Don't Even Think About It - Sarah Mlynowski

Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: March 11, 2014
Source/Format: Netgalley (Thank you!) || e-galley

[I received this book for review from the publisher. This in no way affects the thoughts expressed in my review.]

We weren't always like this. We used to be average New York City high school sophomores. Until our homeroom went for flu shots. We were prepared for some side effects. Maybe a headache. Maybe a sore arm. We definitely didn't expect to get telepathic powers. But suddenly we could hear what everyone was thinking. Our friends. Our parents. Our crushes. Now we all know that Tess is in love with her best friend, Teddy. That Mackenzie cheated on Cooper. That, um, Nurse Carmichael used to be a stripper. 

Since we've kept our freakish skill a secret, we can sit next to the class brainiac and ace our tests. We can dump our boyfriends right before they dump us. We know what our friends really think of our jeans, our breath, our new bangs. We always know what's coming. Some of us will thrive. Some of us will crack. None of us will ever be the same. 

So stop obsessing about your ex. We're always listening. (from Netgalley)

Honestly, the first adjective that comes to mind when thinking about Don't Even Think About It is weird. The entire premise of this novel - teenagers who develop telepathic powers because of a flu shot - is strange. Yet, it somehow managed to be entertaining, compelling, and a lot of fun.

One of the the things I liked best is that I believed in the whole concept without question. It might be unlikely to ever happen in real life, but I never once questioned the validity of these teens developing telepathic abilities. This can be attributed to the way Mlynowski treated the telepathy as a fact, and not something that required further investigation. She took her concept, ran with it and had me keeping pace with her.

Another thing I liked? The fact that we learn the stories of multiple characters both through their own eyes, and through the thoughts that others "read" from them. While none of the characters left a particularly strong mark, there was an interesting variety of tales: a girl in love with her best friend, a girl who feels socially awkward, a girl who cheated on her boyfriend, a boy going through some tough family stuff, just to name a few. It was a lot of different things happening all at once, but I rather enjoyed the chaos, because it reminded me of certain TV shows (particularly Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars). 

Don't Even Think About It is not quite what I expected, but it turned out okay. Mlynowski managed to make me believe in the fact of telepathy in these teens. She also wove these individual stories of family, friendship and love into one gigantic tale, which was pretty great too.  I enjoyed it, in spite of the odd story catalyst, and it was definitely an easy-to-read contemporary novel.