When (Previously Published as Death Date)

by Victoria Laurie

[Leah]

When I saw When by Victoria Laurie up on Netgalley, I was super intrigued - it sounded like a fantastic novel and I was somewhat surprised to be accepted to read the book. I was even more excited to read the book when I saw that one of my most favourite bloggers, ever - Ashley at Nose Graze absolutely loved the novel too! I really respect her opinion and I knew that because she had thought so highly of it, that it would be a book worth reading - and it was.

I remember back when LiveJournal was a thing there was a forum where people asked questions, and one time someone asked the question: would you rather know WHEN you die, or HOW you die. And that's the premise of When, because Maddie sees people's death dates. She can't see anything else - she doesn't know how they'll die, but she can tell them the date they'll die (which is what I would prefer to know - there's no use knowing the how, if you don't know when!). But Maddie's life starts to go pear-shaped when Maddie tells a mother her teen will die soon and the teen subsequently goes missing and is found murdered, and Maddie finds herself in the middle of an FBI investgation, fighting to clear her name.



The pace of When is pitch perfect. I flew through the novel at a startling rate of knots, it was super convincing and so, so absorbing. Despite the fact Maddie narrates the novel, I felt we still got the full scope of the book - Maddie seeing death dates, the investigation surrounding all these dead teens, and Maddie's hopelessness to prove she and best friend Stubby had nothing to do with it. I was desperate for her to clear her name, and on the edge of my seat for most of the book!

Maddie is also one of my favourite narrators, ever. I loved her. She had SO much to deal with - the death of her dad, which she feels guilty for; Stubby's arrest for murder; her mother's alcoholism; being bullied at school by teachers and students alike; and dealing with FBI agents who are determined to prove her guilt, despite the fact she's innocent. Anyone else would have sat in a room, cried, and refused to come out. But Maddie is a Fynn, and Fynn's fight and I loved that about her. It was great to see the payoff from that towards the end of the novel. And her Uncle Donny was by FAR the coolest Uncle there can ever be. Seriously, I loved that man.

Literally everything about the book was amazing. I could sit here and rave about it all day, that's how much I enjoyed it. It made me laugh, it made me cry (oh, how it made me cry!) and it had me on the edge of my seat for a lot of it. Even the reveal of who the actual killer was surprised me, because I had it already pinned on someone else, so the actual reveal made me gasp. When just hit all of the right notes for me, there was nothing I didn't like about it. It's been a while since I've enjoyed a book as much as When, and I very much did not want it to end, because I loved getting to know the characters so much.



Victoria Laurie is a new author to me, but When has put her firmly on my list of authors whose books I have to read and keep track of, because it was simply that freaking good. It had the most amazing plot with such a good premise (I'm very curious now regarding the how/when debate - if you could not how or when you die, but not both which would YOU choose, readers?!?! I'm firmly in Maddie's camp with the when) and fantastic characters you really, really care about. So much so that they become like family, or at least they did to me. The ending was fantastic - endings have let me down recently but this just made me squeeeeeeeee with delight. (After I'd got off the edge of my seat, obviously). If there's one 2015 release you must read it is When, because it is fantastic. One of the best books I've ever read.{Leah Loves} http://leah-loves.com http://leah-loves.com/books-victoria-laurie/