Review: Fracture - Megan Miranda

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

Eleven minutes might as well be eternity underwater. 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. Delaney Maxwell was underwater for eleven minutes. And she’s alive.

By the time seventeen-year-old Delaney is pulled out of the icy waters of a frozen lake, her heart has stopped beating. She is in a coma and officially dead. But Delaney pulls through. How? Doctors are mystified. Outwardly she has completely recovered. But Delaney knows something is very wrong. Pulled by sensations she can’t control, she finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her brain predicting death or causing it?

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who lost his whole family in a car accident and emerged from a coma with the same powers as Delaney. At last she’s found someone who’ll understand what she’s going through. 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?

Fracture is a stand alone story but there is a free short story prequel called Eleven Minutes that can be downloaded from the Fracture Facebook page (read my review of Eleven Minutes here).

Visit Megan Miranda's website for more information

Review:
When seventeen year old Delaney falls through the ice she is underwater for eleven minutes before her best friend Decker rescues her. After that long without oxygen she should be dead, at the very least she should have permanent brain damage so when she wakes from a coma showing no signs of injury she shocks the doctors. Results of her brain scans are far from normal but nobody can work out why. When Delaney finds herself drawn to people who are about to die she questions her sanity, until she meets the mysterious Troy who appears to have the same ability. But why are they able to sense the dying and can they do anything to prevent these deaths?

I know we're not far into 2012 but this is easily the best YA book I've read so far this year and I'd be surprised if anything knocks it out of the top spot any time soon. Fracture is an impressive debut that had me gripped from the first page and up until gone 4am so I could finish reading it in one sitting. I loved Delaney, she isn't a perfect character and is confused and scared by what happened to her and her new "ability". She isn't sure how to react around her friends who think of her as their miracle as they all played a part in saving her and she is struggling to cope with her mother's overprotectiveness. She was such a real character and you go through everything she does right alongside her.

I loved Decker from the minute we were introduced to him. He is Delaney's neighbour and has been her best friend since they were young children. The two of them are incredibly close and both of them obviously have feelings for each other that go way beyond friendship. Neither of them has been able to fully express that to the other though, it's a typical case of not wanting to risk their friendship by trying for something more. I loved the way they slowly admit their feelings to themselves before they are brave enough to talk to each other. If there was ever a couple I wanted to see having a happy ending it was these two, in spite of the misunderstandings they have along the way! I have to admit I wasn't a fan of Troy, from the minute he stepped onto the page he creeped me out. I didn't know what he was hiding but there was definitely something suspicious about him and I wanted to tell Delaney to run very fast in the opposite direction.

It's hard to know how to classify the story, Delaney's ability to sense the dying makes me want to call it a supernatural thriller but the way it is written makes it feel so realistic that it comes across more contemporary than paranormal. After all we really know so little about the human brain and what it is capable of. Whatever genre you want to call it Fracture is a gripping read full of heart in mouth moments, mystery, action and romance.Fracture is a story that will make you think about what is important in life and it really does make you question what you would do if this was your last day on earth. It's hard to believe that this is Megan Miranda's debut and I can't wait to see what she writes next - if it's half as good as Fracture then it's sure to be impressive!

Source: Received from Bloomsbury in exchange for an honest review

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