Tell Me When You Feel Something

Tell Me When You Feel Something
Vicki Grant
336 pages
Penguin Teen, 2021

From Goodreads:  It seemed like a cool part-time program -- being a simulated patient for med school students to practice on. But now vivacious, charismatic Viv lies in a very real coma. Cellphone footage just leads to more questions. What really happened? Other kids suspect it was not an intentional overdose -- but each has a reason why they can't tell the truth.

Through intertwining and conflicting narratives, a twisted story unfolds of trust betrayed as we sift through the seemingly innocent events leading up to the tragic night. Perhaps simulated patients aren't the only people pretending to be something they're not . . .

This book. Let me start out by saying there's nothing fluffy about this book, nothing lighthearted. The book starts with Davida - Viv's friend from the Simulated Patient (SP) program, speaking to police about her friend's overdose. The book doesn't waste any time getting started - the reader is dropped right into the story with minimal context and, on top of that, alternating timelines from multiple points of view. As a result, I found the first half of the book a little confusing and not very compelling. The SP program was interesting to read about, though, and the drama between Viv's parents was so disturbing I kept reading.

By the time I sorted it through my confusion, things changed dramatically.  The plot was suddenly raw and powerful and I couldn't put the book down, staying up way later than I should have to finish the book. The police interviews interspersed through the novel supported the plot very well. Do people interviewed by the police in real life always tell the whole truth? Of course not, so why I assumed they would in the book, I don't know. Eventually everything started coming together and making sense to the point where I was practically shaking the book and yelling at the characters.

So a book that started out slow and a little muddled transformed into this captivating reflection on the #metoo movement and all different types of mental health issues. The second half more than makes up for the first half, so I definitely suggest reading this book and hanging in there until the end.

Slingshot

Slingshot
Mercedes Helnwein
352 pages
Wednesday Books, 2021

From Goodreads: Grace Welles had resigned herself to the particular loneliness of being fifteen and stuck at a third-tier boarding school in the swamps of Florida, when she accidentally saves the new kid in her class from being beat up. With a single aim of a slingshot, the monotonous mathematics of her life are obliterated forever…because now there is this boy she never asked for. Wade Scholfield.

With Wade, Grace discovers a new way to exist. School rules are optional, life is bizarrely perfect, and conversations about wormholes can lead to make-out sessions that disrupt any logical stream of thoughts.

So why does Grace crush Wade’s heart into a million tiny pieces? And what are her options when she finally realizes that 1. The universe doesn’t revolve around her, and 2. Wade has been hiding a dark secret. Is Grace the only person unhinged enough to save him?

    I'll be blunt, I put off reviewing this book because it just wasn't for me. What I couldn't get over was the main character Grace. If there was ever a time a character's name didn't match her personality, this is it. I don't know if she was supposed to be one of those characters we love to hate, but there's nothing about her I liked, let alone loved. From the minute the book began she acted like a toddler having a hissy fit over something she couldn't have, but what's worse is that she she had a crush on her teacher and that is what she couldn't have. I have no problem with books where teachers and students have relationships - My Dark Vanessa is a great example of the topic well done - but Grace just comes off as delusional. Her reasoning for why she thought her teacher loved her back was flimsy at best, yet she ran with it. Her retaliation for his rejection was also extremely juvenile.

    Fast forward to her relationship with Wade; she met him by saving him with her slingshot - one of the rare times the slingshot is even mentioned in the book. Wade was clearly good for Grace, he grounded her and she softened during their time together, but the whole time I couldn't help feeling she didn't deserve him. The way she treated him during Spring Break was sad. And as for Wade, he acts like he has a big secret and when we finally find out what that is his character makes much more sense. And that brings me to the gas station scene - the only scene in the whole book that felt real and made me want to keep reading. Unfortunately, the whole book fell limp after that and then it was over.

    Egads. I'm not sure what to compare this book to or to whom to recommend it. Honestly, if you really want to read this go for it obviously, but if you're on the fence, just don't. This book will be released in April.

    On an aside, I do want to bring up the book's Goodreads page. As of this writing, the reviews are skewed to either you love it or you hate it, there isn't much middle ground. Taking a closer look at the five star reviews we find typical advanced readers who rate five stars to kiss the publisher's butt and keep getting early copies, and then there are a lot of sock accounts purportedly by the author herself. Several accounts have no friends or are only friends with one or two other sock accounts, and they have all given the book five stars without an actual review. File this one under "authors behaving badly."