One Moment

by Kristina McBride

Rising high school senior Maggie remembers little about the accidental death of her boyfriend, Joey, but as she slowly begins to recall that day at the lake with their long-time friends, she realizes some terrible secrets are being kept.

• ISBN10: 160684086X
• ISBN13: 9781606840863
• Publish Date: 26 June 2012 (first published 1 January 2012)
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Egmontusa
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 261
• Language: English

Reviews

[Rowena]

After reading this book, I have to take a serious break from reading books dealing with death in them. This book did such a great job of depressing the hell out of me while I was reading it. I had to keep putting it down because I would sink so low while I was reading that I had to jump right back out and read something else so that my heart would go back to normal.

Right from the beginning, I knew that something wasn’t right with Joey and Maggie’s relationship. When the secrets started coming to light, I started getting more and more pissed off that we weren’t finding them out quickly enough. The way that Maggie handled everything got on my hot damn nerves. Mostly, the way that she handled the accident after it happened. She leaned heavily on Adam for everything and she acted out by being a brat and I could never understand people like that. Things are already hard enough, why lash out and make things just that much harder for everyone involved? What purpose does it serve other than to drag things out unnecessarily?

As a main character, Maggie took a lot of getting used to. She painted Joey to be this perfect specimen that I knew immediately that he was anything but. I also discovered the secrets before I was ready to discover them. I knew that her friends (the ones involved) were up to no good and I knew that the guy she ended up with was the one that she was supposed to end up with. For him to stand by and wait for her to open her eyes and realize what has been standing before her all along, to wait that long, he had to have had some serious feelings for her. They were intense and strong and so very real. I ate up every scene with him in it. I knew before he even confessed everything where his head was throughout this whole ordeal.

He was fighting his own grief and his own guilt so I understood why he needed his space from the group. He had to have been pissed off and scared and just overall devastated by everything that happened. I loved seeing him come to terms with everything and well, I just loved him.

With Maggie, it was hard for me to connect with her at times because I spent a good deal of the book exasperated with her memory loss, her reactions, her actions that for a while I kept wondering what the hell Adam saw in her. But then, like out of nowhere, something clicks with me. I continue to read and I get it. I get Adam. I even get Maggie and I think I didn’t like her because I wanted so much to like Joey…and I blamed her for that since she held him on a pedestal for so long. I can’t even explain what clicked and why I suddenly forgave her, I just did.

It was when she went to see Shannon. To tell Shannon what she remembered from the day of the accident. It was like, I was finally getting over my grief (because damned if I wasn’t grieving right along with them, I was so depressed) over Joey and letting him go. I feel kind of silly telling you guys this but that’s how I felt.

Some things that bothered me about the book is even though I got it and I let go, I still thought Maggie moving on from Joey, so quickly, was too much too soon. I wish more time had passed before her and Adam hooked up but still, it was a happy ending, or well, as happy as it was gonna get and I was glad for it.

This is a deep read with a whole crapload of conflict so if you’re going to read this, you should know that this book isn’t a light and fluffy read. It really is about how one moment can change the course of your life and the consequences that that one moment leaves behind. But it was good and I’m glad that I read it.

[violetpeanut]

The first word that comes to mind after reading this book is "sweet." This book is really a very sweet and poignant journey through grief. The main protagonist, Maggie, deals with the loss of her boyfriend but beyond that, the loss of perfect memories that are tainted when she learns some unexpected truths about their relationship. This book is her journey through their relationship with all of the intensity that only a teenage first-love can have. It is her journey through the trials of friendship and her journey through the truth of her relationship.

The plot is fairly straightforward. There is a little bit of a mystery here but it is somewhat predictable. The pacing was excellent. Things moved along quickly enough to keep the reader interested but at a pace that allowed the characters and scenes to shine. There is enough description to paint a picture without becoming overly wordy or boring. The ending is satisfying and again, sweet.

The strength of this book is in it's characters. The author does a fantastic job of portraying these teenagers honestly - with enough drama that it is believable without becoming cheesy as in so many other YA books today. The memories and flashbacks make the reader feel just what Maggie is feeling - the nervous flutterings in the pit of your stomach on a first date, the giggling, the longing, the ache, the intense devastation a teenager can feel when it feels like nothing in the world will ever be right again, the highs you can only feel when you are with your best friends in the world and it feels like nothing will ever be better than this. The extreme highs and lows of adolescence.

Overall a very enjoyable book and recommended to fans of YA - realistic drama in particular.