Genes, Sobs, and Marchetta: Review of One Past Midnight

Title: One Past Midnight
Author: Jessica Shirvington
Publication Date: July 22, 2014
Genre: YA Paranormal

Name of overseas edition of Between The Lives.

Above all else, though I try not to think about it, I know which life I prefer. And every night when I Cinderella myself from one life to the next a very small, but definite, piece of me dies. The hardest part is that nothing about my situation has ever changed. There is no loophole.
Until now, that is...

For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she Shifts to her ′other′ life - a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she′s a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she′s considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other.

With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments which bring her dangerously close to the life she′s always wanted... But just what - and who - is she really risking? -Goodreads

4.5 Stars

Thank you Bloomsbury for sending me this copy, which did not affect my review in any way.

Beware of slightly unintelligible gushing and if you hear a fangirl sobbing in the distance, that's probably me.

Sabine is a high school senior in her last weeks of school. She lives two lives; one that is seemingly flawless, while the other is - flawed, to say the least. After an unfortunate butt-in-the-air accident, Sabine finds that her physical body is only affected in one life, and not in the other. She decides that she must choose one life - which is far easier said than done.


I like to think of One Past Midnight as the child of Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver and Just Like Fate by Cat Patrick and Suzanne Young. That is, if all the good genes of Before I Fall were dominant and all the bad genes of Just Like Fate were recessive. (There was far too much nerdiness in that sentence to be acceptable.) (My goal exactly.)

Basically, if you were to combine the plots of Before I Fall and Just Like Fate, you'd get this beauty of a novel. Which is unique in its own right, I must add.

At the start, Sabine, the protagonist, is... unlikable. In both lives. She makes stupid, reckless decisions and can sway to the melodramatic at times throughout the novel. But you know what? She had flaws. She's human. She jumped off the pages and made an impression. And I loved her for that.

Should I even be surprised that an Aussie writer has lovely writing? Seriously, it was perfect and Sabine's voice was unforgettable.

I loved loved loooved how Shirvington portrayed the sister relationship in one life, and the brother relationship in the other. Family is very important in this novel, and at several points I was half-squealing-half-weeping from their relationships. Kind of like On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta (YUP - I WENT THERE).

And call me a sappy teen if you like, but that ending had me balling. Not only that, but Ethan made me "awww!" about a bajillion million times. To tell you the truth, I saw the ending coming from the middle of the book. Did that lessen the amount of tears I cried? HAHAHA NOPE. Beautiful ending is beautiful (and inspiring, and special, and - JUST READ THE BOOK OKAY?)

If you're a sensitive emotional wreck like me, then read this. Even if you're the most composed person on the planet, I implore you to read this eye-opening novel. (That is an order.)