Friday Feature: Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

We weren't always like this. We used to be average New York City high school sophomores. Until our homeroom went for flu shots. We were prepared for some side effects. Maybe a headache. Maybe a sore arm. We definitely didn't expect to get telepathic powers. But suddenly we could hear what everyone was thinking. Our friends. Our parents. Our crushes. Now we all know that Tess is in love with her best friend, Teddy. That Mackenzie cheated on Cooper. That, um, Nurse Carmichael used to be a stripper.

Since we've kept our freakish skill a secret, we can sit next to the class brainiac and ace our tests. We can dump our boyfriends right before they dump us. We know what our friends really think of our jeans, our breath, our new bangs. We always know what's coming. Some of us will thrive. Some of us will crack. None of us will ever be the same.
So stop obsessing about your ex. We're always listening.

My thoughts:
*I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

I loved the premise of this book. First, since the characters wind up with ESP (and call themselves the Espies), they ALL narrate the story, together. I loved that. It's not each character taking designated chapters. They tell it together as "we" and name each character they are talking about. I've never read a book told in this format and it was amazing.

The story begins with a homeroom of teens who are scheduled to get their flu shots that day. All but two get the shots and after that, everything changes. They begin hearing the thoughts of people around them and their eyes take on a purplish tint. At first they are freaked out about this, but some of them soon learn they can use this new ability to their advantage. The problem is, they hear things they don't want to hear, and secrets don't exist between them anymore. All their inner-most thoughts are now public knowledge for this group and that will destroy some of them.

This book reads like contemporary even though it has a fantasy element to it. It's sort of the best of both worlds. There's not a lot of action, but there didn't need to be because it unraveled the characters from the inside out in a way that made me keep turning the pages. I definitely recommend this book and hope there will be a book two.