Review: Fracture by Megan Miranda

Image and summary from Goodreads.com:


Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it? 

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, 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? 

For fans of best-sellers like Before I Fall and If I Stay, this is a fascinating and heart-rending story about love and friendship and the fine line between life and death.


Typically, contemporary fiction is not one of my go-tos, especially in YA novels.  However, this debut had just the right mix of magical realism and romance to make it completely irresistible.


The main character, Delaney, was extremely well developed.  We get a sense almost immediately of her motivations and desires, and her inner conflict over her new power.  Truthfully, I found myself relating to her on a very personal level, as many of her obsessions and insecurities were my own in high school.  I feel that if I could relate to her that well, then surely other readers could too.  Similarly, Miranda did a noteworthy job of creating Decker and Delaney's parents.  I particularly enjoyed the depth with which she explored the Maxwell family dynamic.  


The plot of the novel was also exciting, and a perfect balance between Delaney's discovery of her power and her navigation of relationships in the aftermath of tragedy.  There were enough exciting and suspenseful parts to keep readers wondering, but not so many that the plot felt overly choppy or contrived.  Likewise, there was plenty of romance and inner monologue to involve the reader in Delaney's personal conflict without seeming slow or angst-ridden.  


Truthfully, the only downside the the novel was that I was left wanting more - it ended so quickly and suddenly!  I would have loved to have seen more detail about Delaney's "power" (as it didn't even seem terribly supernatural to me), as well as her interactions with the mysterious Troy.


In regards to content, this is a book that I would feel comfortable recommending to any high school age reader.  Nothing terribly inappropriate happens, save a few "f-bombs," and some mentions of hooking up and underage drinking.  I have certainly read far edgier novels than this one!  However, I think the cover could sell itself too.  It's absolutely beautiful!


Overall, I was extremely pleased with this book.  I plan on recommending it to my ladies, especially the ones who cannot get enough Sarah Dessen books (and that's quite the crew in my classroom!).  I can't wait to see what other novels Megan Miranda writes!