Author: Megan Miranda
Format: Uncorrected Proof
Pages: 264
Genre: Young Adult
Published (UK): 5th Januray 2012 (Bloomsbury)
By the time Delaney Maxwell was pulled from a Maine lake’s icy waters by her best friend, Decker Phillips, her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead.
But somehow Delaney survived—despite the brain scans that show irreparable damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be fine, but she knows she’s far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can’t control or explain, Delaney now finds herself drawn to the dying, and when she meets Troy Varga, a boy who recently emerged from a coma with the same abilities, she is relieved to share this strange new existence. Unsure if her altered brain is predicting death or causing it, Delaney must figure out if their gift is a miracle, a freak of nature—or something else much more frightening…
Delaney Maxwell should be dead. In fact, she was ... but now she isn't. Making a miraculous recovery after falling into the icy lake, Delaney tries to get back to her normal life. However, not only is everyone around her acting differently towards her, she finds herself being strangely drawn to people who are dying. Then she meets Troy, who's also recovered from a similar experience. With both of them sharing the same ability, Delaney and Troy need to figure out what they're going to do with it.
I thought that Fracture was a really interesting concept; one that I hadn't read anything similar to before. Throughout the book though, I did have some issues with it. While there was nothing wrong with the writing style, I found it hard to identify with Delaney and found myself not particularly caring about her. Her character seemed a little muddled to me. The narrative would say she hangs out with the popular kids and then later in the book she was 'bottom of the social ladder'. She was supposed to be super smart but at times she just seemed dumb. Plus it seemed to be alluded to that she wasn't popular because she was clever which bugged me a little.
Naturally, being a YA book, there was a love triangle (or square actually) but I didn't find myself routing for any of the boys because I just didn't care about any of them enough. There was a couple of adorably cute moments with Delaney and Decker though.
Taken as it is, there's nothing actually wrong with this book, I just feel like it could have been so much more. Delaney doesn't really do anything all that useful with her new ability. Also, I wanted some kind of explanation of how it occurred; more than 'because her brain was damaged' anyway. Maybe I was expecting too much but I felt a little disappointed when I finished reading this book.
