience disconcerting ‘pulls’ towards dying and decaying people, sees ominous shadows where they don’t belong, and has awkward, pseudo-romantic urges and tête-à-têtes with Messrs Decker, Carson and Troy.

Megan Miranda introduces an interesting hypothetical. If someone dies and returns, does their essence or psyche undergo some sort of radical transformation? Is Delaney, our beloved protagonist, ultimately a different person than she was pre-drowning? Are we susceptible to change through our unique experiences, or are we static beings? These questions are tentatively proposed in lines such as:

“Words can cut, slice, like a razor. The old Delaney would’ve asked permission. The old Delaney with the normal brain scan. I was someone else.”

However, the ‘someone else’ factor is never given the opportunity to come to fruition. Besides her newly found sixth sense, the reader is rarely exposed to the old Delaney. Instead of the writing itself demonstrating the possibility of the existence of multiple personae, we are told – and that, I believe, is what strikes at the heart of a decent idea and quashes its potential. Instead of experiencing first-hand how Delaney’s rebirth makes her ‘new’, we are only given dull, lifeless lines such as:

“First day of preschool, some girl dipped my pigtail in blue paint. Traumatic. I become decidedly unfriendly to my classmates”

that attempt to elucidate a fundamental difference in self and character. Binary oppositions such as new/old and life/death are almost redefined – almost being the key word. While there was potential for these philosophical musings to break the tiresome mould of YA storylines, they become radically subsumed by the other aspects of the story, unable to truly shine on their own.

Fracture introduces a love-square of sorts. While this is an admirable feat, it comes to a disappointing conclusion because the romantic relationships are somehow devoid of romance. So many boys, which to choose? Delaney’s characterisation, for a start, begs the question of why three such boys are remotely interested in her. Besides being told that she is beautiful and brainy, Delaney is as frigid as the lake she drowned in. While Delaney goes through the motions of her life, I had trouble believing she was truly alive. The only time she deigns to show any emotion is when she experiences her unusual ‘sensations’. Leading on from this, the inevitable romance was utterly unconvincing. The displays of affection were mechanical and unable to create any sort of titillating effect. The display of affection in the line:

‘…leaned over and kissed me, a smacking, wet kiss that landed half on my mouth and half on my cheek. I could feel it, wet and getting colder’

essentially sums up the range of romance offered by Fracture – mechanical and unable to create any sort of titillating or tantalising effect. In fact, this sentiment could be extended to encompass all aspects of this story.

Every story has to have a complication, and Fracture’s anti-hero manifests itself in the form of Troy Varga. As far as ‘bad boys’ come, Troy is unconvincing and somewhat overbearing in his performance of a menace with a God complex. Lines such as:

‘Troy gripped my upper arm. “Why did you do that?” Then he shook me. “How stupid can you be?”’

showcase the sub-par writing and the clunky imagery of depicting evil. I found myself drowning painfully in Troy’s melodramatic anger and desire to one-up Delaney. Instead of invoking a sense of disgust or horror, Troy’s words and actions felt forced and invoked many an eye-roll. I always admire a well-written villain, but sadly, Troy wasn’t one.

This is not where Fracture ends. Besides the aforementioned subjects, it continues on to consider euthanasia, God complexes, family disorders and poor friendships. While all intriguing subjects, the overarching failure of this book was its inability to hone in on one subject and flesh it out satisfactorily. I felt rather disappointed considering the ideas has reasonable potential, but it was simply too difficult to rouse any positive emotion with the story jumping around without direction. Unfortunately, Fracture by Megan Miranda ended up being another lack-lustre YA novel, showcasing mediocre storytelling, characterisation and plot. While I didn’t hate it, it’s the newest addition to the teetering pile of books that will never be read again.

[LG (A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Delaney and her friend Decker are walking across an iced over lake when the ice cracks under Delaney's feet. She falls in and is under for 11 minutes. By the time Decker and a few other friends manage to drag her out, Delaney is technically dead. Even if she were to come out of her coma, she would have severe brain damage.

But she does come out of her coma, and despite some headaches, a weird pulling sensation in her mind, and hands that occasionally shake, she seems fine. But she's not. She finds herself looking at the people around her differently, and she eventually learns what that pulling sensation is: she can feel when someone is about to die.

This is another one of the ARCs that I picked up at a conference years ago and never got around to reading. It is apparently Book 1 of a duology, which explains why a few story threads are never completely resolved but, honestly, it felt like all it would have taken was a few extra chapters to wrap everything up. I have no idea why a second book exists and I don't have any plans to read it.

Fracture's initial setup was pretty good: Delaney falling into the water, waking up at the hospital, finding out that no one can explain why she seems fine other than some broken ribs from CPR, and gradually realizing that something isn't quite right. But after that this book became excruciating. Although I called Decker and the others at the lake Delaney's "friends" in my description, they didn't really feel like it. I know the town was supposed to be pretty small, but surely there were other teens around? Couldn't they have made other friends, people they actually liked more?

Delaney came across as emotionally removed from everybody, which I suppose made sense considering what had just happened to her, but it sounded like she hadn't liked a lot of her supposed "friends" even before the accident, except maybe Decker (her childhood friend and semi-secret crush) and Janna (who she got along with, even though they were big academic rivals). However, her relationship with Decker was really messed up. They seemed to have a pattern of hurting each other and then maybe talking about it a bit before never talking about it again so that they could pretend everything was fine. It wasn't the slightest bit fun to read about.

In the second half of the book, I kept wondering why no one in Delaney's family thought to talk to a therapist (money? but no one even brought it up enough to start looking into the cost). Delaney kept saying things to people that sounded suicidal - she showed evidence of survivor guilt and talked about how she wasn't even human anymore. And then there was that incident with the one neighbor earlier in the book, which her parents thought was evidence that Delaney might be a danger to others (and which they dealt with by forcibly medicating her, or so they thought). Delaney's mom wasn't any better. Considering her family history, she probably should have talked to a therapist years before this book started, and the stuff with Delaney just broke her. It got to the point where I was worried every time Delaney went home and wasn't immediately able to find her mom.

This was a short book and should have been a pretty quick read, but by the end it felt like a chore. I'm glad I'm done with it and, like I said, I have no intention of reading the second book, even though this one didn't quite resolve everything. I really don't need to know just how much more horrible things are going to get between Delaney and Janna, and I'm not interested in seeing an angsty romantic relationship somehow happen between Delaney and Decker.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

[Greta is Erikasbuddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the way this book started out!

Kids being kids! Running on the ice. Falling in. Surviving when you should be dead. Waking up but not fully awake.

I kind of thought this story was going to be told in the form of a coma. Actually, I thought it was going to be similar to Elizabeth Scott's "Between Here and Forever", just told from the patient and not the sister.

But it wasn't like that at all.

Delaney is running with her besty neighbor Decker to play a game of Manhunt in early December. They run across a 'frozen' lake but the ice is too thin and SPALSH she falls in and the kids around her save her life. She's in the water drowning for 11 minutes, in a coma for 6 days, and now can sense when people are about to die.

So, is it a super hero story?

I kinda thought that was the way it was going to go. You know, not fighting crime but maybe fighting the reaper.

But, it's not like that either.

Instead, she notices she's different but in the beginning is just so worried that she might fall back on her studies and wants to go back to school and do homework and stuff. That just kind of bored me.

Now, it's a good book but I just couldn't relate with the main character. I honestly wanted to smack her at times and tell her to lighten up and go watch some Tom and Jerry.

Then we meet Troy, who I thought was going to be the fall in love savior bad boy. I mean... is he? He's supposed to be right? But then you get all confused because he is the same way that Delaney is but I'm left even more confused because he's.... evil? Is he? Is he out there killing people? Is he causing the deaths? What the hell is he? It's not explained and it just drove me up the wall.

I also didn't like how quickly the time changed. At one minute it would be sunny out and then the next second it was pitch black dark outside. Maybe I'm just being too picky but that did muck with me.

All in all... this is a very good read. It's not bad! IT's quite good and I loved the author's voice. I just couldn't fall in love with the characters. Maybe it's because I didn't have dreams of being valedictorian. Or maybe it's because I don't live up north and I don't understand the interest in snow. Or maybe it's because some of the answers were just too easy, while some of them were not explained, and others just made me eyeroll and want it to be different.

But don't let that deter you from reading this book. I would totally read something else from this author. This just wasn't my flavor of soda.

[Giselle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delaney, a normal teenage overachiever heads out to the pond to play Man Hunt with her friends. Being the clumsy girl that she is she falls and cracks the ice, falling right into the water.

She ends up being in a coma for a week when all of a sudden she wakes up, fully aware and fully functional. No one understands why she lived, but she does and tries to go back to living her normal life.

I like how ambitious Delaney is about school and working hard to achieve a 4.0 GPA. That was very admirable. What I didn’t understand was why she was always pushing Decker away when he was clearly in love with her. Instead she went for the bad boy Troy who was clearly not well thinking he was doing the right thing by easing the passing of so many elderly folk.

What I truly enjoyed about the book was the thrilling science behind it all. (yes I’m such a nerd!). Delaney should have died, but why didn’t she? Why all of a sudden did am she have an epiphany for death? It sounded a lot like she was the grim reaper.

[K. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trigger warnings: death, drowning, fire, death of a friend, medical emergency.

This book was, like, 90% love triangle about three very bland characters and 10% actual plot, which ended in a way that provided literally zero answers. I felt like I had no idea who the main character was, outside of that she fell through the ice and then inexplicably developed the power to tell when people were about to die. Which, frankly, is a really shitty power.

Everyone had stupid names - Delaney and Decker? Really?? - and I cared about literally no one. I read the whole damn book and I still have zero idea what the purpose of the story even was. So. That's fun.

[Sav Poulos · Rating 2 out of 5]

defo was a quick read but ??? idk maybe i would’ve liked this when i was in middle school but overall didn’t vibe with

think of every y/a, john green, if i stay typa book

[Lacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

First Thoughts:

Wow, this book was intense; I loved almost everything about it; it was one hell of a ride…I loved it! The cover alone was what caused me to dive into this world and boy once I started I just couldn’t stop. I buckled in and finished it in one sitting.

This book definitely had a lot of great qualities to it, there hasn’t been a book like this for me in a while; the writing was so smooth and fun to read that I didn’t find myself struggling to read through the sentences. The grammar definitely was top tee; whoever was the editor sure did their job. As for the plot it was perfect, there was plenty of conflict and sub-plots to keep the reader both interested and wanting to keep turning the pages. The ending of this book had almost all questions and wonderments resolved, the only thing I wished I could have learned more about was the relationship between Delaney and her mother, there was some major conflict going on between them and though the author somewhat hinted at some resolve, I wanted a more solid resolution. But other than that one little thing, I thought the ending ended on the right note and left me breathless. As for the characters themselves, I found them very real and had no trouble whatsoever connecting with them. Each one had their own problems which added to the ultimate issue and created such a unique and fun story. Delaney was perfectly created, all the thoughts and actions she made fit so true to her character that I never once thought her to be “out” of character. She transformed so beautifully throughout this story, she went from one end of the spectrum to the other. I loved her transformation; it was gradual and very believable. As for the other characters, some made transformations and some didn’t, I thought the fact that Troy didn’t was amazing, it really showed to us the reader that people can’t always transform. One of the greatest assets in this book had to be the description; it was so fabulous and fun to read. The feelings in the characters were so beautifully described and orchestrated. The amount of description was perfect, and when there were the slower parts in the books, the description helped describe the scene and made that scene that much more important and beautiful. The writing style was great as mentioned above; it flowed so smooth and was as crisp as a breezy and sunny afternoon. The dialogue was good, I didn’t feel it out of character or fake in any way. This really was a fast and fun read, if this is how the author always writes, I want to read more!

Goodreads Summary:

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?

Last Thoughts:

I would recommend this book to any paranormal romance readers. Though there wasn’t a ton of romance in here, there was a sub-conflict in which romance was center stage. I would also recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading about realistic situations, though the paranormal part of this is in no way realistic, the whole ordeal that Delaney goes through is, the family conflict itself is beautiful and very much realistic. I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re not a fan of conflicting romance and paranormal. Though this is not hardcore paranormal the ability that the main character possesses is very much supernatural. This book was new and fresh, I found myself on a different plot line; none of those mundane and run over ideas or plots. This was definitely fresh and new, I loved every minute of this read. I can’t wait to see what else this author is sure to offer us in the future.

[Ferdy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Delaney miraculously survives being under water for 11 minutes after falling through thin ice of a lake she was trying to cross. She was saved by her best friend, Decker and was in coma for six days. Her doctor is stunned to see she has no apparent long term damage or any noticeable physical, verbal or menntal damage..even though MRI scans show she has attained some brain damage.
Delaney struggles to get back to normal, she's trying to keep up at school, her mother is being overbearing, her best friend is dating Tara - a girl she hates and she's feeling a strange pull whenever she's close to someone who's dying. Delaney has no-one to confide in as her friendhip with Decker is strained, so when she meets Troy, a guy who lost his entire family in a car accident and who himself was in coma, she feels drawn to him. Troy can also feel the same pull to the dying that Delaney can.. Delany wants to help the people she feels are going to die however Troy believes that their death is inevitable and that they can't be helped.
What I didn't like:
- Delaney loves Decker but never opens up to him or talks about her feelings. Decker tell her he loves her but she just ignores it..instead of telling him she feels the same way. The lack of communication between the two could have saved a lot of heartache and feelings of betrayl.
- Delaney's friends helped Decker save her when she fell through the ice and they go onto act as if she's now indebted to them, after the trauma she went through I would have expected compassion and support. One of her friends who pulled Decker back from jumping in to rescue her without getting a rope first even says to her he'd rather have had her die than Decker when she asks why he stopped Decker jumping in to save her straight away..WTF?! What kind friend says that to someone who's just come out of a coma and then he goes on to ignore her and act like she's done something wrong.
-Decker, her best friend who loves her.. kisses Tara at a party that he took Delaney to, he then dates her knowing how it hurts Delaney and then when things get tough with Delaney he stops hanging out with her and instead goes out with his friends and Tara.. Delaney meanwhile has no other friends to turn to. If he really cared about her, he would have stuck by her after her accident and not abandoned her to hang out with Tara, just because they had a fight.. why he was with Tara and his friends instead of Delaney when she was still recovering from her accident and was suffering emotionally..ugh.. things weren't easy between them, but if you love someone you don't leave them to suffer on their own.
- When Delany goes to Carson's funeral, all her friends look at her likes it her fault he's dead..how they came to that conclusion is beyond me.. when he died of a seizure and when she did everything she could to help him.. it was disgusting to read about how they treated her.
-Delaney's parents instead of being happy and grateful she was alive acted like she'd done something wrong.. how her parents could suddely believe she could murder someone.. WTF?! how could they not know their own daughter.. and her mum behaving as if her daughter had died and that the post accident Delaney was somehow different.
-The ending felt unresolved..Is Decker going to dump Tara? Are Delaney's friends going see that she's not to blame for Carsons's death? Is Delaney going to be blamed for Troy's death? How is Delany going to cope with her ability? How is she going to use it help people?
What I liked:
-Troy, he was a psycho but it was a nice twist.. especially when I expected him to turn into the usual 'mysterious, bad boy' YA love interest.
-Delaney's ability to sense the dying.. the premise was good.. a bit like the Soul Screamers series.

[Stephanie (Stepping Out Of The Page) · Rating 4 out of 5]

As soon as I heard about this novel, my mind likened the premise of it to Gayle Forman's If I Stay, which I didn't really enjoy, despite loving the whole idea behind it. Thankfully, in Fracture, Megan Miranda didn't let me down with her emotion-packed story.

Fracture tells the story of seventeen year old Delaney after she has an accident at a local lake, where she falls to her death through thin ice and drowns, leaving her dead for eleven minutes, until she is rescued by her best friend and neighbour, Decker. The accident itself is written extremely well and I almost held my breath throughout it. Emotionally, Delaney is your average teenager in a way that means that the reader can hopefully connect to her - she is slightly neurotic, a little angsty and sometimes a bit vulnerable, but she is still strong, sensible and caring. I found Delaney to be a very genuine, down to earth and grounded character. Delaney isn't completely typical though, as after her accident she is left with a 'gift' (or a curse) that draws her to people who are dying. It is very interesting to see how she copes with this. This ability does add a slight paranormal feel to the book but it's certainly not dominating, I would still recommend this book to those who are not fans of fantasy genres.

Through her ability to sense death, Delaney meets a guy called Troy, who has a similar ability. I didn't instantly like Troy and Miranda does a great job of giving him a sense of uncanniness - I never felt at ease with him. He is a quite mysterious character and brought a lot of suspense to the book. As the book progressed, Troy became more and more manipulative and controlling which gave me a strong dislike to him.

Unlike Troy, I loved Decker all the way through the story, even when he was being a little awkward and had some conflicts with Delaney. I enjoyed seeing how the accident affected him and also how it transformed his relationship with Delaney. I thought that the other friends in their circle were well formed, especially Janna who was a confident, strong female which is nice to see. The characters are a typical high school group who have varied personalities and they work well together, despite their friendships having expected occasional rifts. I would've liked to hear more about them near the end of the book, even if it was in an epilogue.
I also liked the fact that Delaney's parents played quite a large part in the book as often the parents are forgotten about in Young Adult books. Her mother's relationship with her parents often reflected her worries and concerns over Delaney.

There is a good pace that is set from the beginning of this novel, but the last chapters of this story were particularly intense and I felt my emotions changing from page to page. There were plenty of unpredictable twists throughout, but the ending was on-the-edge-of-your-seat reading. Fracture was very difficult to put down, even though I didn't want the book to finish! The ending of the book isn't works well, but it all happened a little fast for me. Most things were tied up by the end, but I think that most of the book could've been explored more. However, the fact that it was concise made the book more intense and it held my attention.

This was a really gripping read and with the quality of it, it's hard to believe that it's Miranda's debut novel. I loved Miranda's descriptive but clear, well paced writing style and I would not hesitate to pick up anything else that she offers. Although this is targeted at the Young Adult age group, I can certainly see it appealing to adult readers too. This is a book that I'd recommend to nearly anyone.

[Adeeb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review originally posted on http://bookville1.blogspot.com/2012/0...

Okay, let me start by saying that the blurb of this book is just the most misleading blurb EVER! Seriously. How I expected this book to be was WAY different than what this book actually was. Some people told me it's paranormal. Others said it's contemporary. I personally think that this book could best be classified as thriller. However, that didn't stop me from finishing this book.

Let's start with the opening sentence. "The first time I died, I didn't see God."

How could anyone NOT go crazy over that? I'm serious. That itself did a great job in keeping me hooked. Then, of course, comes the idea of a girl dying and coming back to life. It's all just really fascinating.

Let's move on to the characters in this book:

1-Delaney: Delaney is the girl who died and miraculously comes back to life. I have to say, Delaney was one of the really awesome YA characters. You get to love her. Even though she isn't your Katniss or Tris (she isn't physically strong), you still get to love her. It's her personality you fall in love with, how she views the world.

2-Troy: Troy was absolutely a very complicated and well-written character. He actually managed to give me shivers. Sometimes I thought he isn't human. Although his inhuman-ness came from humanity.(Read the book you'll understand what I mean more).I mean, he seemed to be doing inhuman actions because of pain. Who kills people thinking that it's better for them? That's unfair. However, this action can somehow be argued as human because he has a point as well, but no matter what, a person shouldn't kill people.

3-Decker: Decker was an admirable character. I guess Decker is a good friend, a person you can rely on type of guy. He's there for you and gives you hope.

I want to talk about the writing style in this book now:

When I first started reading this book, I noticed lots of medical terms. Well, I thought perhaps Miranda researched these medical conditions. However, Miranda wrote in an extraordinary way. She crafted an amazing writing skill. She managed to give us the information well. I mean, she provided us with medical terms without making us confused. At the same time, she did justice to these medical information. She managed to balance between sending her information in a light way. This made me think: "Is Megan Miranda a doctor?" I immediately Googled her, and found out that she was a biologist.

I just have one thing to say:"WOW Megan Miranda. YOU ARE INSPIRATIONAL!!!"

This book is more than just a story. It makes you think. It haunts you. It whispers to you "this could really be real". It frightens you. It makes you ponder. Ahhh. Words can't do this justice.

I loved this book. All those who haven't read this. Pick it up now. Words can't describe how great thos book is, because this book isn't just a story you read to get entertained. It's more than that. It's much more than that.

[Trisha Wolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every once in a while, I love to read a story that really makes me feel. That really makes me think. Fracture explores human fears, emotions, the mind. I can’t quite place the way it made me feel, whether it was lost or hopeful, but it made me feel a range of emotions on a deep level. And I think that’s what you come away with after reading this story. You continue to ponder Delaney’s journey, comparing it to choices and happenings in your own life. It’s beautiful in an unfinished, realistic way.

I loved all the characters, and connected with Delaney and Decker, even Delaney’s parents, as they were are well-developed and responded to situations genuinely, but I have to admit Troy was my favorite. Everyone was in the throes of battling some form of guilt. Delaney, survivors’ guilt, because she came back when she shouldn’t have. Because she came back different or wrong, and she can’t use her ability to save others. She’s not sure why, or what she’s supposed to do with her gift or her curse, but she knows she’s not supposed to be alive. And deep down, she’s not convinced she is. Decker feels guilty because it was his fault Delaney was on the ice, and he didn’t pull her out quick enough. I was convinced Decker couldn’t embrace his feelings for Delaney because he felt he didn’t deserve her forgiveness. But that’s just my theory. And this story allows you to have your own theories about the characters. I love that part also. Her mom struggled with her own guilt because of what was done to her as a child. And she’s not sure how tight to hold onto Delaney or how much freedom to give her and trust her with. There’s just so many emotions going on, and all the while Troy is in the background. I believe Troy struggled the most. His character was scary, and cool, and creepy, and brilliant, and charming, and he just brought the story full circle. Instead of everyone banding together to take down the evil big bad, they face down their own inner demons, the fear lurking in their mind, that question about themselves.

This story didn’t end with every issue or problem resolved. And I liked that. Because it shows that in life, not everything will work out, but you have to keep moving forward. You have to find what drives you, inspires you, and you have to move forward regardless of the mess. A beautiful love story with a beautiful disaster all around and hidden glimpses of human brilliance, Fracture is a must read.