Don't Even Think About It: Book 1

by Sarah Mlynowski

This is the story of how we became freaks. It's how a group of I's became a we.

When Class 10B got their flu shots, they expected some side effects. Maybe a sore arm. Maybe a headache. They definitely didn't expect to get telepathy. But suddenly they could hear what everyone was thinking. Their friends. Their teachers. Their parents. Now they all know that Tess has a crush on her best friend, Teddy. That Mackenzie cheated on Cooper. That Nurse Carmichael used to be a stripper. Some of them will thrive. Some of them will break. None of them will ever be the same.

A smart and funny story about friendship, first love and surviving high school from the bestselling author of Ten Things We Shouldn't Have Done.

• ISBN10: 140833156X
• ISBN13: 9781408331569
• Publish Date: 1 May 2014 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
• Imprint: Orchard Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[Joséphine]

Audiobook rating: 3 stars
Book rating: 2.5 stars

Initial thoughts: The premise of Don't Even Think About It sounds intriguing — practically an entire class gains ESP abilities due to a tainted batch of flue shots. There's so much that can be done with that idea! Sadly, that potential wasn't entirely realized. At the baseline, I liked the narrative style. The point(s)-of-view was an amalgamation of a collective "we", sort of like an omniscient plural first person. I say "sort of" because occasionally the point-of-view represented that of one person in the group but for the most part it could've been anyone. Many people might find this confusing but I liked it because for all intents and purposes, that could all read each other's minds which means their thoughts overlapped in a way that mimicked inner dialogues.

Beyond the mind reading, the potentials and repercussions though, there wasn't all that much substance to Don't Even Think About It. Most of it boiled down to romance — who cheated on who, manipulating a love interest by reading their thoughts, figuring out if someone liked them back, etc. That plot got tiring to keep up because there was no parallel arch about other ways to take advantage of their newfound ESP.

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

Don't Even Think About It It was super cute and fun! What if you could everyone else's thoughts and they could hear yours? Well, that is what homeroom 10B is about to find out. The school is giving flu shots to the students, but this particular batch is off. By the next day 20 students are hearing voices. Everyone is freaking out, so they call a meeting to discuss what to do about their new power. In general, it's pretty awesome to be able to hear what everyone is thinking, but it definitely sucks to have all of your secrets out there.

It did take me a few chapters to get into Don't Even Think About It, but it had nothing to do with the story. It was the writing. It's not bad, just weird. Instead of being in third person and following everyone, it's first person, but the narrator is everyone. So there are "we" statements and "us" and "our" instead of "I." In general, it reads like third person, but the occasional "we" would throw me off. Eventually, I settled into the narrative and really enjoyed the story.

The tone of Don't Even Think About It is very light and fluffy. Even though there's a lot of good things that can be done with telepathy, we're talking about a group of self-involved teenagers! They use their knowledge to get dates and cheat on tests! Although there is a lot of focus on lying, since very often, what we say doesn't match what we're truly thinking. Some of the teens do get hurt by what they find out. It does make you wonder if you really want to know what people are thinking or if it's better to go around oblivious.

In the end, I really liked Don't Even Think About It. It's a very quick and cute read, so I breezed through it. I was never bored, even though at times the story did get a bit repetitive. It's also quite cheesy at times, but I felt like it fit the story.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Raven]

review and rating incoming

[ellieroth]

Reseña completa: El Extraño Gato del Cuento

AWESOME U_U

¿Quién no ha pensado en algún momento que leer mentes sería una habilidad genial? Quizá Edward Cullen nos pueda dar algunas contras. Pero ¿Qué si no solo tú, sino toda tu clase del instituto pueda hacerlo y no tengas ninguna posibilidad de guardar un secreto? Y como todos sabemos no hay lugar para más drama que el instituto. Esa es la premisa de Don't Even Think About It, libro que en lo personal disfruté mucho, mucho leer.

El libro es como la portada. Cuando ves la portada lo primero que piensas no es "Es un libro de ciencia ficción, unos chicos desarrollaron la habilidad lectora de mentes", más parece un historia más... ¿Cursi? Y bueno, como mencioné, la historia no ahonda en los superpoderes, es solo una forma de narrarlo, por decirlo de algún modo. El estilo de la escritora en este libro es bastante simpático, una tercera persona que a la vez no es tercera persona sino un todo. Si lo que estás esperando una historia a lo X-Men, saldrás decepcionado.

Lo que me hizo no ponerle cinco estrellas al libro fue la manera en como se desarrolla el final, durante todo el libro el ritmo es parejo, muy entretenido, pero el final es demasiado fácil, la manera en que Mlyonwski usa el recurso que tiene es un poco ingenua. No me convenció nada el desarrollo de esa escena al menos, todo lo demás que siguió sí me gustó, pero esa escena... Uhm, no. Aunque ahora que reviso Goodreads aparece como serie, lo cuál me parece raro porque la escritora no ha dicho nada al respecto, al menos que yo me haya enterado. ¿Da para una serie el libro? No estoy del todo segura, me gustaría saber más de ellos, sí, es solo que como les digo lo único diferente del libro es la manera en la que está narrada, puede ser básicamente un libro conclusivo. Será cuestión de esperar.

Para mí ha sido un libro relajante, no tiene un plot que enredado donde tienes que estar maquinando lo que seguirá, solo leer y disfrutar.