When by Victoria Laurie

Goodreads Summary

*NO SPOILERS*

What I took away from this book is that when you judge people, nothing good comes of it. The main character was judged harshly by everyone around her, because of her abilities, and it almost ruined her life. The people in this book showed humanities instinct to fear the unknown and unnatural, and it is also wired in the human brain to fear death. I really liked this book, and it progressed as it went on, I also really liked the mystery surrounding this book. I haven’t heard anything of this book until I saw it on BookOutlet, when I read the synopsis, I was instantly hooked! I haven’t read anything like this, and it sort of reminded me of one of those short writing prompts you see on Pinterest. When I was making my predictions for how the book would turn out, I was so sure of myself, that this book completely shocked me in how I didn’t predict a single thing right. Obviously, this book wasn’t hard to figure out, up until the point you are completely wrong. All of the characters in this book were extremely easy to relate to, because of their ability to act so simply human in the most basic way. Since this book dealt with prejudice and oppression, it should have made me mad to read about the injustices done to this girl. All this book did though, was make me want to cry. Because no matter the situation, the behavior demonstrated in this book is always the first option people resort to, and it is extremely heart-breaking to realize that. I know this out-take on the subject is very pessimistic, but in most cases, it is the truth. To finish my thoughts, I didn’t like the cover because it showed faces, but it does make for an eye-catching cover!

*SPOILER ALERT*

This whole thing started with Mrs. Tibbolt being a hypocrite. She comes to Maddie asking about her daughter, fully prepared to let go of her if need be, but then she gets upset when her son is the one that’s in danger. Honestly, she had to be prepared for her daughter so why would her son be any different? Which is why I couldn’t understand why she would sell-out and threaten Maddie. Even before that, why did Maddie’s family let her publicly demonstrate her ability? I know her and her mom needed money after her father’s death, but before that. They should have taught her to hide it and not let anyone know because of the exact reason that people fear death and the unknown. Of course people were bound to react negatively because it is outside the ‘norm’. And another thing, when they confirmed her ability, why didn’t they think to question why she was the only one who could do this? They could have taken her to a specialist to check her out and try to figure out an answer. I secretly think that Mrs. Duncan (my favorite character) could do the same thing and see dates. Towards the end Maddie comments on how it was as if she ‘knew’, AND she was the only one willing to be nice and help Maddie out when all of this was going on. Therefore, she must have understood on a deeper level and came to her aid because she knew what it was like. Far-fetched, I know, but it makes sense. At first, I didn’t understand why Aiden was in the story at all, because you see him a little at the beginning and then he disappears until the end. But I’m so glad his character came back because that ending was beautiful! About the middle of the book when Stubs was in jail and all the evidence came out against him, I started to believe he was actually the killer. It gave me Primal Fear vibes (it’s a movie, go watch it!). And when he got out, and was giving her the cold shoulder, I thought him to be unfair. He was her biggest supporter before and never questioned her, so he had no right to turn his back on her, even after all he had been through. That’s why I’m glad they made up and moved on. And I’m really glad that Agent Faraday came around to being on her side, and allowing her to help. I found it really endearing that when he saved her at the end he held her and stayed with her. She thought he was her dad, and it broke my heart to see her believe it was him again. I would never, in a million years, think that it was Rick. If I were to re-read this, I probably still wouldn’t believe it was Rick that did all of that. To close out I want to say that the clock bit at the end, was brilliant! And my favorite part of the book, because it was so clever! Let me know your thoughts and theories in the comments below.

Booktube-A-Thon review series: 7/7  (OMG I DID IT AGAIN!)