Thank you Penguin Teen & Netgalley for sending me an ARC of Tell Me When You Feel Something by Vicki Grant. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

Tell Me When You Feel Something follows the participants of the local med school program. While it starts as acting and fake symptoms, the real danger below the surface threaten to spill over as Viv, one of our protagonists ends up in a coma. Told through multiple perspectives and formats, we are pulls between past and present in an attempt to discover what really lies below the surface.

TW: While my reviews are always TW free, this book does contain sexual assault, pedophilia, alcoholism and drug use.

The novel is presented through 3 narrators and excerpts of police documents. Our characters Davida, Tim and Viv pull us through the book in a very conceptual way. Viv's story told in past tense leading up to the situation that left her in the coma, while Davida and Tim's POV's follow the aftermath of the situation as they try to piece together what truly happened. A lot of YA books aren't written in dual timelines for various reasons, mostly in my opinion because there are so many ways to fail as keeping the audience's attention. With mysteries and thrillers, this style is very effective as Grant made evident. The book starts off slow, the initial character build and setting took a little longer than I hoped. The characters and their struggles intersect well with each other, but some scenes felt heightened to an unneeded extent to keep the mystery thriller aspect intact. Overall in. objective sense, I think the choices of Grant's writing progression was a smart and capturing move. Keeping alternate timelines captures attention and while it it felt a little slow in the beginning, I still wanted to know what happened next, still wanted to piece together the past and the present until the very end where I could see the full picture.

Now, onto the more sensitive topics. This book deals with various heavy and triggering content,. Always right off the bat I think it's important to TW books, especially if it wasn't mentioned in the synopsis. My heart ached for what what these characters had to endure, and some aspects were frustrating. I remember distinctly the moment the big plot twist finally clicked in my head before it was said and I just couldn't help but think "please don't let this be what happens, please don't let this be where the story leads". It is where the story led, and there are definitely plot points in books where it becomes hard to tell whether it was a strategic and awareness filled plot point, or just an add in to unnecessarily heighten and garner. I still don't have a conclusive answer to that thought, but it keeps me thinking and sympathizing with the situation, so more than anything the book is effective in memorability if anything.

Overall we see teens grappling with the pressures, fears and feeling lost in a book that kept me interested with a talented literary structure.

The premise was intriguing that I decided to read it right away. The story is about Vivienne, Davida, and Tim who goes to med school during their summer break and work as SPs (simulated patients). A story about teenage life, family/marital drama, friendship, addiction, and sexual assault. Narrated in multiple POVs and dual timelines, the story has well represented each main character's family background, their predicaments, and mental health.

The story is thought-provoking and compelling that you can’t stop reading until you reach the end. My only qualm is one of the MC's weak coping mechanisms and poor judgment that led her to a life-threatening situation.

I’m thankful to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for allowing me to read and give my honest feedback.

Tell Me When You Feel Something by Vicki Grant was a great read! I loved the different perspectives she used to tell this story. I enjoyed the SP program the characters attended, it was something I’ve never heard of before and was really cool to picture. Overall, I think this book is great and anyone who pick it up will definitely enjoy it.

The blurb captured my attention right away and I am so happy I was able to read this book. Being a YA novel, I knew some of the general tropes to expect but this story was able to hold my interest the entire time.

I really enjoyed the multiple points of view as well as the different timelines. I didn’t find this confusing and I appreciated entering each character’s mind. I thought this was a refreshing way to tell the story and uphold the mystery. The beginning did start slow but it began to pick up speed and didn’t stop until the climax. The climax may have been a bit too fast, I would have liked to see more, but it was satisfying nonetheless. I also would have liked some storylines wrap up better, maybe add in a few more details.

There are some triggers (binge drinking, sexual assault, pedophilia) so readers should be wary of those.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of the book to review. This review is my own opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, PRH Canada Young Readers, for the chance to read this ARC.
Vivienne seems like the girl who has her life together. She has good grades, a loving boyfriend, and volunteers as a simulated patient at the nearby med school. Life can't get better, right?
Well, when she ends up in a coma and the last video of her is evidence of her taking drugs, her friends have to find out who she really is and how this happened to her.
I really enjoyed this book. I found it was a really fast read and it was easy to get lost in the story. Vicki Grant writes the voice of teenagers very well and how they're awkward but try to seem cool, how they gossip, and try to hide stuff from the ones they love.
The alternating perspectives was well done and I liked the excerpts of the police interviews.
It would have been nice to get to know Davida, Tim, and some of the other characters more, but the story is centred overall on Vivienne so I understand.
Overall, I think if a teen or young adult wants to get introduced to the medical thriller genre this would be a good choice.
TW: sexual assault, drugs, overdoses
Go read Tell Me When You Feel Something on June 15th, 2021!

I was a bit hesitant to pick this one up but I really did enjoy the read in the end. This read was slow at times, but also relatively intense at moments as well! It was overall a well written YA thriller, however sadly isn't anything groundbreaking for me.

If you love YA thrillers/mysteries then you will love this either way!

Tell Me When you Feel Something is an excellent YA spin on a medical thriller.

The story revolves around teenagers who enroll in a summer program where they pretend to have various illnesses for the training purposes of med school students. But when one of the teens, Viv, uncharacteristically overdoses on party pills and ends up in a coma, the program comes under scrutiny. The narrative alternates between several different characters which made for an interesting unfolding of the mystery, as the surprise leak of new information from a new perspective provided twists at every turn.

I was gripped by the story and raced to finish the book. The ending wasn’t a complete surprise, but it was perfectly executed. There were plenty of triggers but that is pretty standard for YA fiction, I’ve found. All up, a fast-paced mystery that I’d happily recommend to others.

Davida has a friend who doesn't drink or take drugs. But now Viv is hospitalized from an overdose at a party. Davida wants answers. Who can she trust? Davida, Viv, and Tim work as fake patients to help train medical school doctors. The story unravels from different voices and police interviews. It starts out slow, but comes together as more information is given. The beginning can be confusing and frustrating because we don't have enough background. Hang in there. Things aren't always what you expect. Thank you Netgalley for this suggestion

Thanks to Netgalley and Publisher for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Davida, Tim and Viv are working as SP in summer break at med school. Everything was fine Viv and her long term boyfriend Jack are so happy. Davida and Tim are getting along. Everything seems fine. Until one day Viv fall in a comma and the video showed her taking a pill deliberately. Davida has known Viv for 36 days but she can't believe that Viv can take drugs. 

I am a sucker of YA mystery so after reading the synopsis I had to read it. But it takes me ages to finish it which simply means that it wasn't able to hook me to finish it in one sitting or in a couple of days. The pace of the story was slow, there were many characters but it was hard to feel for them as the story focused on them for a while and they disappear after a few chapters. There were so many loose ends and loopholes. It felt like the author didn't even care about all the side tracks and left them in between... I like the concept of the story and the ending was so dark and creepy but unsatisfying.

Tell Me When You Feel Something is a mystery told in a variety of perspectives and formats (police interviews, legal documents, multiple perspectives) that unfortunately, all read as slow, boring, and indistinguishable to me. Maybe reading this in print would make it easier to keep the POVs separate, but all the characters read as pretty much the same to me and the things that did differentiate them really annoyed me. Mysteries don't have to focus on likeable characters but when you spend this much time on character details instead of unfolding the actual mystery, I feel like at least someone needs to be likable.

I received an ecopy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I’m the kind of reader who pushes through a slow beginning, and, man, am I glad I did with this one. Viv and Davida are great, but I wish they were a little better developed. There themes were developed mature but appropriate for upper HS kids. The book ended quickly. I wanted another 50 pages! Don’t miss it! You’ll enjoy it!

Tell Me When You Feel Something is a great book for fans of mysteries/thrillers and television series like 13 Reasons Why. The book is very intense and interesting, and I genuinely did not expect the ending. However, it is very slow-paced, especially in the beginning, and I just wish the book was faster in the beginning and slower at the end. Once the crime had been "solved", the story seemed to progress extremely quickly, almost to the point of confusion. Honestly, if I had not been reading this book for NetGalley, I don't think I would've finished because the beginning is just so slow. I am glad I did continue, though, because I did really like the ending. In addition to that, I found some of the writing pretty confusing. I don't know if it was just a mistake in the digital copy or the author's writing style, but the police interviews really confused me. It seemed as if the second half of the interview was displayed first and the first half was displayed second, which made it hard to understand what was really going on or what the characters were talking about. Also, I wish Vivienne was given more of a character or personality besides her trauma and issues. The readers really only ever saw Vivienne struggling and being stepped on, and when we did see her true character coming out, it seemed like the focus wasn't on her. Nothing she ever did made me go, "Oh, I like this character," I mostly just pitied her, felt sympathy for her, or felt mad on behalf of her. Finally, the ending was kind of unsatisfying. I mean we saw the news article that the antagonist/perpetrator did actually get charged and all, but despite that, all of the antagonist's suffering the readers really saw was just a physical injury that seemed to happen really quickly. I know this may be more realistic, but it just would've been nice to see the antagonist really have to face their actions and the effects of their actions. Maybe if the main character had confronted the antagonist before physically injuring, it would have been more satisfying. Honestly, if the physical violence the antagonist face was a little more severe and detailed, then I would probably have no problems with the ending. Overall, this book was still really interesting, and I really liked the plot and concept.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The story is slow which isn’t a bad thing if it takes a good turn, and this book never does. I wanted to like this and enjoy it and I wanted there to be a “gotcha” moment but the book is really easy to figure out if you even half pay attention. The part I disliked most is how unlikeable Viv is. She’s annoying, a little overwhelming, and she’s just not a character you like reading about but you still want to try and like her because of what she’s dealing with and goes through.

Then we have Eva who at the end was just sort of cast aside. That was a little weird.

As for the content, I just don’t think this subject matter was handled well. While it felt very real (we’ve seen situations like this in public cases), the story itself doesn’t treat it really with any care. Janice is a cold-hearted character and that comes through well, but I just feel like there wasn’t any justice for Viv or Eva or Dr Pineo, etc. and I wish there was.

My biggest gripe with the entire book is that it’s genuinely really boring to read. This book took me longer to read because it felt like a chore. And then when things were finally out in the open, it was like “well, obviously.” It was flat, slow, obvious, and uninteresting.

What I did like was the different timelines and POVs. That was enjoyable.

I enjoyed this novel more than I thought I would after reading the first quarter. It was a little slow to start, but I'm really glad I kept reading because it does pick up.
I enjoyed the alternating POV, the police interview excerpts, and finding out more about patient simulation, which I didn't even realize was a job.
The characters were well fleshed out, and Vivienne's character in particular is so heartbreaking. I would recommend it to fans of young adult mysteries and thrillers.

3.5 stars
Content Warning: alcohol & drug use, sexual assault.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions are my own.**

*Trigger warning, sexual assault*

This is a book I picked up strictly based on the cover, and once I read the summary, I couldn't wait to get started.

Davida is trying to piece together what happened to her friend at a party. She doesn't drink or take drugs--so how did she overdose? Leading up to the party, Viv's life is in shambles and she's just trying to hold it together one day at a time. What really happened that night?

This book was an experience.

Told in alternating POVs and timelines, we see Davida struggling to unravel the secrets surrounding her inner circle. Her boyfriend is lying to her. Viv was also lying to her. While I didn't like her voice as much as Viv's, it was clear, consistent, and felt authentic.

Viv's POV was the clear winner for me, and through her storyline, Grant explores some pretty intense topics: sexual assault, rape, consent, teen alcoholism, illicit drug use, toxic relationships, and mental health, to name only a few. Because of this, it's difficult for me to say that I enjoyed this book. Parts of this read were emotionally taxing. Riveting, gripping, well-structured, and relevant--ABSOLUTELY. But, I was also incredibly uncomfortable at how much this touched on real life situations many teens/young adults face today.

However, I wouldn't dismiss this book on the basis of reality. These are the conversations we need to have: the uncomfortable, gritty, emotional subjects that affect all different age groups. We need more literature that explores the nuances of addiction and abuse, of coping mechanisms and healthy support systems. We also need to acknowledge that these issues are not limited to the adult atmosphere--something I think Grant handled well here.


Overall, Tell Me When You Feel Something is an emotional rollercoaster that explores critical themes with raw, taut honesty.

Thank you to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

Loved this book, and will definitely purchase it for my high school library. Viv is the high school student that has it all. She is popular, smart, kind and caring. She has wealthy parents, the perfect boyfriend, and will almost certainly get into the school of her choice. She has a job working as a “practice patient” for first year medical students. She also has a drinking problem because she has kept her stresses carefully concealed, and things are getting out of control. Even Jack, her boyfriend doesn’t know, and he is away camp. Neither do Tim or Davida, her friends from her job, know how bad things are getting. When disaster strikes, her story unfolds from points of view from Tim, Davida, and interviews from the police department. I received this copy from Net Galley, and am under no obligation for this review.

I wish the ending had been less rushed and more detailed, but that’s really my only complaint. My favorite thing about the writing and the story was the underlying tension building slowly, which then of course came to a head in the end. Not a perfect book, but it was one that did not fail in drawing me in and keeping me there. I sped through it and couldn’t wait to see how everything played out. I will definitely read more from this author in the future.

*I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review, I realize that this is an ARC and not the final copy of the book.*

This book ended up better than I thought it would. It’s incredibly tragic and gave me a lot of 13 Reasons Why and Euphoria vibes. The weird way the author broke the police interviews up was disconcerting, she’d start at the end of the interview and then loop around back to the beginning again, so it would throw me out of the moment as I’d have to scroll back to piece it together and the formatting was a little off for my Kindle.

It was really good, I liked the teen characters and how it revolves around one incident both before and after. I wish some of the adults in the book weren’t so caricature-like, all of them felt like CW parents, and I’m seeing this way too often in YA books lately.🤷‍♀️

This book truly captured my attention and held it throughout the entirety of the novel.

I really appreciated the writing style and the set up of chapters in this book. It helped me to better connect with the characters. And kept me turning pages.

When Vivienne overdoses at a party, her friend Davida is left picking up pieces. But, according to Davida, Viv didn't even drink. How could she have overdosed? This leaves Davida with the question "did she ever truly know Viv?"

This novel touches on divorce, consent, family, addiction and atypical familial dynamics.

*I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Thanks Netgallery and to the publishers for this arc! I loved this book so so so much! It was such an intense read and I literally couldn't stop reading! I do have to say that the first part was a little boring but, i'm so glad that I continued.