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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Review: Circle Nine by Anne Heltzel

Book Description via Goodreads:

Egalley, 270 pages

September 13, 2011, Candlewick Press

She knows only Sam, a mysterious teenage boy. He is her sole companion; her whole life. She was born, already a teenager, lying outside a burning building in soot-stained clothes, remembering nothing, not even her name. He showed her the necklace she had on, the one that named her: Abby. Sam brought her to live in his cave-palace, where he gives her everything she needs. He loves her. He protects her from the world outside, from everyone who wants to hurt them, like the denizens of Circle Nine, Dante’s deepest circle of hell. But even in a charmed, brand-new life like Abby’s, change will come. Sam falls ill. A new girl comes to stay, and Abby begins to question Sam’s devotion. With doubt comes emotional turmoil, changes in perception, and glimpses of her past identity. In this courageous psychological thriller, Abby tells the story of living her new life and discovering her old one, while grappling with an ever-changing reality.

Source: Netgalley & Candlewick (Thank you!)

My Thoughts:

The story started out as sweet and confusing. Abby had no memory of what her life was, who she was and what her name was. She didn’t even know the mysterious boy who was with her. Everything was lost. But she woke up and her angel was in front of her, waiting for her, ready to save her from the chaos. She trusted him, even though she was wary and confused. She was lost and it would not be so hard for her to be anchored to the only person she knew: Sam. It was as if I walked into a fantasyland filled with love, hope and smiles. Sam and Abby were the sweetest couple I’ve ever encountered in YA. They even rivaled the sweetness of Sam and Grace from Shiver. I couldn’t stop smiling at their closeness. But like every relationship, this was not a perfect one. The shift from beautiful to ugly was jarring and saddening. I loved how Heltzel made me feel for the characters.

As Abby’s dreams and flickers of memory continue to invade her mind, she became more curious. Her unanswered questions only made her think more and probe more into her aching mind. Then things get more complicated when Sam came home with another girl, Amanda. She told and showed Abby things that Abby never considered. Jealous and even more baffled, Abby tried to come up with reasons behind Amanda’s actions.

Sam was a character with two sides. He was the sweet, smart and charming type who could easily make you like him. He was also the manipulative, short-tempered and cold type who could make readers hate him. I admired, hated and pitied him. Like Abby, he was also vulnerable, needing someone to hold onto, someone to stay with him. Whenever I think about this, I can’t help but feel sad for him.

The plot was smooth. Every chapter had me intrigued and hooked more than the last. I just read this in one sitting. I was that addicted to Circle Nine. The writing was amazing. Two thumbs up! It was so good that I was tempted to add around a hundred lines as quotes in Goodreads. Every line was mesmerizing, a painting of extracted beauty from Circle Nine’s world.

I was greatly intrigued with Abby’s vision and how it changed sometimes. Most of the time, she saw the world around her as completely beautiful but at other times, this ‘beauty screen’ slipped and Abby would see the world as it really was. I was convinced that something was wrong with her. Maybe she just saw what she wanted to see. It reminded me a bit of the movie Sucker Punch and how the character built a world she could escape in. It was fascinating to read about how her mind worked, no matter how silly and overly passionate her thoughts were. Her insights and observations of her world, of Circle Nine, of her relationship with Sam, and of her past had a childlike curiosity that burned so fierce it became one of the things that cracked her perfect little world. Her past and the truth were stronger than anything she had ever known before. Would the truth free her or would it bind her?

Circle Nine is an engaging, powerful and riveting psychological thriller. This extremely dark debut will shock, chill and terrify readers. I highly recommend this to readers of psychological thrillers, dark novels and twisted love stories. Don’t miss out on this one. It’s worth it.

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