FRACTURE by Megan Miranda

 From Goodreads:

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine

-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

For fans of best-sellers like Before I Fall and If I Stay, this is a fascinating and heart-rending story about love and friendship and the fine line between life and death.

 My thoughts:

Block out a few hours and bring some hankies, then be prepared to lose yourself in the gorgeous prose, wounded hearts and stark beauty of FRACTURE. You'll gasp for breath right along with Delaney as she falls through the ice, and share the shock and pain of nearly dying, the heartbreak of surviving and the hope of healing right along with her. This is a tight, pacey read, yet still manages to fill its pages with emotional resonance.  

Delaney's recovery from the accident that nearly kills her is realistic and gripping.  I especially loved how the accident shaped and changed Delaney's relationship with her friends and family.  I have personally suffered and recovered from a serious brain injury, and the medical and psychological aspects of the story were spot on.  The accident changes Delaney in ways that are both expected and surprising.

I especially loved Decker, Delaney's best friend and love interest.  Their first childhood encounter is perfect.  I fell in love with Decker and his eternal optimism right away.  Decker and Delaney's relationship arc also had a nice parallel to Delaney's recovery after the accident: it was simple yet complicated, fine but damaged, and, of course, fractured. 

If you're looking for a suspenseful, quick, and powerful read, pick up FRACTURE when it comes out on January 3, 2012.