Review: Shift by Em Bailey

Book Description via Goodreads:

Paperback, 320 pages

September 1, 2011, Hardie Grant Egmont

Olive Corbett is definitely NOT crazy.

Not anymore. These days she takes her meds like a good girl, hangs out with her best friend Ami, and stays the hell away from the toxic girls she used to be friends with.

She doesn’t need a boyfriend. Especially not a lifesaver-type with a nice smile. And she doesn’t need the drama of that creepy new girl Miranda, who has somehow latched on to Olive's ex-best friend.

Yet from a distance, Olive can see there's something sinister about the new friendship. Something almost... parasitic. Maybe the wild rumours ARE true. Maybe Miranda is a killer.

But who would believe Olive? She does have a habit of letting her imagination run away with her…

Source: Jenn from Hardie Grant Egmont (Thank you!!)

My Thoughts:

Nothing could have prepared me for Shift. When I picked this up, I was ready for a psychological thriller but I wasn’t ready for the intensity of this novel!

Olive Corbett was different and yes, she’s a little bit crazy. She used to be one of the popular skinny girls at school but now she was just the fat, crazy chick who always faded in the background. She preferred it that way. I liked Olive. She was true to herself, stood up for what she believed in and stuck with her decisions. I liked her voice. It was distinctly part reasonable, part musing and part paranoid.

Olive already had enough issues to deal with herself but fate said that she needed to deal with her family, too. Her paranoid veggie mom and her almost-always-sad-and-quiet brother were two strong evidences of what she did: she made her father leave. With Ami, Olive managed to get by everyday. Ami shared the same experience with her – both of their dad left them – so she was able to empathize with Olive.

Lachlan was a good-looking and charming guy with a big heart. He was a natural lifesaver. Olive developed a complicated relationship with him. She disliked him a lot. But on several occasions, she found him trying to talk to her and trying to get close to her. She refused to believe his ‘good’ intentions and kept pushing him away. Lachlan kept pulling her in with his allure, keeping an eye out for her even though she has refused him several times. He became her anchor, the person who pulled her away from danger. I enjoyed seeing their relationship develop from great dislike to love.

Miranda, the new girl, was the one who really intrigued me. I knew that something was not right with her. Some of the things that she did in the novel left me perplexed up to this moment. I never totally understood her. But I did sympathize with her. She had been tossed from one relative to another since the death of her parents. I knew who she was but I didn’t know what she was. Miranda was a big mystery.

The plot was great! I was able to predict a few things but the twists that the author pulled off really caught me off guard. 60% of the time I was reading, I didn’t know what would happen. I couldn’t guess because in Olive’s world anything could happen. I liked how the author left little clues, revelations here and there to keep me hooked. The delivery of suspense was flawless. My heart was pounding while I read this. Although some of my questions weren't answered. Don't let that discourage you from reading this gem!

Shift is well-crafted, gorgeously twisted psychological thriller that will leave readers engaged and intoxicated with its stunning prose and suspense. I highly recommend this! If you want to be thrilled, if you want to think, if you want to wonder and if you want to be surprised, read Shift!

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