Fracture

I originally read this back in 2020, and to be fair, I didn't remember much, so I decided to reread it again. It's been a while since I was able to finish a book in a day, but I could not put this down.

⚠️ there are some triggers in this book. If you suffer from anxiety or depression I do not recommend this book ⚠️ suicide TW ⚠️

As someone who deals with depression and anxiety, I feel like I could relate on certain levels.

Delaney suffers from a traumatic experience that almost ended her life, but by some miracle, she survived. She doesn't understand why she was granted this gift of a second chance at life while others weren't. She sees death everywhere and feels it.

What I got out of reading this is that sometimes in life We show more go through something so difficult that even though we are ok, our mind doesn't quite get the memo. We can rationalize all we want, However
The depression and anxiety truly get such a tight grip of us that we feel like we can't breathe. It's best summarized in Decker's (Delaney's best friend since childhood) point of view. He asks, "Is this how it feels to drown? Like the world is folding in on you? Like there's nowhere left to go but some place inside?"

"And then I understood: the worst part about drowning is the undying hope that maybe, just maybe, you're not."

It's a valuable lesson to learn that even though we are not immortal and at some point we will all die, it's best to enjoy the moments we get, tell the ones we love them while we have them.. look up at the sky and appreciate the blue skies and fluffy clouds.

A lot of us feel like we are drowning inside but forget that we can just as easily grasp for air, and we will be just fine.

5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I felt, I cried, I grasped ❤️ show less

This review is from my blog, Starting the Next Chapter, and appears as part of the Fracture blog tour.

When I first read the description for Fracture, I expected an emotional book. Just how emotional, however, I didn't find out until I began reading. From the first chapter, Fracture is a poignant, though-provoking book that would bring even the most unflappable person to ponder the questions and ideas set forth throughout the book, if not an outright show of emotion. Not only is Fracture a thought-provoking novel, it is also a beautifully written account of what is is that makes up a life. I was completely enamored by every aspect of this book and I hope that I can do it justice with my review.

After her brush with death, Delaney seems to show more be a girl set adrift. She no longer feels like herself and has more questions and doubts than relief. It is through her questions and self-doubt that we get to know Delaney best. She also learns more about herself as she forms her own opinions of the aftermath of her accident and mortality itself. Though she struggles, Delaney is capable of far more compassion than she might give herself credit for, as evident in her clashes with Troy. I found her to be a fascinating character and thoroughly enjoyed her growth. I also felt for her as she struggled to come to terms with her new identity and her feelings for Decker.

The on-going themes of life and death are handled in such a thought-provoking way that one can't help but think about their own ideas with regard to them both. Megan Miranda doesn't present us with a black-and-white account. Instead, we are shown the gray area where the line is blurred and nothing is set in stone. Through Delaney, we are provided with a character whose role is to explore this gray area, which is in direct opposition to Troy, who has his own ideas and is unwilling to consider the gray area that Delaney never stops questioning. It is Delaney's exploration that provides such an outstanding examination of such a multi-faceted topic.

Not only did the story itself draw me in, I was also lead to ponder these same ideas on my own, which made for a riveting book that will stay with me for quite some time. If you are looking for a though-provoking book, Fracture is an excellent one to pick up. It really does make you think and is comprised of a great plot and complex characters. If this is Megan Miranda's debut, I absolutely can not wait to see what she writes in the future.

Obligatory legal statement: This eGalley was provided to me free of charge by the publisher via Netgalley. No monetary compensation was received in exchange for this fair and unbiased review. show less

I originally read this back in 2020, and to be fair, I didn't remember much, so I decided to reread it again. It's been a while since I was able to finish a book in a day, but I could not put this down.

⚠️ there are some triggers in this book. If you suffer from anxiety or depression I do not recommend this book ⚠️ suicide TW ⚠️

As someone who deals with depression and anxiety, I feel like I could relate on certain levels.

Delaney suffers from a traumatic experience that almost ended her life, but by some miracle, she survived. She doesn't understand why she was granted this gift of a second chance at life while others weren't. She sees death everywhere and feels it.

What I got out of reading this is that sometimes in life We go show more through something so difficult that even though we are ok, our mind doesn't quite get the memo. We can rationalize all we want, However
The depression and anxiety truly get such a tight grip of us that we feel like we can't breathe. It's best summarized in Decker's (Delaney's best friend since childhood) point of view. He asks, "Is this how it feels to drown? Like the world is folding in on you? Like there's nowhere left to go but some place inside?"

"And then I understood: the worst part about drowning is the undying hope that maybe, just maybe, you're not."

It's a valuable lesson to learn that even though we are not immortal and at some point we will all die, it's best to enjoy the moments we get, tell the ones we love them while we have them.. look up at the sky and appreciate the blue skies and fluffy clouds.

A lot of us feel like we are drowning inside but forget that we can just as easily grasp for air, and we will be just fine.

5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I felt, I cried, I grasped ❤️ show less

Delaney and her friend Decker are walking across an iced over lake when the ice cracks under Delaney's feet. She falls in and is under for 11 minutes. By the time Decker and a few other friends manage to drag her out, Delaney is technically dead. Even if she were to come out of her coma, she would have severe brain damage.

But she does come out of her coma, and despite some headaches, a weird pulling sensation in her mind, and hands that occasionally shake, she seems fine. But she's not. She finds herself looking at the people around her differently, and she eventually learns what that pulling sensation is: she can feel when someone is about to die.

This is another one of the ARCs that I picked up at a conference years ago and never got show more around to reading. It is apparently Book 1 of a duology, which explains why a few story threads are never completely resolved but, honestly, it felt like all it would have taken was a few extra chapters to wrap everything up. I have no idea why a second book exists and I don't have any plans to read it.

Fracture's initial setup was pretty good: Delaney falling into the water, waking up at the hospital, finding out that no one can explain why she seems fine other than some broken ribs from CPR, and gradually realizing that something isn't quite right. But after that this book became excruciating. Although I called Decker and the others at the lake Delaney's "friends" in my description, they didn't really feel like it. I know the town was supposed to be pretty small, but surely there were other teens around? Couldn't they have made other friends, people they actually liked more?

Delaney came across as emotionally removed from everybody, which I suppose made sense considering what had just happened to her, but it sounded like she hadn't liked a lot of her supposed "friends" even before the accident, except maybe Decker (her childhood friend and semi-secret crush) and Janna (who she got along with, even though they were big academic rivals). However, her relationship with Decker was really messed up. They seemed to have a pattern of hurting each other and then maybe talking about it a bit before never talking about it again so that they could pretend everything was fine. It wasn't the slightest bit fun to read about.

In the second half of the book, I kept wondering why no one in Delaney's family thought to talk to a therapist (money? but no one even brought it up enough to start looking into the cost). Delaney kept saying things to people that sounded suicidal - she showed evidence of survivor guilt and talked about how she wasn't even human anymore. And then there was that incident with the one neighbor earlier in the book, which her parents thought was evidence that Delaney might be a danger to others (and which they dealt with by forcibly medicating her, or so they thought). Delaney's mom wasn't any better. Considering her family history, she probably should have talked to a therapist years before this book started, and the stuff with Delaney just broke her. It got to the point where I was worried every time Delaney went home and wasn't immediately able to find her mom.

This was a short book and should have been a pretty quick read, but by the end it felt like a chore. I'm glad I'm done with it and, like I said, I have no intention of reading the second book, even though this one didn't quite resolve everything. I really don't need to know just how much more horrible things are going to get between Delaney and Janna, and I'm not interested in seeing an angsty romantic relationship somehow happen between Delaney and Decker.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Wow! Intense, Emotional, Wonderful are the first words that come to my mind after reading this book. Megan Miranda has written a book that will stay with the reader a long, long time after reading it. She has created a setting that was so well written you could feel the cold. If you have never fallen through ice, even up to your knees you can only imagine how it feels. The main character Delaney falls through the ice and her description of it is spot on. I know, I have fallen through ice. It is not fun. I loved Delaney for several reasons. When she miraculously wakes up in the hospital and realizes she has been in a coma for six days and she is going to live, her first thoughts were of school and how much she had missed. I was that show more nerdy girl in school. Decker, her neighbor and best friend is one of those guys you want to slap upside the head and scream, “open your eyes”. It seemed to take him forever to acknowledge they had feelings for each other. When he dated her friend, I remembered my boyfriend and I breaking up, and we dated each other’s best friends. As you can see this book is relatable to teens on so many levels.
When it comes to evil and creepiness, Megan has done a wonderful balancing job. We are introduced to Troy who has some of the same “gifts” or “curses” depending on how you look at it, as Delaney. She thinks he can help her and others. She quickly realizes he is not who she thought he was. This book kept me reading from page one to the end. You just didn’t want to put it down. It is amazing that this is a debut novel because this author writes like a seasoned pro. This is a must read by everyone who loves a little bit of romance, a little bit of paranormal wrapped up with in a mysterious tragedy. I don’t re-read books very often but this one I definitely will re-read. show less

I really wanted to love this book. The concept was intriguing, and when I saw it in the library, I snatched it up, ran home, and started reading it right away. Unfortunately, that little bit of excitement I had from finding it at the library finally was the only exciting part of this whole experience. The book just fell flat. The plot was flat, the characters were flat, the supposed mystery was flat, the "action" was flat, the "romance" was flat. Flat, flat, flat. *yawn*

My first problem with this novel is that every character was a self-centered, stupid jerk. Decker was the worst friend ever. I wouldn't have been friends with him. But Delaney was a pushover, so that was fine. And Delaney, who was supposed to be sooo smart, if a little show more fat (which apparently made her hot, according to her... though she complained about it all the time but refused to work out - basically doing as much damage as an anorexic character would because not being active at all is unhealthy, too), keeps doing stupid, bratty things. She storms off in the middle of a freezing cold forest after drowning and almost freezing to death, for instance. She's just stupid. Carson is a manwhore, but that's okay and everyone loves him. However, Delaney judges Tara constantly because she's a whore. Sexual double-standard much? I mean sure, she's probably just jealous, but still. Very catty. Troy was also stupid, and I still don't know what his issue actually was. Anyway, moving on.

The pacing was slow-as-molasses, and the supposed suspenseful parts weren't at all suspenseful. There really was no big mystery, and for such a unique idea, the plot was extremely predictable. The romances were all annoying, and of course, motivated by self-centered reasons. Needless to say, this was not a feelgood book. I spent most of the novel hating everyone and being bored. I asked myself on more than one occasion if it was over yet. Turns out it wasn't. Also, the ending didn't answer any questions really. I mean sure, one thing happened, but it didn't answer a question. It was just an action that had occurred several times before and led to various forms of disaster. So what would happen this time? Well, no one knows. A few things were tied up, but at the end I was left with two feelings: "This is very ambiguous" and "so what? This book did not speak to me at all."

All of that being said, Miranda's writing was fairly good and the idea itself was a unique and interesting one. I just feel that it wasn't executed as well as it could have been. I will try another one of Miranda's books because I feel that she does have talent. It just wasn't fully utilized in this book, I think. I'm sure some people will love this book, and it didn't have a lot of the annoying YA trends like insta-love or superhero vampires. It just didn't work for me. I'd say check this one out from the library before buying it. show less

Megan Miranda has made an impressive entry into the young adult genre with the debut of her first novel, Fracture. I picked it up intending to read a chapter or two before bed but devoured it in just a few hours.

Having been revived after eleven minutes trapped under the ice, Delaney wakes from a coma with her faculties seemingly unscathed. The doctors are baffled, but Delaney is simply relieved until an itch starts in the middle of her brain and her fingers start twitching. Returning home is not the triumphant moment she expected, her parents are anxious and watchful, her relationship with her best friend, Decker, has indefinably altered and Delaney is confused by her sudden fascination with the dying. Troy Varga knows just how she show more feels but while Delaney’s instincts are to try and prevent death, Troy believes he survived the crash that killed his parents and sister, to prevent suffering.

The premise of Fracture is intriguing and Miranda grabs the attention of the reader in the very first pages as Delaney struggles beneath the frozen ice. What I found so appealing about Fracture was the contemporary setting paired with simmering suspense and the lightest touch of ‘other’. There is a slow build up of tension through out the novel, the faintest scent of menace surrounds Delaney from the moment she awakes from her coma.
The story explores interesting themes such as guilt, near death experiences and euthanasia without finding it necessary to resolve the complex issues. I like that Miranda has tackled such serious ideas in a way that teens can relate to. The element of the paranormal is well grounded, given Delaney’s brain damage, and is integral to the plot but does not overwhelm it.
There is, as to be expected, a romantic angle but I think the author handles it well. Delaney’s changing relationship with her best friend, Decker, is realistically complicated and her attraction to Troy an understandable reaction to her situation.
The only thread of the plot I had difficulty reconciling was Delaney’s changed relationship with her mother. I think Miranda was trying to show how sometimes loved ones withdraw from a victim after a serious incident, an unconscious self protective mechanism, that for Delaney’s mother was complicated by her own childhood issues. I just don’t think it quite worked and her mother’s withdrawal may prove largely inexplicable for some readers.
I have to admit Delaney is not the most likeable character, she is quite prickly with family and friends and somewhat self destructive in the wake of her guilt and confusion. It’s difficult to make that judgement though, as we really only get to know her after the drowning, which provides a credible excuse for her behaviour.
I do think the author was able to genuinely portray her protagonists complicated emotions, from Delaney’s frustration and fear to Troy’s pain and righteousness.

Fracture is a surprisingly absorbing novel with a unique premise, and fully realised characters. It will likely appeal to adult fans of YA as much as it’s intended audience and is a strong debut from a talented author. show less