My Thoughts On: Slide by Jill Hathaway

Posted March 4, 2013 by Asheley in Uncategorized / 5 Comments

Slide by Jill Hathaway
Series: Slide #1
Published by Balzer + Bray
Publish Date: March 27, 2012
250 Pages
Source: Publisher



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 distant lately, 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. -(from Goodreads) 



Slide by Jill Hathaway 



My Thoughts:  So, I read Slide by Jill Hathaway. I had no idea what to expect going into it since I do not often read mystery/thriller books. I had some issues with it but I liked it enough that I will read the follow-up.

The first thing you need to know is this:
Slide has an awesome concept or premise for a story. 
I love the overriding idea behind Slide – Vee Bell is able to ‘slide’ into the minds of other people, to see things through their eyes or walk in their shoes for a short time. This happens she touches an object that another person has imprinted on emotionally, or when she touches something that another person has an emotional attachment to of some sort. Sometimes Vee sees things that are pretty meaningless but there’s that one time that Vee sees someone murder Sophie, and this pretty much changes Vee’s life. 

The thing is: since Vee was inside the mind of the murderer, she doesn’t know who the murderer actually was because she couldn’t see his/her face. Also, she wasn’t inside the person’s mind long enough to be able to glean any information or clues, and it bothers her a great deal because Sophie’s death was actually ruled a suicide. Vee is the only person that knows that Sophie didn’t kill herself. Now Vee is faced with a huge decision: should she leave things as they are and protect the fact that she can slide OR should she tell the police what she knows and clear Sophie’s good name? 

Truthfully, neither choice is a good one. It’s a lot of pressure for one person to have to bear.

The second thing you need to know is this:
Vee has this best friend, Rollins. Rollins is a guy. 
Vee also has this boyfriend, Zane.  
Vee and Rollins have been friends for a really long time. Correction: best friends. Rollins is awesome, he really is. In fact, I think Rollins is my favorite character in the entire book. While he doesn’t really know the exact details of Vee’s sliding because she is so intensely secretive about it, he does know that she has ‘episodes’ and he is concerned for her. It’s plainly obvious that he likes her – he loves her, even. This is a classic bookish case of: guy-girl best friends; one of the two has stronger feelings than the other one; everyone can see it except the clueless other friend. AND THEN! A new guy comes to school, the handsome Zane. Right away he befriends Vee, and Rollins becomes a little hurt and jealous. 
Before long, Zane and Vee are boyfriend/girlfriend and then they are in loooove. No, really. I’m not joking.
MY HEART BROKE FOR POOR ROLLINS. 
The third thing you need to know is this:

It is EXTREMELY RARE for me to feel annoyed with a character.   
I don’t like feeling annoyed with characters. It makes me feel bad. But I just couldn’t get on board with what Vee was doing, so I had a hard time connecting with her. 

First, Vee witnessed a murder. SHE WITNESSED A MURDER. Vee didn’t want to tell anyone she saw someone kill Sophie because then she would have to tell someone about her sliding. Why is that a big deal? Last time she told someone about her sliding (her father), it didn’t go well – her father didn’t believe her and made her go see a shrink. So in order to spare herself the embarrassment of, well, being embarrassed, Vee decides to find the killer herself. (Because it is totally smart for a high school student to go hunting murderers??)

Second, Vee got involved in a wonky love triangle in which she insta-loved her boyfriend. You guys, this is kinda huge for me. I actually really like love triangles and I don’t mind insta-love when it is cohesive to the plot and works well in a story. This is not one of those cases. In Slide, Rollins is a great character with obvious feelings for Vee. He is clearly the better choice and makes up part of the love triangle. The new guy Zane is the other guy – their relationship feels so quick, it actually made me feel weird. It’s like they met and they insta-loved each other a few pages later. The build-up of the relationship in between the meet and the love seems to be missing from the story. 

In Zane’s defense, he is cohesive to the plot and important to the story. I’m speaking here of my annoyance with Vee and her thought processes and choices. I couldn’t get a handle on WHY she did some of what she did, and it just threw me off. I felt this was worth mentioning because this happens to me so rarely. 

*************************************************************

Slide by Jill Hathaway is one of those books with a fantastic and engaging premise for a story. I loved the idea of Vee Bell sliding right into another person’s mind and seeing the world through another person’s eyes. I also loved that she was initially unable to control this, and she was unable to control the length of time of her slide. Vee often had no idea who she was going to be sliding into and what she was going to be seeing, and that made things really interesting. 

However, after Vee witnessed Sophie’s murder, things changed a little for me. I had a hard time with how Vee justified some of her actions, and this shocked me. Normally I’m able to look past myself and my real-life feelings, and I can just read the characters as they are on the page. I couldn’t do that with this book. I couldn’t understand why Vee would hide something so important as information about a murder when THERE IS A MURDERER ON THE LOOSE. (Not long after Sophie dies, an additional student dies and once again, Sophie has information that could be useful to the case. Once again, she sits on it.) Also, I could imagine that Sophie’s family was suffering in the background, thinking that Sophie took her own life. Vee could have helped them to cope in a different way by sharing the truth. I understand that Vee was just trying to protect herself, but at the same time, I also don’t understand this behavior because it seems selfish and unlawful.

While I don’t enjoy Vee’s secretive side and the danger she put herself in as an amateur sleuth, there are some things that I really did enjoy about this book. Rollins’ character is fantastic. He has an interesting story and is developed enough that I felt connected to him as a reader. I want to know more about him. 

Besides the cool concept of this story, my favorite thing about Slide is the relationship between Vee and her sister Mattie. I am one of those readers that absolutely enjoys reading great sibling relationships, and this book has a wonderfully written sister-relationship. These girls lost their mother years earlier and their father is a very busy pediatric surgeon, so they’ve spent most of their lives taking care of each other and they are very close. Not only that, but the two students that die in this book are Mattie’s very close friends. In Slide, I saw Vee nurture her younger sister and witnessed what a lovely sister-sibling relationship looks like. These girls love each other to pieces, and I very much enjoyed this aspect of the book. 

Slide by Jill Hathaway is not a perfect book but it is enjoyable. I liked the concept of ‘sliding’ enough that I will be reading the follow-up, Imposter, in a few days. I’m hoping to learn more Rollins and I’m hoping to see Vee mature quite a bit from this first book to the second book. I recommend Slide to readers who enjoy mystery/thriller stories and also readers that enjoy reading sibling relationships. 

*********************************************************

Slide will appeal to fans of:

YA Mystery/Thriller with Paranormal
Romance: Love triangle. Insta-Love.


Slide 
by Jill Hathaway
is currently available for purchase.

**I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest opinion and review. I received no compensation for my thoughts. Thank you Balzer + Bray! 


*********************************************************

Have you read SLIDE yet? 

What are your thoughts? 
Let’s discuss.


Asheley

About Asheley

Asheley is a Southern girl. She loves Carolina blue skies, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and NC craft beer. She loves all things history but prefers books over everything.

You can find her somewhere in North Carolina, daydreaming about the ocean.

Find Asheley on Litsy @intothehallofbooks!

Divider

5 responses to “My Thoughts On: Slide by Jill Hathaway

  1. Hmmm…I'm not sure that I'll read Slide based on your description of Vee. I think I'd probably be annoyed with her too and if I don't connect to a MC then I just don't enjoy the book as much.

    Thanks for the review, I was curious about this one!

  2. This is another one that is probably not for me. If Vee started to bother you, I'm sure she would drive me INSANE, both for the insta-love triangle. AND for how she is over secretive and doesn't share what she knows. I don't mind insta-love either, but I don't think I could handle it if there is clearly another character who is clearly better for her!! I think her ability is really intriguing though, and I agree that great sibling relationships are something that I love in a book as well. Great, thorough review.

    • I very rarely feel such feelings toward a character. Normally I'm just able to read them as they are, but Vee just got to me. It wasn't A THING that she did that bothered me, she did things over and over, and I just couldn't find any common ground with her. No way to connect with her at all…except that she was an excellent sister.

      Love Rollins, though. He was the best thing about this book. Neat character.

  3. Slide certainly sounds like an interesting book! I meant to read it when it first came out, but it totally slipped away from me. The concept of sliding seems pretty cool though.

Leave a Reply

Want to include a link to one of your blog posts below your comment? Enter your URL in the website field, then click the button below to get started.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.