Ripple Effect [NOOK Book]

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up

When Elizabeth goes missing, it is assumed that she has run away. In actuality, she has awakened in another girl's life. She's still in Fawlt Line, but the streets are different, her parents are dead, she has a new fiancé and friends, and she's not Elizabeth-she's Sarah, and she's engaged to a man she's never seen before. She struggles to remember what happened, relying on her faith to help her understand as she begins to wonder if she is just going crazy, as Sarah's friends and family believe. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's best friend, Jeff, is accused of attacking and attempting to kill her when "her" body is found and "Elizabeth" lies in the hospital in a coma. His uncle, Malcolm, defends Jeff and starts looking into a theory that Elizabeth may have fallen through a time fault, a theory that might have merit based on several other cases that seem to fit the pattern. As he looks further into those cases, Malcolm finds a common thread. All of the "patients" who seem to have come from another life were in mortal danger when the switch occurred, and Jeff becomes determined to find a way through the time fault to save Elizabeth, his secret love, from death. A gripping adventure written in short chapters, with easy-to-read vocabulary, this book will appeal to teens who like mystery, thrillers, and fantasy, including reluctant readers. It falls into the Christian fiction genre, but has crossover appeal, as the author focuses on the characters' faith but it does not overshadow the excitement of the story.-Jessica Miller, New Britain Public Library, CT

Kirkus Reviews

In the first installment of the Time Thriller trilogy, previously published as Sudden Switch (1996), 15-year-old Elizabeth Forde, angry at her parents, decides to run away—but instead she disappears while taking a bath. She appears in an alternate world, apparently having switched places with her "time twin," Sarah Bishop, and a bizarre series of parallel events unfolds as Elizabeth tries to figure out who she is, where she is and how to return home. Elizabeth disappears too early in the story to have become enough of a fully realized character for readers to care about, however. The heart of the novel is the mysterious time warp, but whatever fascination readers may find in the premise is undermined at the end by Elizabeth's perfunctory, "They're the secret workings of God." Still, readers may overlook clumsy prose and overt Christian messages to find some good fun here. (Christian science fiction. 10-14)

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine