Review: When by Victoria Laurie

When
By: Victoria Laurie
Release Date: January 13, 2015

Description:
Maddie Fynn is a shy high school junior, cursed with an eerie intuitive ability: she sees a series of unique digits hovering above the foreheads of each person she encounters. Her earliest memories are marked by these numbers, but it takes her father's premature death for Maddie and her family to realize that these mysterious digits are actually death dates, and just like birthdays, everyone has one.

Forced by her alcoholic mother to use her ability to make extra money, Maddie identifies the quickly approaching death date of one client's young son, but because her ability only allows her to see the when and not the how, she's unable to offer any more insight. When the boy goes missing on that exact date, law enforcement turns to Maddie.

Soon, Maddie is entangled in a homicide investigation, and more young people disappear and are later found murdered. A suspect for the investigation, a target for the murderer, and attracting the attentions of a mysterious young admirer who may be connected to it all, Maddie's whole existence is about to be turned upside down. Can she right things before it's too late?


Review:
This book was actually quite a pleasant unexpected surprise.  I haven’t read a mystery type book in a while and this book just seemed to fit me just fine for the moment.  The author did a great job of creating these characters that you couldn’t help but find interesting.  I’ve never heard of someone having the power or ability of knowing everyone’s death date.  That definitely has to take its toll on you.

We meet Maddie who is in high school and a bit of an outcast because of her ability, her best friend Stubbs is also a bit of an outcast, but together they shine.  Even though they are constantly harassed (this book actually takes the time to deal with bullying and I love it more for that because bullying is something that shouldn’t happen even though we all know it does). Together they go about trying to change people’s fate on when they are going to die and it all starts with one mother who wants to know about her child’s death date.  This sets off a chain reaction in their little town, because not only does the other son of that particular mother dies, but it’s all about the way he dies.

In begins the FBI’s interest in both Maddie and her friend Stubbs, but when another student dies, they go in full force.  This of course is where the harassing starts, but you have to read it to find out what happens next because really it’s all unexpected.  When you think it’s one person and then maybe it could be another it turns out to be someone you didn’t expect at all, and this is what makes this book so great.  It keeps you guessing from the beginning to the end, you even begin to doubt your own thoughts in the middle.  Like, could he have done it? Only one way to find out!

Overall the book was a quick read, very interesting and kept your attention all the way through.  It was an interesting a new concept that I haven’t read previously and that’s always a plus, because really who wants to read the same book over and over again (concept wise) without there being some surprises in it that you weren’t expecting.  I would recommend this book to anyone and if you figure it out before the ending then kudos to you because I was completely fooled ha, ha.

Love the cover also, really shows how much of an outcast Maddie really feels like. And the backwards three in the title is also interesting, I would unquestionably pick up this book to see what it was about and once I read the blurb in my basket it would go.

Disclaimer:
I received this book from NetGalley and Disney Book Group - Disney-Hyperion, so that I may give my honest opinion and a review. Whether it is good or not please do not let it discourage you from purchasing/reading the book yourself and forming your own opinion. What might be good for me may not be good for you and vice versa. With that said, Happy Reading Everyone!!!