Early Review: Shift by Kim Curran

Shift
by Kim Curran


Expected publication: September 4th 2012 by Strange Chemistry

When your average, 16-year old loser, Scott Tyler, meets the beautiful and mysterious Aubrey Jones, he learns he's not so average after all. He's a 'Shifter'. And that means he has the power to undo any decision he's ever made. At first, he thinks the power to shift is pretty cool. But as his world starts to unravel around him he realises that each time he uses his power, it has consequences; terrible unforeseen consequences. Shifting is going to get him killed. In a world where everything can change with a thought, Scott has to decide where he stands.

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal

Publication Date: September 4th 2012

Publisher: Strange Chemistry

Format: eARC, 416 pages 

Series: ?

Source: Netgalley

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My Review

First line: Take a second and think about all the decisions you've made in your life.

Last line: I leaned in to kiss her knowing this was one decision I was never going to change.

Favorite quote: "'Hello?' I heard a tired Katie from the other end.
"Katie, what are you doing up?"
"Well, there was this annoying ringing noise."'

What if you could undo every decision you've ever made? Unmake every mistake. Would you? Sixteen year-old Scott Tyler just found out he can. And that so do many other kids. But just because you can,, doesn't mean you should. There are people out there keeping track of every Shifter. After all, the government isn't very fond of people having many choices... or freedom.

Scott has found out about his powers completely by accident, and luckily Aubrey Jones was there to help him understand, otherwise the Regulators would have quickly caught him and judged him as a rogue. He's too old to be believed ignorant of his powers. Which is why Aubrey has given him the choice to ignore it, to pretend he never found out about his abilities. To let this all go and live his normal life, with his normal family. But that's the last thing he wants right now.

His parents are always fighting, blaming each other for their failures and general unhappiness in life. Scott was 'The Mistake' baby, and his little sister, Katie, was the 'Band-Aid baby', born to try to fix things. Well, she didn't fix much. In fact, she just makes Scott look more and more like a mistake. Everything she does, she does it better than he does. Games, sports, social life...

Shifting isn't all fun and games, though, as Scott quickly discovers. Sure, he can change stupid past mistakes and remake silly choices, but everything has a consequence. Ripples in reality. Things can go really wrong once they're changed. 

Scott is about to find out that sometimes the good guys aren't really all that good... and the bad ones, well, they can surprise you. And even your family, who aparently could not care less about you, actually really does. 

I wasn't sure if I should write this review because, let me tell you... I wasn't very impressed by Shift. I was really looking forward to reading a guy's POV (which are so rare!), but... I'm not sure why, I just couldn't get into it. Nor could I care about the characters... as a matter of fact, I felt like slapping idiotic Scott every couple of pages. Seriously, even if he was a teenager, that guy was a complete and utter moron. I couldn't bring myself to be sympathetic towards him. And, boy, did I try. 

The story was interesting, but it wasn't able to suck me in, for some reason. Even the crazy scientific explanations and evil government theories, which usually excite me by themselves, didn't work this time. The writing felt... flat and bland. I STILL can't understand exactly how Shifting works, by the way. Or why Scott was so special. Or why this even got published.

Trying to get to the end of it was a bit like torture... but I did it. And I'd like to tell you that it was worth it, that the whole book finally made sense and finished in the greatest possible way... but  I'm afraid it was still very bland. And so, so painfully predictable!!! There are dozens of mentions of government, power, control, control, control from the very beginning of the book... so when I got to the ending, I was like:

Really, a guy who has lived a boring, normal life for sixteen years as nothing special, suddenly turns ou to be super mega powerful? Pardon me if I can't swallow it. 

But then again, that's just me. Most early reviewers (something like 70%, so far) seem to have loved this book, so there you have it. You might love it too. Give it a try and let me know if you agree or if you think I was smoking pot or something while writing. :P I can take it. Totally. I think.

If you like male POV, YA paranormal fantasy/science fiction and would love to read more about changing the past and present (also altering the future), go get your copy of Shift.

* I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*