Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Pages: 304

Publisher: Orchard Books

Released: 1st of May 2014

This is the story of how we became freaks. It's how a group of I's became a we.

When Class 10B got their flu shots, they expected some side effects. Maybe a sore arm. Maybe a headache. They definitely didn't expect to get telepathy. But suddenly they could hear what everyone was thinking. Their friends. Their teachers. Their parents. Now they all know that Tess has a crush on her best friend, Teddy. That Mackenzie cheated on Cooper. That Nurse Carmichael used to be a stripper. Some of them will thrive. Some of them will break. None of them will ever be the same.

What I Have To Say 

I really wasn’t sure about this book when I started reading it. The voice really threw me. Having a first person narrator can lead the way for a bit of interesting styles, but having a group of people narrating? Exchanging the use of “we” with third person? I found it clunky and irritating. And honestly cannot say when or why I changed my mind. I suppose I just grew used to it. By the end I was really loving the little asides where the narrators commented on the story or spoke to the other characters.

There was a lovely array of characters as well. Olivia, the quiet one, struggling with the fact that her thoughts are suddenly heard by all the others, how she suddenly can’t just hid in the background anymore. And Pi, selfish Pi, a girl whose only thoughts are about getting ahead of the crowd, whether by test scores or psychic abilities. I liked that about her, although obviously not in a way that I’d want to be friends with her. I also liked that she was the second smartest person in the class. Not the sort of annoying ones who flies through exams without trying, but the type who works hard and stresses about it all.

Finally, I liked the domesticity of it. The fact that what tore them apart was bitching and cheating. Their own everyday secrets. It made a really nice break from all the save the world, tear down the government books I usually read. And its something I think a lot of authors forget. Not everything has to be the end of the world.