When

By: Victoria Laurie

Narrated by: Whitney Dykhouse

Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's Summary

Pretty Little Liars meets Medium in this fast-paced thriller and fantastic YA debut from a New York Times bestselling author.

Maddie Fynn is a shy high school junior, cursed with an eerie intuitive ability: she sees a series of unique digits hovering above the foreheads of each person she encounters. Her earliest memories are marked by these numbers, but it takes her father's premature death for Maddie and her family to realize that these mysterious digits are actually death dates, and just like birthdays, everyone has one.

Forced by her alcoholic mother to use her ability to make extra money, Maddie identifies the quickly approaching death date of one client's young son, but because her ability only allows her to see the when and not the how, she's unable to offer any more insight. When the boy goes missing on that exact date, law enforcement turns to Maddie.

Soon, Maddie is entangled in a homicide investigation, and more young people disappear and are later found murdered. A suspect for the investigation, a target for the murderer, and attracting the attentions of a mysterious young admirer who may be connected to it all, Maddie's whole existence is about to be turned upside down. Can she right things before it's too late?

©2015 Victoria Laurie (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

One big problem

This story was great except for one big nagging issue. She could have both cleared her name and proven her ability at any time.

*kind of spoiler* (not really)

Is she can tell a death date from a photo; shouldn’t the FBI show her photos of known victims to test her? If they knew the date of victims murder then she could prove herself right away!

It doesn’t even have to be a morbid photo. She could tell that boys date from a regular photo of him in a baseball uniform. They are the FBI they have files of murder victims and she could get them right every time.

That nagged at me while reading this. It made it very hard to enjoy it. The FBI agents were very stupid. That kept me from enjoying it.

Pretty good if a little slow at times

Admittedly there was a section where I just had to skip forward, it was maddeningly slow and a little depressing. I guess its better to say that there weren't enough lighter moments to counter the darkness of the story. I had to take breaks to keep from getting bogged down in the gloom of the characters involved. This story could defintely have used some more lighter moments.

Also there were instances when the protagonist was unbelievably nieve for a teen in this day and age. I found myseld being frustrated by some of the choices made by a few of the characters that honestly just didn't make any sense. Still, overall it was a good listen.

The narrator read the story well and portrayed her parts convincingly...but the emphasis she placed on the phrase, "and then" grew to be more and more distracting.

I gave this an overall score of four because it has so much potential and the overarching story really was good. All on all, it was a good listen and I dont regret the money spent.

Okay

What did you love best about When?

I enjoyed the overall story, but I had issues with some of the characters, which became distracting and ruined the book for me. Some of the things that happened within the book were unexpected, while others were so well foretold all that was missing was a neon sign.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the idea of a person being able to read people's death dates.That was what drew me in.

Which character – as performed by Whitney Dykhouse – was your favorite?

I suppose Maddie was performed best by the narrator.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, not really. I found that I grew frustrated with the stupid actions of Maddie and her BFF. Some of their choices made me want to scream as they were just so dumb. It was probably the hardest thing to get through in terms of enjoyment toward the story. I found I had to stop listening, just to calm down.

Any additional comments?

I seriously hope that Victoria Laurie goes back to the drawing board with the two main characters of Maddie and Stubs. I would love it if she made them a bit more intelligent when it comes to common sense/ right or wrong situations. Because if either of these kids were my own, I'd probably drink just like one of the parents in the story did.

Also another gripe I have was the way the "bullying" issue was handled. I cannot believe how it was presented let alone the solution that was used to resolve it. I don't know of any parent who would allow their child to continue going to school were such horrible behavior and abuse was shown toward them. That was completely ludicrous!

Anyhow, this is supposed to be a new series, so here's to hoping some improvements are made, because there is a lot of promise here.

✫✫ 4 Stars ✫✫

I really enjoyed this book. It was more like a YA Thriller/Mystery than I expected but up until the last chapter I loved it. I am a romance listener so this one was not in my normal genre, the synopsis on Audible had me completely intrigued so i knew i needed to check it out. I didn't really understand the last chapter and why all of a sudden things were different, that felt thrown in to give the book a happier ending which was odd to me but other than that, the characters were great and I loved how different this story was from anything I've listened to before.

The narration fit the characters and the story really well, great casting choice in my opinion.

Not for me

I couldn't finish this book and returned it - thank you Audible! It may have been intended for a much younger audience - like 10 year olds. The story was unbelievable and disjointed.

When is your death day?

I'm a big fan of Victoria Laurie's work and have devoured both her cozy mystery series. I wasn't sure what to expect with this one, since it's quite a departure from her other work. I'm happy to say, this book is excellent! It's much darker than her others, but oh, so good! I couldn't stop listening to this one on Audible. And the narrator is absolutely phenomenal--she really added to the story.

Took a chance and lost

What would have made When better?

Primarily, it would have been better if I were a young teenage girl with banal aspirations.

I like taking a chance on stories targeted towards different demographics, and have often been pleasantly surprised. I was quite hopeful with an award winning book.

During the story I kept thinking of the daughter in the "24" TV series. She kept on doing so many stupid things, you were just hoping fate would take her.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from When?

Too many to enumerate.

story hit a snag

For the most part this book was very good. Until it hit a snag near the end. I was very disappointed how the author first introduced the killer. Not to spoil the book, but if anyone knows the meaning of cognitive dissonance they will understand what I am talking about. It means to be led to think one thing that is not acceptable or made to believe one thing that does not compute. Other than that I enjoyed this book very much. Great narration.

Live for the moment

The fear of death is something we all face and this is what happens when one girl knows that death is coming, Maddie at times seems younger than her years and other times she's the oldest soul in the world. Her going from victim to hero is a wondrous progressions

enertaining and a nicely wrapped up ending

i fouund the story to be very entertaining and engaging. the narrator was easy to listen to and did a great job conveying emtion and portraying the characters. thankfully the ending was not rushed as so many are these days and there was a final solution to everey problem presented in the plot.