Publishers Weekly
★ 01/12/2015
Sisters Dara and Nick had grown up as “the Two Musketeers, the Dynamic Duo, Light and Dark, two sides of the same cookie,” but after a serious car accident, the two sisters are irrevocably distanced. As older, more reliable sister Nick tries to find her way back into Dara’s graces, their strained relationship, the boy who came between them, and the sudden disappearance of a nine-year-old girl bring secrets of a local underworld too close to home. The novel alternates between the sisters’ perspectives, both before and after the accident, while news reports, diaries, and blog posts and comments from the community create a narrative full of shades of grey. Oliver (Panic) is in top form in this psychological family drama that investigates the complicated nature of sisterhood. Perfect for readers who devoured We Were Liars, it’s the sort of novel that readers will race to finish, then return to the beginning to marvel at how it was constructed—and at everything they missed. Ages 14–up. Agent: Stephen Barbara, InkWell Management. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
Alarming and uplifting, a rare psychological thriller that has a kind heart at its center. Read it with all the lights on.” — —E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars
“Perfect for readers who devoured We Were Liars, it’s the sort of novel that readers will race to finish, then return to the beginning to marvel at how it was constructed—and at everything they missed.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Oliver’s characterizations and background stories are well-developed and compulsively readable. Recommend to teens looking for a well-written work with a juicy ending. They will not be disappointed.” — School Library Journal
“Best-selling Oliver weaves a taut mystery interspersed with blog posts about Madeline’s disappearance, and the story is made all the more compelling by Nick and Dara’s close but troubling relationship, marked by both love and intense jealousy.” — Booklist
PRAISE FOR BEFORE I FALL: “Oliver’s debut novel is raw, emotional, and, at times, beautiful....readers will love Samantha best as she hurtles toward an end as brave as it is heartbreaking.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
PRAISE FOR BEFORE I FALL: “Samantha’s attempts to save her life and right the wrongs she has caused are precisely what will draw readers into this complex story and keep them turning pages until Sam succeeds in living her last day the right way.” — Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (starred review)
PRAISE FOR BEFORE I FALL: “Oliver, in a pitch-perfect teen voice, explores the power we have to affect the people around us in this intensely believable first novel...This is a compelling book with a powerful message and should not be missed.” — ALA Booklist
PRAISE FOR PANIC: “Oliver makes a white-knuckle return to realism that will have readers up until the wee hours.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
PRAISE FOR PANIC: “Oliver’s novel is a wholly believable and compulsively readable tale of friendship, loyalty, survival, and courage.” — Booklist
PRAISE FOR PANIC: “Retains all the tension and excitement of Oliver’s Delirium…A work with sharp corners, dark places, and considerable humanity.” — The Horn Book
The Horn Book
PRAISE FOR PANIC: “Retains all the tension and excitement of Oliver’s Delirium…A work with sharp corners, dark places, and considerable humanity.
E. Lockhart
Alarming and uplifting, a rare psychological thriller that has a kind heart at its center. Read it with all the lights on.
ALA Booklist
PRAISE FOR BEFORE I FALL: “Oliver, in a pitch-perfect teen voice, explores the power we have to affect the people around us in this intensely believable first novel...This is a compelling book with a powerful message and should not be missed.
Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (starred review)
PRAISE FOR BEFORE I FALL: “Samantha’s attempts to save her life and right the wrongs she has caused are precisely what will draw readers into this complex story and keep them turning pages until Sam succeeds in living her last day the right way.
Booklist
Best-selling Oliver weaves a taut mystery interspersed with blog posts about Madeline’s disappearance, and the story is made all the more compelling by Nick and Dara’s close but troubling relationship, marked by both love and intense jealousy.
Booklist
Best-selling Oliver weaves a taut mystery interspersed with blog posts about Madeline’s disappearance, and the story is made all the more compelling by Nick and Dara’s close but troubling relationship, marked by both love and intense jealousy.
School Library Journal
11/01/2014
Gr 9 Up—Different as night and day, sisters Nick and Dara are practically joined at the hip. Nick is perpetually the cool and calm older one who calls the shots. Dara is always tagging along, longing to be in the spotlight. That was before the accident that left Dara injured and Nick shaken to the core. Now, the siblings barely speak to each other; they live together but never cross paths. Nick gets a job at a local amusement park and begins to interact with people again, mostly with her longtime best friend, but also with her sister's ex-boyfriend, Parker. As the summer continues, a young local girl goes missing and Nick finds herself getting more involved with the ensuing drama than she ever expected. The situation comes to a boiling point at Dara's birthday dinner when she disappears too, and it's up to Nick to piece the story together and discover what has happened to her sister. Like in her "Delirium" series and Before I Fall (2010, both HarperCollins), Oliver's characterizations and background stories are well-developed and compulsively readable. The relationship between Nick and Dara drives the plot and is very realistic. The twist the author incorporates at the end is dramatic without being absurd and was completely unexpected. Recommend to teens looking for a well-written work with a juicy ending. They will not be disappointed.—Morgan Brickey, Marion County Public Library System, FL
APRIL 2015 - AudioFile
Multiple narrators give voice to Oliver’s realistic young adult novel, which follows sisters Nick and Dara as they recover from a traumatic car accident. The narrations of the girls’ voices are saturated with a harshness and negativity that initially add to the sense of darkness that pervades the novel. But eventually the mood becomes tedious as the story continues. Only a dramatic plot twist lends either sister’s voice any variety, but this occurs so late in the performance that listeners may have already lost patience. The supporting cast, who narrate articles and online comments revolving around a local girl’s disappearance, serves up refreshing but underutilized vocal changes. E.M.C. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2014-12-10
Two sisters' lives are irrevocably changed by a shared accident.Nick and her younger sister, Dara, are two sides of an impossibly complicated familial coin—different in almost every way yet bound together by blood and circumstance. When Nick walks away from a terrible accident that leaves her sister permanently scarred, the resulting wounds, both physical and emotional, leave both girls reeling, struggling to redefine who they are as individuals and in relation to each other. The "Before" and "After" are told from both Dara's and Nick's points of view through a series of flashbacks, present-day accounts, and diary and blog entries. Unfortunately, what could have been a powerful exploration of two young women picking up the pieces after a sudden and costly accident becomes lost in a novel that simply tries to do too much. Most notably, Oliver attempts to weave together Nick and Dara's story with a tangential plotline about the disappearance of a 9-year-old girl. It takes far too long for the threads connecting the two to become apparent, and for the better part of the novel, the subplot feels like a distraction. Far too much time is spent on a tepid love triangle when it would have been put to better use developing some of the more intriguing aspects of the story. This is an uneven read that suffers from grandiose ambitions. (Fiction. 14 & up)
