YA REVIEW:
Bryce was seventeen when she stood on the diving platform five years ago during Olympic trials. The dive went horribly wrong. In the coma, time stood still. One day she miraculously awakens to a world that’s left her behind. Her parents’ marriage is on the rocks, her sister is grown up and engaging in rebellious behavior, her boyfriend engaged to her best friend. For Bryce, yesterday she was a world class Olympic athlete with everything going for her, now she’s a twenty-two-year old woman whose body is damaged and all the relationships she counted on are forever changed.
As Bryce starts to adjust to being back in her body, certain odd experiences begin to happen. Her interaction with everyday reality is altered. Colors and shapes are more vivid, some things less tangible. These were very promising glimpses that kept me reading thinking this book could be quite special. Eventually, Bryce has recall of events that occurred while she was in the coma that Newtonian science would have a hard time explaining. Toward the end of the book, she has a precognitive event. Unfortunately, these incidents are not the main thrust of the book and don’t form any kind of cohesive plot.
This book is focused on a budding romance with a medical student Bryce meets at the hospital and her building new relationships with friends and family. The problem with this for me is that the author has a structure with strong life and death themes and has side-stepped them a little too conveniently. As a result, this is one of those books that splits the readership down the middle. There are many five- star reviews for this book, but equally there are a lot of people who hate it.
ELLIS NELSON BOOKS 