Don’t Even Think About It
Sarah Mlynowski
Delacorte Press, March 2014
ISBN 978-0-385-73738-8
Hardcover
From the publisher—
We weren’t always like this. We used to be average New York City high school sophomores. Until our homeroom went for flu shots. We were prepared for some side effects. Maybe a headache. Maybe a sore arm. We definitely didn’t expect to get telepathic powers. But suddenly we could hear what everyone was thinking. Our friends. Our parents. Our crushes. Now we all know that Tess is in love with her best friend, Teddy. That Mackenzie cheated on Cooper. That, um, Nurse Carmichael used to be a stripper.
Since we’ve kept our freakish skill a secret, we can sit next to the class brainiac and ace our tests. We can dump our boyfriends right before they dump us. We know what our friends really think of our jeans, our breath, our new bangs. We always know what’s coming. Some of us will thrive. Some of us will crack. None of us will ever be the same. So stop obsessing about your ex. We’re always listening.
Suppose you could hear what people were thinking? Now, take it a step further and suppose a bunch of your friends and acquaintances also had this “ability”. Is this the greatest thing since sliced bread or a dreadful fate…or, perhaps, something in-between?
Get ready for a roller coaster ride of ups and downs and swerves galore when the flu shot that “they” are always saying you should get every year causes a very unexpected side effect and nearly everybody in Homeroom 10B suddenly has ESP. What fun! Or maybe not so much. Sure, it’s great to hear that that boy over there thinks you’re pretty but do you really want to know what your parents are doing in the so-called privacy of their bedroom? How would you feel if kids were crowding around you during a test so they could cheat off your thoughts? Then again, how sweet is it to know who’s REALLY your friend?
Don’t Even Think About It is chock-full of laughs as Mackenzie and Olivia and the rest of the gang test their new powers and then they begin to realize the advantages:
“It’s not just about school. Think of the edge you’ll have in everything. In relationships. You’ll always have the upper hand. You’ll always know if someone is about to break up with you. You’ll always know what your parents are really planning. What they’re thinking.”
On the other hand, there just might be some downsides to this.
This book is a quick read and I thoroughly enjoyed it, careening from laughter to tears to sympathy to anger and back again. Sarah Mlynowski is a new author to me and I loved her style and the way she turned a simple, seemingly lighthearted story on its end and made me and a crowd of teens take a second look at a most unusual problem. I loved the POV, unusual as it is. Oh, and by the way, I really liked that conspiracy theories and government manipulation and those sorts of things…but, WAIT! You’ll just have to find out on your own 😉
I’m surprised more people haven’t been suspicious.
What are they going to suspect?
That we’re up to something.
We are up to something.
Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, April 2014.
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