Mini Reviews: Birthmarked and Fracture Tie-In Short Stories

So one of the great things about the internet is that many authors have started to release tie-in short stories to accompany their novels. Of course, nothing too curial can happen in these (they save that for the books!) but it does give the reader the chance to get some added insight, often from a different character perspective. And the best part is when, like the two I'm reviewing today, they're free.

Tortured is set between Caragh O'Brien's debut novel, Birthmarked and its sequel, Prized. I think it works best if you've already read the first two books, just because there were some aspects of Prized that I didn't expect, and if I'd picked up Tortured first that would ruin them. Definitely not to be read until after Birthmarked though!

This short story is written from Leon's perspective, and it gives the reader a chance to experience first hand what a strong character he is. The Birthmarked Trilogy is really driven by the strong, female, lead character Gaia, so it was nice to see that O'Brien gave her a courageous love interest. Tortured is also heart-breaking because Leon, like Gaia, doesn't know if the other has survived. Having read Prized, and knowing what happens next, makes Tortured all the more painful. Overall, a nice short addition to a fantastic trilogy, recommended if you loved the books.

In Fracture, Megan Miranda's debut novel, a lot changes in eleven minutes for Delaney Maxwell. Those are the eleven minutes she spends trapped under the ice, while her best friend Decker tries to save her. In the free tie-in short story, Eleven Minutes, the reader gets the beginning of Fracture from Decker's perspective, including the time Delaney spends in a coma. Because Eleven Minutes is written from Decker's perspective and takes place early on, there is no hint of the paranormal that haunts Fracture. The result was actually a short story I preferred to the full novel.

Unlike Tortured, I actually think Eleven Minutes works on its own as a short story, but if you read it without having picked up Fracture it will likely leave you desperate for answers about what happens next.

I think what surprised me most about Eleven Minutes was what a compelling contemporary story it was– it even left me hopeful that Miranda decides to write a full-length contemporary in the future. There were also some beautiful phrases, like "Is this how it feels to drown? Maybe you didn’t even realize you were cold, dead, until something living touched you." And of course, having a look into the events from Decker's perspective only made me more fond of him.

Ultimately Tortured and Eleven Minutes are very different, but what they have in common is that they are two short stories, two different love interests having their say, and two great, quick reads for fans of the books they accompany.

Fracture by Megan Miranda

Fracture by Megan Miranda

Release Date: January 17th 2012
Pages: 262
Format: E-galley
Source: NetGalley/Publisher
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Buy It: Book Depository

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?

I went into reading Fracture hoping for one of those creepy paranormals, that don't revolve around creatures or immortal beings, and have mostly gotten pushed aside for star-crossed love stories. Plus it's a standalone novel, which is always nice. Miranda doesn't disappoint, but there were definitely some things about the novel that surprised me as well.

For one thing, even though I just said I wasn't looking for a love story, I have to admit that Decker is an incredibly swoon-worthy love interest. I even like the way Decker and Delaney sound together, I mean, why hadn't these two hooked up? Sigh. In Decker, Miranda's created an authentic but charming character, he might get mad, but you can't help loving him anyway.

Delaney, on the other hand, is a lot colder (no pun intended) emotionally, and because the story is told from her perspective, as a reader you get a lot of the creepiness that surrounds her experiences and her learning to understand what has happened. Still, I found her fairly easy to relate to, as she's conflicted between wanting to just accept the miracle that's happened, and wanting to understand it. I can imagine how difficult the kind of thing she went through would be for somebody scientifically minded, and I didn't blame her for trying to probe deeper, even as it put her– and others– in danger.

I was honestly not at all interested in Troy, and his entire storyline was the part of Fracture I found least compelling (especially its climax, though I won't give anything away, but I just didn't understand why he hadn't taken certain actions sooner since it didn't seem like the sort of thing that would just spontaneously happen). The romance between him and Delaney didn't warm me up to him either. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have missed him if it had just been Delaney figuring things out on her own, and it might have given the reader a chance to get to know her better, too.  I know Troy's not exactly the good guy in this novel, but he wasn't intriguingly bad either. He just didn't work for me as a reader.

Despite my reservations about Troy, overall I enjoyed Fracture, a dark thriller with a paranormal hint that enticed me to the last page with twists and turns.