I’ll get to the review in a second, but let me first geek out for a moment so I can explain how I found this book.
One of my favorite panels at the 2012 San Diego Comic Con was the “Science Fiction that Will Change Your Life” panel, and the funny thing is that I kinda got into it by accident. It was my first year and I was really, really worried about getting into the panels that I wanted. The panel I had planned on going to was in the same room after the SciFi panel, so made to sure to wait to make sure I had a seat for the next one. Little did I know that the panel I originally intended to wait through would actually become my favorite!
It was so awesome. It’s the perfect model of the thing I love most about comic con: a whole bunch of super-smart people in one room, passionate about the same thing that I am, sharing what they love with each other. It sounds corny, but it’s true. I’ll be one of the first in line for the 2013 SciFi panel!
One of the panelists Charlie Jane Anders, a columnist for io9.com, highly recommended Fair Coin by E.C. Myers. She said it’s a wonderful science fiction YA novel that explores some very cool themes and that it’s a must-read. Well I whipped out my phone instantly, opened up my goodreads app, and added it to my to-read list before I could forget it.
I am so glad I decided to read this book! Here’s the synopsis from Goodreads:
Sixteen-year-old Ephraim Scott is horrified when he comes home from school and finds his mother unconscious at the kitchen table, clutching a bottle of pills. The reason for her suicide attempt is even more disturbing: she thought she’d identified Ephraim’s body at the hospital that day.
Among his dead double’s belongings, Ephraim finds a strange coin—a coin that grants wishes when he flips it. With a flick of his thumb, he can turn his alcoholic mother into a model parent and catch the eye of the girl he’s liked since second grade. But the coin doesn’t always change things for the better. And a bad flip can destroy other people’s lives as easily as it rebuilds his own.
The coin could give Ephraim everything he’s ever wanted—if he learns to control its power before his luck runs out.
This book did something awesome, something that doesn’t happen often: it surprised me. It’s not that I went into this book thinking it would disappoint me, it’s that after the first 100 pages I was pretty sure I had it figured out. I knew the message, I knew the plot, I knew where it was going. I. Was. Wrong!
Myers changed things on me and made the story so much more deep and complex than I expected, I love it when books do that.
The main character, Ephraim, was very well-written. Myers did a wonderful job of writing a teenage boy which was really refreshing because so many YA books are told from a female perspective. He seemed so realistic. I’ve read books where the author tries so hard to be authentic with their teenage characters that they end up with exaggerated cynical and lovesick kids. Even though it’s been over 5 years since I’ve been high school I thought Ephraim was the perfect mixture of eagerness, shyness, excitement, and hormones that I remember from my guys friends in high school.
I don’t want to tell you much else about the plot because I want you to be surprised like I was. The ending was very satisfying and really wrapped up the complex story well. Also, just to let any film producers out there know, this would make a great movie.
I really can’t find much to complain about for this one. His writing style isn’t very flowery, he saves those descriptive word for his layered story which was a very wide choice. Even though the writing wasn’t very poetic (unlike books like Delirium or Shatter Me), he did have some precious quote-able gems that I shared on our Instagram:
