Review: Impostor by Jill Hathaway

Title: Impostor
Author: Jill Hathaway
Series: Slide, book #2
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: March 26, 2013
Source: ARC from publisher
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

What if a killer took control of you?

Vee Bell’s gift (or curse) of “sliding”—slipping into the mind of another person and experiencing life, briefly, through his or her eyes—has been somewhat under control since she unwillingly witnessed the horrific deaths of her classmates six months ago.

But just as things are getting back to normal, Vee has a very bizarre experience: she loses consciousness and finds herself in a deserted area, at the edge of a cliff, with the broken body of the boy who took advantage of her on the rocks below.

As Vee finds herself in stranger and stranger situations with no memory of getting there, she begins to suspect that someone she knows has the ability to slide—and that this “slider” is using Vee to exact revenge on his or her enemies.

It's funny, I remember loving the first book in this series when I read the ARC last year, but when I started thinking about it, all I could remember was the ending.  And not the ending with Zane but, um, only Rollins.  I have tunnel-vision when it comes to that guy, I guess.  I do so adore the best friend turned love interest, though, so you can't fault me for it.

Needless to say, I had to do a quick re-read of Slide to catch myself up.  Only, you know what?  I didn't....I only thought I needed to.  (That's alright, though...skimming through the first book made me remember exactly why I'm so fixated on Rollins.  :D)  The author expertly called up key plot elements from the first book without dwelling on them too much, and I didn't feel like I'd missed anything.  The story picks up six months after the tumultuous events of Slide and not much has changed in that time, other than Vee dealing with the loss and heartache she suffered in the first book.

And not only is she having nightmares about that fateful night, but it seems that someone else has her ability and is using it to control her actions.  Someone who might be a murderer.  After a prank gone horribly wrong, a boy is left for dead and although Vee was there that night, she has no memory of what really happened.  All of the girls involved in the revenge plot swear to secrecy, but Vee's not sure who to trust anymore.

Including Rollins.  He knows about her ability now, but there's a new girl in his life, and Vee's not sure she can trust him with her heart anymore.  I cringed as this relationship developed because it was obvious to me that these two crazy kids belonged together, especially after all they've been through together, but trust issues will eat away at a relationship every time.  I wanted to smack them around a bit and tell them to just talk to each other instead of making undue assumptions.

Whereas Slide focused more on broken relationships and what had gone wrong, Impostor relies on fixing those relationships.  Even those that seemed permanently broken.  Mattie and Vee begin to bond.  Rollins and Vee work on their friendship before taking a bigger step in their relationship.  And then a couple of new characters enter the picture, throwing everything all out of sync for a bit.

But it all made for an intense story full of unexpected complications and surprising twists.  I absolutely love it when a story can get the jump on me.  This book is as unpredictable as it was fun to read.  And if that wasn't enough to keep me interested in the series, that shocker disclosed at the end makes it inevitable that I'll be picking up the next book.  Definitely recommended for fans of psychological thrillers that keep you guessing till the very end.


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Labels: contemporary, favorites, harper-collins, jill hathaway, murder mystery, psychological thriller, reviews, slide

Judging a Book By Its Cover #16: A Kid's Perspective on Impostor by Jill Hathaway

Okay, so I totally stole this idea from Sara at Forever 17 Books, who got the idea from an article on Babble called Judging a Book by Its Cover: A 6-year-old Guesses What Classic Novels Are All About.  I just discovered her lovely segment, and I immediately requested forced my own four-year-old daughter Katie to provide me with some of her own cover art artwork and then asked her what she thought the book was about.



This week, Katie gave me her take on the following book:

"I kinda think it's about a girl -- that's a girl, right? -- going somewhere and trying to find somebody."

Cover Art

Impostor as envisioned by Katiebug

Admittedly, this kind of looks like an owl to me, but she did draw a nose and a lip on the girl; it's just hard to see because she used pink for everything.  =)  The girl loves pink, what can I say?  I'm sure that's part of the reason she was drawn to this cover in the first place.

Have you read this book or do you plan to?  What do you think of Katie's guess at the premise?  Did your little darling create a work of art based on a book this week? If so, be sure to link up with Sara over at Forever 17 Books.

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Labels: cover art, harper-collins, jill hathaway, judging a book by its cover, katiebug, psychological thriller, slide

Review: Slide by Jill Hathaway

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Title:  Slide
Author:  Jill Hathaway
Series:  Slide
Publisher:  Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins
Publication Date:  March 27, 2012
Source:  ARC

Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth—her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered.

Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed “friend” when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body.

Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can’t bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting off lately, more distant, especially now that she’s been spending more time with Zane.

Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.

 

 
As I was reading Slide, I was reminded of my time reading Fracture by Megan Miranda. I liked the characters, but I never felt at one with them. What really got me into the story, however, was the mystery, the thrill of the chase. This story was YA contemporary in nature, with an awesome paranormal twist. And you know that’s how I like my contemporary.
 
Just because I didn’t immediately connect with the characters, though, doesn’t mean they’re not relatable or are totally unlikeable. Quite the contrary. I was sucked into the story and finished it in one sitting, if that tells you anything. But sometimes you are so involved in a story that you feel as if you are going through things with the character, instead of simply watching as they tackle their obstacles, and that wasn’t the case with the characters in Slide.

But I enjoyed watching Vee figure out her ability, or curse, depending on how you look at it. Vee’s been through a lot, and things really started to get weird for her after the death of her mother. Still having both of my parents around, I can’t imagine how hard Vee’s life has been up to this point, but I can’t imagine it got any easier once she developed the power to “slide” into other’s conscious thoughts and actions whenever she passes out. Though, this power does come in handy once she learns how to control it a little better and uses it to try to discover the identity of the killer.

Admittedly, I was a little over halfway through when the puzzle pieces all aligned and I knew without a doubt who the killer was. But I love that any number of suspicions could have been proven correct and led Vee right to the killer. Motives were aplenty and dubious behavior was out in full force. It’s really anybody’s guess who done it. However, I often wonder if I’ve just read too much or seen too much and that’s why I find plots more predictable than others. Maybe I just have an uncanny sense for it. Either way, I don’t think many will find it as easy to determine the killer as I did, especially with all the twists and second-guessing that goes on in the story. I had several theories going before my final guess even panned out.

Slide was an absolutely phenomenal read. I’ve probably been over-using that word lately, but in all seriousness, all of the debut novels I’ve read this year have been, well, phenomenal! And Slide was no different. If you’re looking for a good murder mystery that keeps you on your toes and has you suspecting everyone, including the best friend, look no further.

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Labels: contemporary, dac 2012, murder mystery, reviews, slide