Book Review: Fracture by Megan Miranda

Title: Fracture
Author: Megan Miranda 
Publisher: Bloomsbury Australia
Release Date: January 17th, 2012
Format: Paperback 
Source: Publisher for review (Thank you!)

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine

—despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

For fans of best-sellers like Before I Fall and If I Stay, this is a fascinating and heart-rending story about love and friendship and the fine line between life and death.

Thought-provoking and emotional, you'll be swept away with Megan Miranda's raw and gripping debut. Definitely an author to look out for in the future!

I was really cautious upon starting Fracture, since I knew there would be a love triangle, and being the sort of person who absolutely despises unnecessary love triangles, I even put off reading it for a while. But after acutally reading it first-hand, I realised it was far from what I expected. And in a good way too. The "love triangle" in Fracture, is far from the usual angsty, nonsensical extravaganza that causes a perfectly well-written book to become an utter disappointment to me. Fracture was different, however. Everything that usually would've annoyed me - say, misunderstandings between two people, that leads to this whole pointless drama-completely flew out the window when I read this, and even I can't believe how much I enjoyed it.

Oh, Decker! How I wish he existed in real life. I usually don't like two best friends falling for each other (I just think a guy and girl should be able to remain friends without having any romantic feelings develop between the two) , but that thought disappeared gradually as I read on. Decker's exactly the kind of considerate and  protective guy any girl would want by her side.

'"And I lost it. I slept at the hospital.Actually, I didn't sleep at all. I couldn't eat. I just waited. And I made all kinds of bargains with God. Anyone but you.Anyone at all." His voice dropped to a whisper. "Everyone but you." '

 That quote instantly shattered my heart. Delaney is truly lucky to have Decker by her side.

As for Troy...I'm still confused about how I feel about him. From the very first time I met him, it was quite obvious there was something...not right. As I read on, it became increasingly obvious that Troy was messed up, both mentally and emotionally . Yet his actions weren't entirely uncalled for. I mean, we all know it's wrong  to end someone's life, but what if that person would die in a matter of days, or hours and they're actually suffering during their last few hours alive? Would you watch them suffer, feeding them pills to prolong their life, but really only prolonging their suffering? Or would you send them off, to stop their suffering? At times I definitely sympathised with Troy, and as much as I thought him as messed up, even delusional at times, there's no doubt his intentions were good, although his actions may be unforgivable.

Now my mind's whirling with unanswerable questions, and I have no idea whether it's a good or bad thing. What would I do if I only had one day to live? What makes a person human? Do miracles exist? And of course, how can someone, trapped for 11 minutes under in a frozen lake actually survive, especially since she had already died? Not exactly questions I can answer right away, but these are definitely questions that will haunt me for a long time after finishing Fracture.

If you love a good thought-provoking novel, that leaves you in a huge mess wondering what you would do had you been in that situation, then Fracture is the perfect book for you! Beautifully written, suspenseful and truly enlightening, Fracture completely blew me away. Highly recommended for everyone!