Format: e-ARC
Source: Publisher via Netgalley
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Publication Date: July 22, 2014
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Name of overseas edition of Between The Lives.
Above all else, though I try not to think about it, I know which life I prefer. And every night when I Cinderella myself from one life to the next a very small, but definite, piece of me dies. The hardest part is that nothing about my situation has ever changed. There is no loophole.
Until now, that is...
For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she Shifts to her ′other′ life - a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she′s a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she′s considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other.
With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments which bring her dangerously close to the life she′s always wanted... But just what - and who - is she really risking?
My Thoughts:
Have you ever read a book that left you speechless? Well, One Past Midnight had that effect on me when I finished it. I admit that I wasn’t really expecting to love it as much as I did going on, only because I had never read anything by this author before and with it being parallel worlds, I was a little hesitant because it takes an amazing writer to pull that off. However, I’m happy to report that I was wrong, I was immediately sucked into the story and I didn’t want it to end and I really, really want to know what happens to Sabine, especially after THAT ending. I can only hope that Shirvington has plans for a sequel because if not…well, I don’t even want to think about that.
All her life Sabine has lived each day twice, every night at Midnight she ‘shifts’ over to her other world and everything except her name changes. In one world she has two brothers and a boyfriend and in the other she has a little sister and no boyfriend. Sabine has lived her lives carefully as anything physical to her body has always transferred over to the other life so she’s always been real careful about everything, not dying her hair in one world only to not have an explanation in the other. All of this changes when Sabine breaks her wrist in one world only to shift to the other that night and finding out that the break didn’t cross over. This sets something in motion for Sabine, she’s sets up a series of tests to try and find a way to have one life like everyone else. And she already knows which life she would chose, or at least she thinks she does.
Sabine was a unique character and she was different in both lives, but still kind of the same, if that makes sense. While I didn’t agree with some of her tactics in determining whether the break in her wrist was a fluke, I can understand why she would go to extreme lengths. I mean, here is a girl who has lived her entire eighteen years twice, she graduated high school twice, she has her period twice as long each month, and I’m sure us ladies can imagine the torture THAT WOULD BE. All she has ever wanted was to live one WHOLE life just like everyone else, and who’s to same that I wouldn’t have gone to the same lengths if I was in her position. Plus it lead her to Ethan ;)
Ahhh, Ethan. While I would love to devote this whole review to him, I can’t because that would spoil so much of the book so you’re just going to have to trust me when I say that Ethan everything a book boyfriend should be and you should definitely look forward to meeting him.
Overall, One Past Midnight is a wonderfully constructed and unique contemporary. You will laugh, you will cry and you will be stunned by the ending.
