Review of Slide by Jill Hathaway

Title: Slide
Author: Jill Hathaway
Published by: HarperCollins
Pages: 256
Source: NetGalley/HarperCollins
Format: ebook
Rating:★★★

Summary from Goodreads: Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth—her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered.

Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed “friend” when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body.

What an intriguing concept.  While there have been stories about mind readers, Jill Hathaway takes this concept and adds her own twist to it.  The ability to touch something of a person's and be able to "slide" into their mind at that exact same time is mind blowing.  While I personally wouldn't like this gift (or curse whichever way you look at it), I did enjoy reading about someone who did have it.

Vee is an interesting character.  She wants so much to be "normal" or at least have someone to talk to, but the last person she told about her gift didn't believe her and made her see a shrink.  I felt bad for Vee always having to carry this burden around with her alone.  I would hate not being able to control it and seeing everyone's true nature.  Sometimes ignorance is bliss.  I felt the reason that she clung to Zane so quickly is because she couldn't talk to anyone else.

While I enjoyed both the male leading characters of Zane and Rollins, I was also suspect of them.  They were both obviously hiding things and I felt they let Vee down when she needed them the most. 

I loved the mystery that was present in Slide.  I wasn't quite sure what was real or not because it's not like Vee's gift is exact.  I kept switching back between two suspects and trying to figure out their involvement.  My big problem was that the ending felt rushed for me.  There was this big anticipation leading up to figuring out who the killer was and then bam we found out and it's over.  I would have loved to see the ending with a couple of more twists and turns and building to this huge and exciting climax.  Instead it fell flat for me and I was a bit disappointed.

An intriguing concept and a great mystery, and while it didn't blow me away I'm still excited to see where this series goes.