Tell Me When You Feel Something

May 1, 2021
A thriller about a 17-year-old whose life falls through the cracks. Everybody believes that Vivienne Braithwaite has a perfect life: She's a smart, gorgeous, charismatic high schooler who works an after-school gig as a simulated patient for medical school students to practice on. With Jack, the most perfect boyfriend ever, by her side, nothing should stop her. But now Viv lies in a coma fighting for her life, the result of taking opioids at a party--and no one understands how she got there, not even her closest friends, Davida and Tim. The narrative alternates between Viv's point of view leading up to the party that changes everything and Davida's and Tim's perspectives in the aftermath. Excerpts from police interviews are peppered throughout as the mystery unfolds and the book becomes a study of a girl's real life behind her facade of happiness and perfection. Unfortunately, neither Davida nor Tim are particularly vivid characters despite sharing narratorial duties, and it's hard to engage with their seemingly doomed romance. However, Viv's in-depth chapters are intense, as she struggles with multiple traumas, including a difficult home life, the pressures of high expectations, her alcohol abuse, and more. Frustratingly, the book at times focuses more on thrills rather than examining very real, very topical issues of power dynamics and misplaced trust raised by the plot. Most characters are White; Jack is Black. An uneven thriller that fails to engage deeply with social issues it raises. (Thriller. 14-18)

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May 1, 2021
Grades 10-12 There's not one girl who wouldn't have loved to be popular, smart, and beautiful Vivienne Braithwaite, but now Viv is in the hospital in a coma after seemingly taking an unknown drug, and no one understands why. Davida, who recently renewed her childhood friendship with Viv, is concerned because Viv would never take drugs, but as secrets about Viv's life are uncovered, Davida doesn't know what to think. Soon it becomes clear that the job Viv and her friends Davida and Tim shared in the medical school's Simulated Patient program may be tied to what happened. Chapters give the first-person viewpoints of Davida and Tim in the days after the tragic incident that left Viv in a coma, along with the events leading up to the tragedy from Viv's third-person perspective and police interviews of individuals involved with Viv. This suspenseful title delves into family and addiction issues, also presenting difficult situations featuring sexual assault and abuse. Fans of thrilling, realistic fiction will be quickly flipping pages to uncover the truth.

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June 1, 2021

Gr 9 Up-No one knows why Viv-17, blonde, rich, smart, perfect-took a pill at a party and ended up in a coma, but everyone knows more than they're letting on. Davida thinks Viv was straitlaced, Stu knows she wasn't, and Tim is keeping his lips suspiciously zipped. And for the rest of the volunteers and staff at the local medical school's Simulated Patient Program, the line blurs between real and make-believe pain. Through time-jumping multiple-POV chapters, Grant unfurls the uncanny backdrop of the patient program, a realistically flawed mostly white cast, and a timely commentary on the varied forms of abuses of power conducted by adults on teenagers. Despite momentum from interspersed police emails and interviews and an emotionally charged final third, answers revealed early on and the lack of a ticking clock lead to a slow pace, low tension, and surprisingly reliable narrators. Newer thriller readers may find it a good introduction, but entrenched fans will be drawn to titles with higher stakes. Themes of sexual assault, gaslighting, alcohol abuse, and pedophilia are explored in detail. VERDICT An uneven YA thriller in the vein of Karen M. McManus's One of Us Is Lying, with a unique setting as its main draw.-Madeline Newquist, Center for Fiction, Brooklyn, NY

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