Out of Body - Review
I received a physical copy from the Colored Pages Book Tour via Balzer + Bray. All reviews are my own.
Who doesn’t enjoy a good body-swapping story? There are plenty of popular movies out there, like Avatar (yes, the blue people), Us, and Get Out. But my personal favorite will always be The Skeleton Key. Now that was horror! And while I didn’t get my horror fix from my latest read, Out of Body by Nia Davenport, the fast-paced science fiction novel will definitely make you think twice about the people you hang around and what they want from you.
"Seventeen-year-old Megan Allen has been jumping from friend group to friend group in her high school, trying on identities like outfits. Nothing ever seems to fit—until she meets LC, the adventurous, charismatic girl who appears at her favorite coffee shop one day like magic. Finally, Megan feels like she’s becoming the person she’s meant to be: someone like LC.
On the night of their friendiversary, what was supposed to be a bonding experience ends in a waking nightmare. Suddenly, Megan is no longer herself. Too late, she realizes that LC has secrets—dangerous ones. Betrayed by her best friend, thrust into another girl’s life, and targeted by LC’s enemies, she must claim what makes Megan Megan to get her life back . . . or die trying."
I tackled this book via audio. Narrated by Karen Malina White, the story took 8 hours and 43 minutes to complete. This was my first time hearing White narrate, and honestly, I didn’t enjoy it. I even tried speeding up the playback to 2x, but she still sounded like she was speaking at a regular pace. Her narration felt slow and dull, which really affected my reading experience.
When you think about it, Out of Body and The Skeleton Key both focus on making people believe the unbelievable. Honestly, if I came home late after waking up from a drug-induced sleep, only to find out nobody recognizes me as me, but as somebody else, I’d have to start believing in things really fast. That’s exactly how Megan Allen’s nightmare starts. After celebrating a one-year “friendiversary” with a newly minted neck piercing with the popular girl L.C., they head out to a party. Things go downhill once L.C. offers a drug to Megan, which knocks her out and puts her in L.C.’s body, while L.C. takes over Megan’s identity. Megan spends the rest of the book trying to convince her loved ones that L.C. isn’t who she says she is, all while trying to get her own body back. But what made L.C. do it in the first place?
Out of Body is one of those stories where you can’t stop turning the page until you reach the very end and understand how everything happened. There are lots of body switches, plenty of questions, and intense emotions that fit the flow of the story. I like how Davenport started with a simple body-swapping concept and turned it into a science fiction conspiracy. Think, They Cloned Tyrone. I also liked how Davenport wrote the main characters, though Megan infuriated me. She was waaaaay too naïve, man! And for someone who loves this genre, I was annoyed she didn’t catch what was happening to her sooner.
Overall, I rated this book 3-stars. It didn’t wow me, but I appreciated the fast pacing. The science fiction portion was an unexpected, delightful twist. I for sure thought there would be hoodoo or a curse running the show. The two main things that bothered me were how young it read and how emotionally triggering it felt. As I mentioned, believing is a big theme, and I was damn near cussing out friends and family on Megan’s behalf, all because they wouldn’t believe the facts that were given. Still, I get it; what would you do if a stranger ran up to you saying they were your best friend, but you don’t know that person from a can of paint? I would be calling the cops and mental institutions as well. It’s a wrap for this book! Let’s see if I can find another body-swapping-themed book.
Out of Body is available now.
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