Just finished reading Fracture.  This is a very readable book which really became quite gripping.  The pages seemed to turn themselves and the tension builds quite quickly to a strong ending.

The main protagonist is Delaney.  She’s 17 years old, very intelligent, her best friend (Decker) is, quite literally, the boy next door, she’s part of the ‘in-crowd’ at school (albeit in a quiet and wallflower type of way), she has her life ahead of her and it looks like she has a good future in store.  Then, she sets off one day with Decker to meet the rest of the group.  Taking the short cut they cross over the frozen lake when a terrible accident occurs, the ice cracks and Delaney is swallowed by the freezing water.  Put bluntly Delaney is under the water for a good few minutes, enough to give her brain damage, enough to put her in a coma and enough to make the doctors believe she won’t wake up.  But, miraculously, Delaney does wake up and against the odds she seems to be doing okay and suffering no ill effects.  Looks can be deceptive however and Delaney has not returned to the land of the living unchanged.

Basically, Delaney seems to be drawn inexplicably to people who are dying.  Of course she doesn’t understand what is happening to her and she’s floundering around.  She can’t control her strange urges that draw her to people in the throes of death but one thing that is for sure is that turning up on a regular basis at the scene of death doesn’t cast her in a favourable light.  People are starting to suspect her, her parents are beginning to have misgivings, can they trust her?  Her doctor thinks she is suffering hallucinations due to the brain trauma and on top of that there seems to be somebody mysterious skulking around following her movements.

I found this story strangely eerie.  I think it’s described as a paranormal story but I would say it only veers slightly in that direction.  The majority of the book is based on the relatively everyday – it’s just the strange nature of Delaney after returning from the dead that makes it different.  It’s a bit spooky and a bit tense in that you don’t know any more than Delaney what is going on but you can just sense it’s all going to go horribly wrong.

In terms of criticisms I would say that Delaney and Dexter could be a tad infuriating in their odd denial of their feelings for each other!  Maybe if something is as plain as the nose on your face it becomes invisible – can’t see the wood for the trees, etc, etc.  Also, I could have shaken Delaney as she did seem to let herself be pulled into situations which you could see from a mile away were not going to end well – maybe Delaney has a problem with perception.

Seriously, I didn’t have a lot of negatives with this book.  It was gripping, it was tense, there was emotion and chills.  A very enjoyable debut.

Rating -A

Fracture