Book Review: Shift by Kim Curran

Title: Shift

Author: Kim Curran
Series: N/A
Pages: 416
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Date of Publication: September 4th 2012
Source: Publisher via NetGalley*
Synopsis from Goodreads:
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.

My Thoughts:
I must admit, I read Shift only because nothing else was taking my fancy. I was on holiday, and had left the books that I really wanted to read at home, so I was just searching through my Kindle, looking for something to read, and I thought, 'Why not?'. So I started reading with not too many expectations - expecting it to be a good, solid read, but not thinking it would become one of my favourite books of my holiday. And... If I had to rank the 14 books I read in those two weeks, Shift would most definitely appear in the top three! It was amazing.

The book doesn't take long to get started - we are quickly introduced to Scott's mysterious power to shift realities around him and change the decisions he made before they go badly wrong. Sound confusing? It kind of really is. It took me a little while to get to grips with shifting and even longer for me not to get confused as to what was going on, but soon I'd worked out what was happening and could just run with it. It took so many twists and turns and was so exciting that there was no way I could put it down because something would happen and I'd need to know how on earth Scott and Aubrey were going to get out of the tricky situations they kept managing to get themselves into.

I loved how there was an air of mystery throughout the whole book. I could never work out who were the good guys and who were the bad guys, and my thoughts kept changing as I read further and further into the book. I'd be sure I knew exactly who was who and what Scott needed to do and who to make friends with to be on the good side, and then some huge event would happen and everything would be turned upside down. Again. I couldn't keep up and eventually I just stopped guessing in favour of just reading and finding out as it went along.

The main character, Scott, was great. It was nice to read about a such a refreshingly normal character, even though he wasn't really normal at all, seeing that he could flip realities to his own accord... Anyhoo, I found him super easy to relate to because I could see his confusion over his new power, and because I had no idea what was going on either I found him easy to connect to. As he learnt what was going on, so did I, and it was nice to feel like I was at the same point as the character - that I knew just as much as he did and I wasn't patronised by the writing at all. I don't know if that makes sense, but sometimes I feel like the author is treating us as the reader like an idiot when we read because we don't know about the world they've created, but there was nothing that felt like that in Shift.

And another awesome thing? It spooked me. It really did. I read most of it upstairs in my room in the chateau we were staying in in France, and if you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen that this was casually in the corner of this room. And while I know it has nothing to do with the book, it still freaked me out, because I didn't know what the scary brain-eating monster that was in the book was. Yeah, you read that right - a scary, brain-eating monster. It added creepy, mysterious and quite frankly some pretty gross scenes to the book and reading it before bed in that room was pretty terrifying, to a wimp like me. So if you're looking for a little creepy grossness, then this book is for you!

Overall, Shift was brilliant. Kim Curran is a master story-teller - she knows exactly what to write to keep you hanging on the edge of your seat, turning pages as fast as you can. With a unique idea that I've not come across before, I've never read anything like it and I loved it. I really did. I'd definitely recommend if you're looking for something new and interesting, and if you want a super fast, super exciting read in which you can lose yourself for a day. I absolutely adored it and I hope you will too!

*Huge thanks to Strange Chemistry and NetGalley for allowing me access to this egalley in exchange for an honest review! In no way has this affected my opinion of the book.