In an Instant

• Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

• General Overview: The novel follows the story of two families who are caught up in a serious, tragic accident high in snowy mountains and the lengths that each individual go to to survive. The book takes the ingenious idea of narrating the aftermath of the crash from sixteen year old Finn’s PoV. It’s ingenious because Finn dies in the crash and therefore she takes on an almost omniscient role and the book becomes a sort of fly-on-the-wall exposé of the crash victim’s broken lives.

•What did I think?: This book was an absolute page turner for me! I picked it off of the recommended shelf on Kindle Unlimited and I am so glad that I did! ‘In an Instant’ is such a beautifully written novel that tackles grief and how different people cope with traumatic events. Everyone reacts differently and this book shows the gambits of emotion from all sides and the emotions hit the reader as you read it.

I was intrigued to find out that Suzanne Redfearn had inspiration from an event in her childhood when writing this novel. You can tell that her raw emotion from her memories really helped fuel the tone of all the characters as they navigate through the traumatic events that unfold.

There are so many characters in this book and the author does an amazing job at going into detail of how each character is feeling emotionally and coping with the traumatic events they all just went through. Because of this, it is so easy to become attached to these characters and feel the emotions that is being portrayed by their thoughts and actions.

There are also some plot twists in the story that I personally didn’t see coming and I’m a sucker for plot twists. There were moments where I was mad, sad, and shocked at some of the outcomes. Suzanne Redfearn did such a great job at using suspense to keep us locked in and turning the pages to see how everything would turn out.

This is a novel that really asks questions about what we as humans are capable of doing to each other. It dares to look at our darkest thoughts of purely self preservation and asks the reader do you know what you would do in these most bleak of moments? No one character in this book is left guilt free. They all experience shame on some level at how they survived and because they survived.

• Do I recommend this book?: Yes! This is one of those books that really the less you know about it the better. While the prose may not be that beautiful with an awkward narrative initially, this is still definitely worth a read if you’re in the mood for a character study type novel as the most thought provoking themes truly reveal themselves after approx 1/3 the way through.

This is not my normal novel to read. It had been on my TRL for quite some time. I planned on reading it, but as I mentioned, it’s not my normal genre. I knew there were a lot of great reviews of the story, but I just put it off.

This story surround Finn will tragically dies in a horrible car accident while in the mountains with family and friends during a whiteout blizzard. After her immediate death, she views everything that happens with her family and friends as they struggle to survive the blizzard. Some of these acts are courageous, some are despicable and downright criminal.

It is a powerful story, sad, and at times infuriating but also heartwarming and filled with redemption.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is very thought-provoking! You think you know yourself and your friends until you are put into a situation you never imagined could happen. Hard decisions need to be made. What would you do??? There are questions for a book club to discuss at the end of the story. There is so much to say!! Every friend who took my advice to read this book, loved it!

This book was very touching for me. Good story and interesting how each reacts to the tragedy. I lost my daughter to a drunk driver, and I saw the accident. So this story brought back some sad memories but I also found it interesting and true to life of how each person dealt with the death. The whole time I read the book I kept wondering if my daughter could see us after she passed. I believe she could. Someone said to me after her passing, Live your life like you want her to see how well you are doing, Make her happy. This fit this situation. Also interesting what happens in a situation like this to whom you thought were "real" friends. Really enjoyed this book.

What I initially thought was going to be just a coming of age/family drama turned out to be so much more. It would be wrong to give away any plot details. The story needs to be read and experienced firsthand by the reader.

Some of the factors I liked best were the perspective from which the story was told; the depth of realistic emotion and scarcity of sentimentality; the overall quality of the writing; and the believable portrayals of people coping with grief, anger, and guilt. Upon reading the author’s comments at the end of the story, the realism and honesty in which it is told becomes even more apparent and understandable.

Perhaps because of the perspective of the character who tells the story, the book is very visual and would make a compelling movie but only if the depth of purpose is maintained and it’s not turned into something lesser.