If you could read minds, would you?

That’s one part of the premise in Sarah Mlynowski’s contemporary YA novel DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT.

What’s this book about?

Twenty-two students at a public high school in NYC (Tribeca, a rather affluent neighborhood) are given a flu vaccine. The next day most of them can read minds. Over the next few days, they all develop this ability.

With consequences.

My Review:

I devoured this title. At first, the style was off-putting. I’m always in search of the narrative character, the viewpoint, through which the story comes–but that’s impossible here. Because the story is told from the collective “We” as a past-tense rehash of how these ordinary kids became infected with the extraordinary. Talk about a side-effect! After that quick adaptation on my part, the story rolled.

While there are twenty-two high school sophomores within this hive mind, there are several who carry the story.

Timid Olivia, who is as big a germaphobe and hypochondriac as her mother, is the first to notice her new telepathy. Unfortunately, it happens while she’s standing in front of her class preparing to deliver a speech on Lyme Disease. Yeah, she faints–but not before alerting a fellow classmate, Pi, that she has telepathy.

Pi’s brilliant. Second in the class, and pining for first, she’s determined to be extraordinary. Imagine her dismay in learning that her telepathy isn’t that unique. Of course, Pi’s the first one to figure out how to use his gift to her advantage. Ever the strategist, she begins to position herself in closer proximity to Number 1, in the hopes of overtaking him.

See, while they can hear other people’s thoughts, there are some rules to this ability:

First, the closer they are to a person, the louder those thoughts are heard. If there are people in the way, they buffer the thought signals, diluting them. Also, vision is important. If a person has his or her eyes closed, their thoughts are unhearable. Likewise, for the new telepaths, closing their own eyes shuts out the noise of thoughts around them. Glasses can magnify the ability, while dark glasses mute it. It’s an interesting story frame, and it’s exploited by many of the characters at different points.

Some of the telepaths want to exploit their position immediately.

Take Tess. She’s bears a secret crush for her best guy-friend Teddy. He’s single and they hang out a lot, and she wants to know if her feelings are returned. Should she listen in? Heck, yeah, she does. But one can’t unhear those thoughts–and Tess isn’t exactly thrilled with Teddy after a bit.

And what about those secrets? Mackensie, class pretty girl, is dating Cooper, class sweetheart. But when he was away at camp this summer she had a fling with Bennett–an older boy in her building. It’s something she’s kept inside, but now everyone knows, except Cooper, who is the last to develop telepathy.

Poor Cooper. His luck just goes from bad to worse when he goes home a gets a taste of parent’s thoughts.

That’s the thing about telepathy. While some kids are grade boosting, others are having complete personal meltdowns. Yet, they all agree to keep this ability secret. They form the hive mind of Espies, and attempt to behave as normally as possible to throw off any suspicion. Pi designates herself as the leader of the group, because Pi is a take-charge gal. Others, like Tess and Olivia, emerge from their “shells” to become more confident individuals–without being outright dishonest–now that they can see how their private fears hampered their happiness.

Soon, the CDC comes sniffing ’round the hallway. Guess there were other affected lots of vaccine produced and they traced the last vial to the school. See, one person from another location who had the vaccine died–so it could be the telepathy is fatal. It’s hard to say as the man was 81 and suffered a stroke–maybe he would have died without the vaccine? Nevertheless, there’s an antidote available, and, for their trouble, the kids will receive a $50,000 payoff from the drug manufacturer when they accept the antidote.

Will they choose to take the antidote? Do they even have a choice? I mean, it’s a nice hunk of money–and nobody wants to die at age 15…

DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT will be available for sale March 11. I received an advanced reader’s copy from NetGalley for the purpose of review. Keep your eyes open for this one in bookstores and libraries. It’s a great read. I think teen and fans of YA fiction will adore it as much as I did.

I wonder what your choice would be: Telepathy, or not? Drop me a comment if you like…I think I’d go with NO telepathy. My money’s on the age-factor with the fatality…but I’m like Mackensie–I don’t want anyone knowing my secrets.

Then again, if someone ELSE had telepathy, they’d know my secrets and I would never know it!

Eeep! The killer conundrum! Okay. I’ll take telepathy. With a side order of dark glasses.

Telepathic, or no, keep reading my friends!   😀