In The Moment Before, protagonist Brady Wilson slowly uncovers the truth about her sister Sabine’s death and the moments leading up to it. Along the way, she befriends the accused killer Connor and many others. As Sabine realizes, nothing is what it seems, not even the people we think we know the best.
The Moment Before is a thought provoking, tragic read. However, while the tragic plot does not hide the flaws throughout the book.
Brady annoyed me. For someone with her personality, her actions did not make sense. I feel like the author chose her to take actions just for the shock value. As a character, she didn’t develop much at all. Brady lacked the depth of characters I like. In my opinion, she’s just a narrator of events. I couldn’t connect to her. Let’s be real here. I understand that she’s sad and wants to complain, but Brady has not right to be whiny and act like the world revolves around her.
The plot goes overboard. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not slamming death or the way Sabine died. I’m slamming the fakeness of it. The Moment Before deals with Sabine’s death and unravels her secrets. While I understand how touchy and sad it is, I just can’t take the plot of The Moment Before. At parts I feel like the author just wanted to make the reader shocked. While it does have a high shock value, though, the bad plot is more shocking than the actual events. It’s like taking a test after studying for twenty minutes. Some parts make sense, but for the most part, it’s a blur.
The Moment Before is a blur of art, a boy, drugs, death, and image. It’s a book about how not to die. While I do respect the author for choosing to write about this subject (can’t say it or else I’d spoil the novel!), right now I can’t respect her writing. I can’t say I’d recommend this book to anyone either. Perhaps if I had read this book while in a good mood, I’d have a better review. Alas, that is not the case, so The Moment Before does not fare well.
My favorite part of this novel is the title. Doesn’t The Moment Before sound so mysterious and cool? Honestly, I was drawn in by the title. Forget judging a book by its cover. Let’s judge books by their titles. In this case, The Moment Before gets an A+!
Rating: 5 out of 10
Publisher: Diversion Books (January 14, 2014)
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Length: 216 pages (Paperback)
Author: Suzy Vitello
Genre: YA, Romance, Death
Source: Netgalley
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