By Sarah Mlynowski
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Format: eBook
Source: NetGalley
Publication Date: March 11, 2014
To Sum It Up: The students of Bloomberg High School’s Homeroom 10B pay little mind to the flu shots they’ve just received until they suddenly begin hearing each other’s thoughts. For some, this newfound ability is a boon; for those who have secrets they’re to desperate to hide, it’s a disaster. Even friends are shocked to learn what they’ve been withholding from one another as keeping anything private anymore becomes nearly impossible.
Review: I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be able to read minds, and that’s what immediately drew me to Don’t Even Think About It. The premise that a bad batch of flu vaccines causes the students in one high school homeroom to develop telepathy makes for iffy science, but that’ s not really the focus of the book. The heart of the novel is all of the drama that erupts from everyone unwillingly broadcasting his/her thoughts.
While some humorous moments result from the students’ situation, the novel also illustrates the downside of the mind reading. The prime example of this is Mackenzie, who is desperate to prevent her boyfriend, Cooper, from discovering a crushing secret. I appreciated the book’s efforts to add some gravity to the tone, but I thought it could have used some middle ground to close the gap between the more serious story lines and its lighter ones. Quite a few of the characters’ thoughts are devoted to wondering if another character likes them or not, and my over 30 self wasn’t too keen on the high school relationship melodramatics.
The book takes a rather unique approach to the narration, with all of the characters collectively telling the story under a unified “we.” Something that I didn’t care for narrative-wise was how clipped the rhythm of the writing sounded to me. There are a lot of short sentences, and maybe this was intentional to emphasize a rapid-fire stream of consciousness. I couldn’t quite get used to it, though, but then I’m always catching myself writing run-on sentences; this review is probably rife with them.
I absolutely loved the fact that Cooper was a diehard Yankee fan. The novel is very good at keeping its fairly large cast of characters distinct from one another, especially since they share a single narrative voice. This was a quick read that kept me hooked, but I did feel I needed a bit more from the story than couples getting together/breaking up.
All in All: Don’t Even Think About It has the overall feel of a contemporary YA novel with a sprinkle of paranormal. It’s not an especially life-altering read, but it is pretty entertaining.
