Book Review: Slide

Slide
by Jill Hathaway
256 pages
Publisher: Balzar & Bray
Publication Date: March 27th 2012
Source: ARC from my Blogger Big Sis
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Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth - her sister's friend Sophie didn't kill herself. She was murdered.

Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn't actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else's mind and experiences the world through that person's eyes. She's slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed "friend" when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie's slashed body.

Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can't bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting off lately, more distant, especially now that she's been spending more time with Zane.

Emmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.

If you've read The Body Finder series by Kimberly Derting then Slide is going to seem very familiar to you. It's got the same "girl has unexplainable supernatural powers and she uses those powers to solve murders" thing going on. In fact the entire time I was reading Slide I just kept thinking "Dang, this reminds me SO MUCH of The Body Finder and Desires of the Dead!" But even so Slide proved to be fairly enjoyable read in its own right. It might mirror The Body Finder series in a lot of ways but it also was a story in its own right. If you like Kimberly Dertings series then you will most definitely enjoy this new offering by Jill Hathaway!

The whole mystery of Slide is centered around a killing that everyone assumes is a suicide. Everyone that is, except Vee. Vee knows it wasn't a suicide because on the night her sister's best friend died she had slid into the killer. Creepy right? And that's just the beginning! Jill Hathaway did a great job at weaving together a complex and intriguing mystery. I can't tell you how many times I thought I knew for sure who the murderer was only to discover a few chapters later that I was dead wrong. The ending however was a little bit on the strange side. My first reaction was:

"OH MY GOSH I NEVER SAW THAT COMING!!!!" O.O

And then it was:

"Well of course I didn't see that coming. This ending honestly doesn't make much sense...." :/

It wasn't a bad ending persay,  but definitely a heavily contrived one. Like one of those horror/thriller movies you watch and enjoy and then when you really think about it you realize how strange the plot really was. That was what Slide was like. An enjoyable but also a bit strange mystery/thriller.

The biggest bummer for me was that Slide contained a treasure trove of romantic cliches. Best guy friend who likes the main girl? Check. Hot new guy in school who also happens to like the main girl? Check. But fortunately the romance is heavily down played in favor of the mystery/thriller aspects of the story. Really only a romantic critic like myself would nitpick these things. :P

Overall Slide is a fun supernatural mystery. It's a quick read and is perfect for fans of The Body Finder series. I'm pretty sure that Slide is also the first in a series so I'll have to be on the lookout for the sequel!

Slide gets 3.5 out of 5 ice cream cones.

Julia :)