Don’t Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

Note: I received a copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

So when I go to NetGalley to find books to be sent in exchange for reviews I always read the blurb first or else why would I request something? But I usually request a few on the same day, get accepted to read them in at different times and then read other things in between so when I finally get around to something I’m in for a surprise because I don’t remember what the book was about. That’s what happened with Don’t Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski. All I was remembering was that it was about a group of high school students and it turned out to be so much more.

Since I hadn’t refreshed myself on the plot I was a little confused when it started out with a narrator who defined themselves as “we” and the reader was taken directly into the lives of nearly two dozen characters. But once I hit the meat of the story, that the students in question all received flu shots with some interesting side effects (including, and most importantly, telepathy) the reason behind the “we” narrator was made very clear and I ended up enjoying it. Makes sense for there to be a collective narrator when each and every main character knows exactly what’s going on in any other character’s lives, minds, etc.

It made for some really interesting reading. Yes the issues that each character were very typical (cheating parents, struggle to be the best, preoccupation with sex) but it was interesting to see how each character used their telepathic abilities to help themselves.

No it wasn’t a very thought provoking book. It was very much a quick fun read but I don’t see why that is really a problem. The author certainly could have made it a deep mystery/sci fi story perhaps with someone discovering a major international secret and having it evolve into some of the teenagers becoming spies or something but that’s clearly not the kind of story Sarah was going for. I think (I hope) she was just aiming for a cute, quirky little story about teenagers with a supernatural power who, instead of deciding that they’re super heroes, just deal with their problems (with just a little bit of help from an extra ability).