Book Review: One Moment

Title:  One Moment
Author:  Kristina McBride
Where I got it:  From NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review

Amazon Summary:
This was supposed to be the best summer of Maggie’s life. Now it’s the one she’d do anything to forget.

Maggie remembers hanging out at the gorge with her closest friends after a blowout party. She remembers climbing the trail with her perfect boyfriend, Joey. She remembers that last kiss, soft, lingering, and meant to reassure her. So why can’t she remember what happened in the moment before they were supposed to dive? Why was she left cowering at the top of the cliff, while Joey floated in the water below–dead?

As Maggie’s memories return in snatches, nothing seems to make sense. Why was Joey acting so strangely at the party? Where did he go after taking her home? And if Joey was keeping these secrets, what else was he hiding?

The latest novel from the author of The Tension of Opposites, One Moment is a mysterious, searing look at how an instant can change everything you believe about the world around you.

My Thoughts:
One Moment had the potential to be an incredibly emotional read in my opinion, and in that respect, it fell a little flat for me.  The plot is interesting and well executed, but I found myself spending a lot of time thinking that I should be having some sort of emotional reaction, rather than actually having said emotional reaction.

In a single instant, the summer that should have been awesome for Maggie and her friends takes a sharp left turn into tragedy, and nothing will ever be the same.  Initially, Maggie can’t remember anything about what happened that day, and of course, everyone wants to know.  As her memory returns and she starts putting other events together, she realizes that nothing was as she thought it was, even before tragedy struck.  Will this group of friends be able to move past this summer, or will it damage their friendships forever?

There’s a lot of shenanigans in this book.  Shenanigans that could have made it off the charts throw the book across the room awesome.  But the whole situation really felt like just words on a page to me – I never really internalized or connected with any of the characters, and that was really necessary for this book to rock my world. 

This is definitely not a fun light read for summer, not that that’s a bad thing.  Check it out from the library when you have some time.