Meh, There Are Plenty of Other Freaky Mind Trick Novels in the Bookstore

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

It's bad enough that 16-year-old Sylvia "Vee" Bell can fall asleep at any time, in any place and with very little warning.  What's worse is that her narcolepsy isn't really narcolepsy at all.  When Vee has one of her "episodes," she's actually sliding—slipping into someone else's mind, seeing the world through their eyes.  Her freaky little "gift" has shown her myriad images she wishes she could forget, like her sister cheating on a test, her teacher sipping booze before class and her best friend betraying her with chilling indifference.  She doesn't want to see anymore, but she can't stop herself from sliding.  Worse, she can't tell anyone about her ability.  Not unless she wants to spend the rest of her life in a straight jacket.  

When Vee slides into the mind of a cold-blooded killer, she's so freaked out she doesn't know what to do.  Everyone thinks Sophie Jacobs committed suicide; only Vee knows the truth.  But how can she tell the police what she knows without getting herself thrown into the loony bin?  There's only one thing to do:  she has to find the murderer herself.  She can't tell anyone what she's doing, not even her best friend, Rollins.  He's been acting strange lately, anyway.  When a hot new guy walks into her life, though, Vee wonders—has she finally found someone in whom she can confide?  Can she trust Zane Huxley enough to divulge her deepest, darkest secret?  Can he help her find Sophie's killer before it's too late?  Or will Vee have to watch helplessly as more of her friends die?

Although there are plenty of teen-girl-solves-crimes-with-freaky-mind-tricks books out there, I still find such premises intriguing.  Which is why I liked the sound of Slide, a debut novel by Jill Hathaway.  Unfortunately, the story didn't really deliver to me.  The action moved along swiftly enough to keep me turning pages, but the plot quickly became too predictable and melodramatic for me.  As much as I wanted to love this one, I just didn't.  Will I give the sequel a try when it comes out?  Meh.  Maybe, maybe not.  There are plenty of other series that do the freaky mind tricks thing better than this one—I'll probably just stick with them.

(Readalikes:  the Wake series [Wake; Fade; Gone] by Lisa McMann and The Body Finder trilogy [The Body Finder; Desires of the Dead; The Last Echo] by Kimberly Derting; also reminded me a little of Evermore by Alison Noel)

Grade:  C

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG-13 for language (no F-bombs that I remember), sexual innuendo/content, and depictions of underage drinking and illegal drug use

To the FTC, with love:  I received an ARC of Slide from the generous folks at Balzer and Bray (an imprint of Harper Collins).  Thank you!