Oh, Vee, what do you see?

Slide
By: Jill Hathaway
Reported by: Julianna Helms

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.  

-Summary from Goodreads 
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There is this deep mystery buried in everything, but only a handful of us can tell it so immensely well that all feelings of doubt are erased upon every suspect. Jill Hathaway is one of those people. 
Slide was a terrifyingly genius and shockingly realistic story that features not only moments of sudden philosophical clearness expressed in subtle ways, but also explosions of mastermind material weaved together in a fantastic plot that will have your heart pounding, your blood rushing, and your fingers itching to turn the page way past The End.

This story revolves around Vee and a struggle mentally and emotionally that should have worn any girl other than Vee out. The secret Vee holds--a key to life and death, nonetheless--is both thrilling and fascinating. What I loved most about this book was that Jill didn't let Vee's tragedy and trauma override normal teenage feelings and reactions. Though I wasn't a big fan of the semi-insta-love between Vee and Zane, I must admit that the slim dislike pales greatly next to the epic way Jill handled the mystery and story. Most of you know I am a quick guesser of mysteries and plot twists, but this was one story that had me gripped and toss theories around, an act almost unprecedented except by books such as Across the Universe, though even that was only a question of who unplugged Amy, not the murderer, as I guessed the latter before the book was halfway through. 

Slide is the epitome model of how a great mystery is done. Its themes orbit around morality and struggle in a calculatedly subtle, almost unnoticeable way that will blow your mind away, but it's not the themes nor the authentic characters and voice themselves that grants this book an instant elevation to stardom. It's the fact that Jill Hathaway knows how to write one heck of a good story, and if there was ever a book to resonated the same enigma as Sherlock Holmes, it's Slide.

And that's saying something.