Book Review: Don't Even Think About It

Book: Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available Now

Direction:

We weren't always like this. We used to be average New York City high school sophomores. Until our homeroom went for flu shots. We were prepared for some side effects. Maybe a headache. Maybe a sore arm. We definitely didn't expect to get telepathic powers. But suddenly we could hear what everyone was thinking. Our friends. Our parents. Our crushes. Now we all know that Tess is in love with her best friend, Teddy. That Mackenzie cheated on Cooper. That, um, Nurse Carmichael used to be a stripper.

Since we've kept our freakish skill a secret, we can sit next to the class brainiac and ace our tests. We can dump our boyfriends right before they dump us. We know what our friends really think of our jeans, our breath, our new bangs. We always know what's coming. Some of us will thrive. Some of us will crack. None of us will ever be the same.

So stop obsessing about your ex. We're always listening.





Rating: 2 stars

Review:

This was sci-fi-ish in a way with 20+ Bloomberg high school students from the same homeroom gaining the ability to read minds following a flu shot that they received from getting the shot on the same day at school. The story was told as a single body narrative because by then they had all started to speak as one.

Even though the story was told by several people (without actually knowing who) the story mainly focused on five characters: Mackenzie - the most popular girl who is dating Cooper but cheated on him over the summer, Cooper - her happy go lucky boyfriend whose life seems perfect, Tess - her best friend who is dealing with weight issues and trying to figure out if her crush and good friend Teddy likes her, Olivia - a total hypochondriac as well as being shy is trying to figure out if this guy Darren Lazar likes her and Pi - a super overachiever who can never seem to be the best because she's still number #2 in her class but desperately wants to be number #1.

This is a character driven story but unfortunately the characters are not that interesting. I would say I liked Olivia probably the best because she seems to have the most character development.

This was like reading a tamer version of Gossip Girl with most of characters being rich NYC kids who were a bit self-centered (and one-dimensional), the only difference is they had powers. However, they only used their new powers for dealing with all their romance drama.

I guess I was expecting a bit more sci-fi to the story instead of a majority of the plot focused on the students who mainly used their new abilities to sort out their romance issues and finding out gossip. I understand that they did not want to tell anyone (such as their parents or the CDC) about there abilities but most of them didn't even seemed to worry about any other possible side-effects. And when the authorities/government finally showed up in the story they were incompetent and clueless. Their responses and reactions were not how you would think they would react especially when they stumble upon something like this.

I enjoyed reading some of the funnier moments but after a while the story started to falter because each chapter started to feel like I was reading the same thing over and over. And then I started wondering, is this all they're going to do with these abilities. The premise had me really interested in reading this but sadly the story didn't work for me.

Overall, I would say this was a lighthearted and fast paced funny (at times) read. I just wish this had been more sci-fi and less romance centered and with more interesting characters.