Don’t Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

Don’t Even Think About It

by Sarah Mlynowski

Published: 1^st May 2014

Publisher: Orchard Books

Blurb

What would you do if everyone could hear your thoughts?

Your best friend. Your worst enemy. Your secret crush.

No secrets. No privacy. No escape.

Sounds like your worst nightmare, right?

We should know. It happened to us.

Review

It was thanks to Amazon recommendations that I came across this book. I’d never heard of it until I saw it pop up in the recommendations. I read the blurb and immediately added it to my basket, and bought it. The blurb is short but it’s certainly effective. It’s not often I will purchase a book these days without googling review, or looking on Goodreads at the rating. I was struck by the premise of the book, and thought it would make for a really interesting read. I was absolutely not disappointed with this book.

I began reading this book about 6pm, and I read the whole thing in one sitting. I just couldn’t put it down! This book had me completely gripped throughout. We follow a group of students in a high school that receive a vaccine shot which causes telepathy. The group must deal with the fallout from this, and goodness me – what a fallout. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to read someone’s thoughts, and this book gave an interesting perspective into what that would be like. Especially when you can read each other’s thoughts, there’s no hiding anything.

At first I wasn’t sure what was going on in terms of the narrator. It’s a first person perspective but it’s confusing as to whose story we’re reading. Thankfully that’s cleared up at the end of the first chapter, and we’re told that it’s a collective story and it could be any of the characters that are sharing the account. I liked this effect a lot. It brings you into the group as if they’re telling you alone what happened. It’s almost breaking the fourth wall at times, which I also enjoyed.

There are a lot of characters in this book, and I loved each and every one for one reason or another. Each character was different, each personality was individual and the dialogue they spoke (and thought?) differed enough to stand out. My favourites were Cooper, and Tess. I thought Cooper was adorable, and I felt a lot for him throughout the novel. I favoured Tess quite a lot because I found her to be the most relatable to me out of all of the characters. I wasn’t as fond of Pi and Mackenzie but I thought they brought something important to the plot.

The plot was incredible thought provoking, and I sat for ages after reading it wondering about all the possibilities. I think this book highlights the pros and cons of this ability quite well. I thought the situations that occur in this novel reflect some sort of realism, as I believe they would happen if such things were possible. Most of all, I loved hearing where the characters minds would wander – especially when some skeletons fall out of the closet.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It’s extremely gripping, and I was almost sad that I read this book so quickly. It does show how much I enjoyed the book though. I’ll continue to think about the possibilities the premise holds for some time. I came to the conclusion that I don’t think I’d want to know what people are thinking. You might not like what you hear sort of thing.

Brilliant, quick but thought provoking read. Definitely recommend.