The Book Barbies: |Review| One Moment by Kristina McBride

Title: One Moment
Author: Kristina McBride
Published: June 26th 2012 by EgmontUSA
Genre: YA contemporary
Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ and a half
Goodreads summary:

This was supposed to be the best summer of Maggie's life. Now it's the one she'd do anything to forget.

Maggie remembers hanging out at the gorge with her closest friends after a blowout party. She remembers climbing the trail with her perfect boyfriend, Joey. She remembers that last kiss, soft, lingering, and meant to reassure her. So why can't she remember what happened in the moment before they were supposed to dive? Why was she left cowering at the top of the cliff, while Joey floated in the water below-dead?

As Maggie's memories return in snatches, nothing seems to make sense. Why was Joey acting so strangely at the party? Where did he go after taking her home? And if Joey was keeping these secrets, what else was he hiding?
The latest novel from the author of "The Tension of Opposites," "One Moment" is a mysterious, searing look at how an instant can change everything you believe about the world around you.

Racquel's thoughts:
In One Moment's case "a novel about loss, betrayal and love" would be the perfect description. Maggie's boyfriend of two years just died (this is no spoiler, it's mentioned in the summary!) and she's devastated, especially since she can't remember her last moments with Joey and what exactly happened that caused her to blank out and for Joey to well, die.

One Moment is a relatively quick read. On the short side (272 pages) and with a mystery, I kept reading and reading to see everything unfold. The actual mystery of the book is not that hard to figure out if you think hard enough about it but what pushed me to read quickly was the fact that I was eager to see the character's reactions as they learn more and more about what happened to Joey and why it happened.

I have a lot of feelings about One Moment but they can be summed up in one word: frustration. Frustration at Maggie, at dead Joey, at Adam who is Joey's and Maggie's best friend and frustration at basically everyone else who's important in the book and that is a GOOD thing. Even the people who in the words of Bruno Mars, I'll catch a grenade for, frustrate me so I really don't like it when I either completely hate a character or completely love them. It's quite unrealistic. Nothing is that black and white. But Kristina has managed to create characters who made me happy and sad, who I hated and loved at the same time and absolutely loved that about the book.

These frustrations continue with some situations in the book (like Adam being a drama queen and blowing things out of proportion. I wished he would have been more straight up about certain things instead of keeping them a secret to "protect" some people. Blah) but One Moment is not an easy read anyways. Death in any situation is heartbreaking and reading about it is even more so. However seeing these characters grow up and learn to face the truth was beyond well done. Kristina captured emotions perfectly and I think they're extremely realistic. Anyone in the same shoes as Maggie or any other character would feel the same way!

I want to mention Joey, dead Joey who is my favorite character of the book. (I'm convinced my brain is in my head BACKWARDS) His death really just got to me and god, from the summary it's obvious Joey has faults. Everybody does! And this quote really just hit me with a dose something not fun:

"...you'll never be back to help me see you as something new."

Joey has no redemption. He's gone and he'll forever be remembered by his faults, by the mistakes that hurt the one's around him but you know, he's just human. He was not an evil person and it's just SUCKS (because there is no other way to put it!) that because of ONE MOMENT things ended for him and things changed for everybody. WHOA! Kristina McBride really got her point for the book across, didn't she?

One Moment is a hard book for me. While reading it I was just going crazy with frustration but while writing my review and thinking about it, Kristina McBride really just hit all the right notes with the emotions and I just believe that if a book makes me think this hard then it's a good book. In the words of Sharon @Fictionally Inclined, the honesty and realism of the heartbreak and tragedy is one of those things you appreciate a day AFTER you finish the book!

Rating: 3.5 hearts~ One Moment is realistic heartbreaking book that really tore me up. Definitely worth the read!