Fracture by Megan Miranda Review

Friday, February 3, 2012

Title: Fracture
Author: Megan Miranda (Twitter)
Publisher: Walker Children's
Publish Date: January 17, 2012
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 262
Source: ARC Trade

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 - despite the scans that showed significant brain damage.

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?

Delaney died that night. She was standing on the ice, and the next thing she knew, she was waking up in the hospital with only brief memories of what happened to her. Eleven minutes. That’s how long it took for her to be rescued from the icy water below the surface, and in those eleven minutes, Delaney touched the other side. But things are different now. Delaney is drawn to the dying, and she feels a sort of pull towards the other side. Everything’s changing, and Delaney needs to make sense of what’s happening to her – and why her feelings for her best friend, Decker, have suddenly changed.

I like drama. It’s no secret. I like it when things are messy and in disarray (in novels, of course, not real life). Fracture is one of those novels that touches on everything that is a little bit messy and out of place. Focusing more on nature of relationships and sense of self than anything else, Fracture touches on the very soul of humanity and brings it to light. Author Megan Miranda has crafted a delicate novel that perfectly merges dark with light, broaches difficult topics such as death and dying and captures a host of beautiful characters in a poignant and powerful novel. Merging a beautiful story line with sweet, poignant prose, Fracture stands out. .

I’m not a huge fan of love triangles or quadrangles, and that’s no secret, so having read a few reviews for Fracture, I was a bit concerned. Once I was about halfway through the novel though, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the nature of Fracture focused more heavily on Delaney, her condition and the aftermath of the trauma of her accident than anything else. Delaney was a great character. She was so relatable and honest, painful and pure. There was an innocence about her that resonated throughout the events of the story and fueled the plot forward. Decker, too, was a brilliant character, perfectly embodying the loyal best friend role. I will say, however, that the numerous secondary characters, including Janna, Troy felt a bit flat for me. There were so many issues, actions and inactions that felt unresolved when I closed the final pages on Fracture that I felt a bit let down. While I loved that Fracture stepped boldly into a realm of God complexes, survivor’s guilt, stress and everything messy that has to do with death and dying, I think it could have been fleshed out a bit for more power. The novel was hard-hitting, indeed, but I felt it moved too fast to leave any strong, lasting emotions in me. .

Overall, I think Fracture is going to make a powerful in the statement in the YA community. It’s a rich idea with great writing, and though there were some flaws, in my humble opinion, it wasn’t a bad book by any means. I give it a 3.5 out of 5, and I recommend it to all fans of YA, especially those who enjoy contemporary and paranormal fiction. .

8 comments:

  1. I just skimmed your review because this is going to be my next read after I finish the book I'm reading now. I'm interested in how the contemporary and paranormal play out. Will check back after I finish the book. :)

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  2. This one sounds so interesting! And if it has beautiful writing, too, I need to check it out. Wonderful review!

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  3. Eh, pass. I will rather read some of the million other great books you have been reading :D

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  4. It sounds like overall it was a good book due to the overall premise and the underlying points. I'm sorry the secondary characters fell a little flat. It saddens me when that happens because I love secondary characters and what they have the potential to bring to a story. This one hasn't ever really been high on my TBR, but I may give it a read eventually. It would be nice to read something with such a strong theme.

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  5. I honestly felt like it moved along really nicely, slowly in the beginning and then speeding up to the conclusion. I really liked the pace of it, but of course we can't all love everything :) I absolutely loved this book, especially the love triangle!!!

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  6. I really like the paranormal element to it! Loved the review :)

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  7. I almost picked up this book the other day when I was at Barnes and Noble but I decided to wait. I'm glad that despite it's flaws you enjoyed the book. Now I'm off to add it to my list of books to purchase after the Book Buying Ban is lifted.

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  8. I was a little worried about the love triangle, too but after reading your review, it seems like it's not a big deal. Too bad about the secondary characters, though. They can really bring a story to life. Maybe a library read.

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