Review: One Moment by Kristina McBride

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

Maggie Reynolds remembers hanging out at the gorge with her closest friends after a blowout party the night before. She remembers climbing the trail hand in hand 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.

______________________________________

Since the moment I finished Kristina McBride's debut novel, The Tension of Opposites, I've been waiting for her to offer readers something new. When One Moment arrived unexpectedly at my doorstep, my wait was finally over. But now the moment of truth was upon me... would my high expectations be met?

Yes! Those expectation have been met and exceeded and I want to jump up and down and tell everyone how undeniably brilliant One Moment is. (Phew.) It has been a couple weeks since I finished reading McBride's sophomore novel - and by "reading" I mean "inhaled in a matter of hours" - but it refuses to leave my head. I find myself thinking about it when my mind randomly connects things in real life with small, sometimes seemingly insignificant details from the story.

The other day, someone mentioned a quilt. In the novel, right after the accident in which Maggie's boyfriend Joey ends up dead, Maggie huddles on her couch wrapped in a quilt her grandmother made. I was immediately transported back to Maggie's world and found myself thinking about and revisiting parts of her story. I might just be a crazy person, but I like to think that it's Kristina McBride's ability to appeal to her readers' emotions and pull them fully into her characters' worlds that keeps bringing me back to One Moment time after time... no small feat!

While both of McBride's novels are contemporary YA that feature rather dark, sad events and female protagonists, they're a world apart. While I could clearly tell that One Moment was a "McBride" novel, it was unique and had it's own power completely separate from that of The Tension of Opposites. Maggie is very different than McBride's first protagonist, yet I still connected deeply with her, just as I did with Tessa.

There is so much more I could say about One Moment, but I fear becoming spoilery, so I'll stop while I'm ahead. If you're already a fan of McBride, for goodness sake, preorder One Moment! For the rest of you, if you like a well written contemporary YA rife with emotion, mystery, drama, and romance, you simply must read this novel... and The Tension of Opposites while you're waiting!

EgmontUSA, June 2012, Hardcover, ISBN: 9781606840863, 272 pages.