Review: A Gripping Blend of Mystery and Realistic Contemporary Fiction!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 22, 2014
'Fragile Line' is a unique and compelling young adult novel that blends an intense mystery alongside realistic fiction dealing with mental health issues. The book follows our heroine, Elizabeth "Ellie" Cox, who has been experiencing blackouts - chunks of missing time and memories - for the majority of her life. Normally they were small things like going to bed at night or doing a project at school. Now the blackouts are coming on stronger and closer together. Ellie's starting to lose critical time periods - hours and eventually even days - and she has no idea what has happened. She wakes one morning to find that she got a tattoo sometime the previous day, but she has no memory of it at all. Worse yet, she disappears for three days straight and wakes up in a random guy's apartment with absolutely no idea of how she got there or what had happened while she was gone. With her blackouts causing serious problems in her life, along with fragments of memories from her childhood and evidence of her doing things she never would do, Ellie must decide whether to keep hiding from her secrets and her past - or she must confront them head on and learn the heartbreaking truth of what happened to her when she was young as well as what the blackouts really are.I found this novel to be a fantastic blend of realistic contemporary fiction and a powerful mystery. All aspects of the story line had me completely engrossed in the book and I couldn't stop reading until I found out what was really happening to Ellie and why. The way that the author wrote about Ellie's problems and eventually her disorder was great - it was woven into the mystery and the plot of the story - giving the reader a better understanding of a serious mental illness without sounding boring or clinical. Adding in the mystery behind the blackouts and Ellie's determination to discover the truth really brought the plot to a deeper level, and I felt that everything flowed together in a seamless way to create a riveting novel. The characters were well written, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, flaws and problems - which I thought made them easy to identify with as a reader. Ellie was a wonderful main character for the story. She's smart, determined, a devoted daughter, sister and friend, but she's also broken, scared, and scarred by her past. I found it very interesting that the story was divided into different parts told from either Ellie's or Gwen's point of view. I think it gives the reader an inside look at what goes on behind the scenes for the characters and helps to know each one on a more personal level. The plot was perfectly crafted with the mystery weaving into the mental health issues and to deeper topics such as family, love, truth, and facing your fears. I found the mystery aspect to be fantastic and I was completely at a loss for the first portion of the book as to what was happening. After I realized the truth, the strange occurrences and issues that Ellie dealt with and tried to understand made complete sense and I enjoyed learning the complete truth about it all right alongside her. Overall, this is a magnificent book that mixes genres to create an original novel of realistic fiction and mystery. Highly recommended for fans of YA contemporary fiction and those who enjoy mysteries.Disclosure: I received a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.