Synopsis: 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.
Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can’t bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting off lately, more distant, especially now that she’s been spending more time with Zane.
Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again. (Goodreads.com)
Vee suffers from narcolepsy, so the doctors say. What she really suffers from is sliding. She falls into an unconscious state when she touches an object with a deep imprint on it and "slides" into the owner of that object. It is not a comfortable thing for Vee at all but she doesn't know how to stop it besides trying not to touch or own objects that others could have owned before. But when Vee accidentally slides into the body of a murderer and witnesses the murder of a classmate, she is shocked and scared. Everyone says it is a suicide but Vee knows differently.
Vee is a very conflicted character. She feels very alone because she has no one who believes her about the sliding, least of all her father, an in demand surgeon who is never home. There is no one Vee can turn to and despite being best friends with Rollins, a guy who saved her at one of the worst times of her life, she increasingly feels isolated from him too. The bad thing about Vee is, for me anyway, is that she just doesn't stand out. There wasn't a strong personality behind her to make her come alive for me. She is merely a character who suffers from this odd phenomenon without any characteristics that make her interesting outside of that. She isn't even a great an amateur sleuth like Clare Fern. Vee tries her best and there are plenty of red herrings thrown into the story but as a whole, the story just did not have much spark.
I did like Vee's relationship with her younger sister, Mattie, the best friend to Sophie. The murders unfortunately draws them together but it makes them both confront their feelings regarding their father and their dead mother. Both characters have a lot of suppressed emotion. That being said, there is a plot line that I wish had been better addressed. Vee is almost date-raped and rather than letting the rapist be punished, he continues on at school, hurting girls in other ways. He is truly a despicable character and I feel like, by Vee not taking action, there is some sense of complacency, that the school would not have punished this character or that the law would not have taken Vee's side. It just felt really awful and it soured the story for me.
Slide has a few good points but on the whole I was just not that impressed. It did read very quickly and I think it could be another readalike for teens who are enjoying amateur high school sleuth mysteries but for me, it just did not work very well. The writing is solid but it just doesn't have much spark to take the story onto another level and thus, makes Vee and her story rather forgettable. Of course, what do I know as there is already a second story planned called Impostor, available in March 2013.
Slide is available from on March 27, 2012 from Balzer + Bray.
Other reviews:
The Book Scout reviews Slide
The Overflowing Library reviews Slide
I Swim for Oceans reviews Slide
ARC received from Amazon Vine.
