Okay, here's the thing: if I think too hard about parts of this book, especially the ending, I have questions and critiques. I wish that we'd been able to see more of the tech, that the ending wasn't left wiiiiiide open (unless there's going to be a sequel), and there's a plot twist that felt more like a deus ex machina than an earned reveal.

BUT.

There is a B-movie, sci-fi-flick loving part of me that kind of didn't care about any of those things. The story was fun, this book was fast-paced, the concept was interesting, and the characters were likeable inasmuch as we got to know them. Would I have preferred more character and technology development, and some sort of meaningful closure at the end? Yes. Did I rip through this book in two sittings and hear "duh duh DUUHHHHNNNN" dramatic music playing in my head at the end of almost every chapter? Also yes. It had big X-Files energy.

I don't know that this book tread particularly new ground, but it was heckin' fun to read and would make a great pulp film. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book as an ARC.

4.5 stars

This book was unlike anything I've read before, and I loved it! I can't wait to check out other books by Davenport.

I had a hard time putting this book aside. The premise had a horror and sci-fi vibe, sort of like a futuristic "Freaky Friday." The active pace, especially once the body switching starts, will keep readers turning the pages. Character development and the YA themes of friendship and finding one's self are well done. The cover is a great fit for the story. It'd be awesome to have a sequel!

I am way to old be reading this book. This was way too cringy. I could not stand the overall story. It was written for a much younger audience.

A super enjoyable fast-paced read that combines strong friendships, identity and a gripping mystery. I have never read a sci-fi thriller before, so this was surely surprising yet interesting read for me! It was easy to step into the place of the characters and bite my nails in anticipation for the story to unravel!

I had such a fun time and really enjoyed this book. I absolutely love the way Nia Davenport writes. It's so fresh and real in a way I can always relate too.

This story is definitely giving Get Out meets Black Mirror vibes and is a wild ride from Starr to finish. This body switching sci-fi horror will keep you turning the page to figure out what's going on.

Megan is a fun YA MC, I love fellow anime loving Blerd, although I do wish we had a little more time to get to know her more before switch.

I also think this book had great moments that highlight what's is like to live in a Black body, especially in surroundings with Non- Black people and interactions with law enforcement.

Nia Davenport has quickly become of my favorite authors and im super excited for this YA debut!

Nia Davenport comes in hot with this one. Barely into the story and I was clutching my imaginary pearls and furrowing my brow trying to figure out what in the world this character was doing.

The story starts off all nice. We meet Megan who’s excited about her bff LC. It seems Megan is a nerdy outsider who has struggled to find where she fits, so she’s happy to have met and clicked with cool girl LC. They’ve known each other for 3 months and Megan thinks all is well. She has no reason not to until attending a party with LC turns into an unbelievable nightmare.

Megan goes into the party as herself (duh) but after taking drugs and passing out she goes home, but not as herself. Megan knows she’s Megan, but somehow she sees herself on the stairs in her house. How is that possible? When she sees her reflection in the window…she’s not in her body. She’s in LC’s body. Of course, she thinks she’s tripping on the drugs she took, but eventually she knows this nightmare is real. She’s swapped bodies and LC has stolen her life.

This story is 100% giving Get Out and Black Mirror vibes. Also, can you say Freaky Friday!!! But unlike Freaky Friday, their swap wasn’t an accident. LC did it on purpose. Why did LC do this and will Megan get her body back? Read to find out.

The idea of the plot is freaky in a way that had the potential to be really dark and creepy, but the execution was almost too nice, neat, and simple. The story was crying for a real sinister vibe to turn up the heat on the suspense. I just wanted more tension.

Spoilers below.

Initially I was thinking LC’s reasoning was of an evil nature. After finding out her why, I was left wishing she had ill intent because it would’ve made Megan’s situation feel more hopeless and intense. Instead, I empathized with LC’s situation. Especially because we soon learn that LC feels bad for what she did and plans to right her actions. Her underlying good nature took away from the danger of the circumstances. Overall, a fun idea that could’ve used more thrill.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced eARC.

This was my first YA sci-fi thriller read and it was enjoyable. I thought I was going to be confused by sci-fi aspect of it but the story was easy to follow and made for a easy read. My favorite character was definitely Megan. Even though she was thrown into a chaotic situation with no idea of what was happening she faced her fears and persevered. I love how her confidence in herself continued to grow and I could really relate to the realization of just being yourself is enough. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a easy to read YA thriller with a hint of sci-fi that's more teen oriented. This was a 3.5 star read for me.

Megan just wants to fit in with the cool kids like her friend LC. The two of them have been inseparable the past few months. But when LC convinces her to take drugs at a party she wakes up and discovers that she and LC have switched bodies. And instead of trying to help her do something about it her so called friend ignores her and assumes her position as Megan instead. The real Megan ends up with the family of a girl named Jade and soon discovers LC has been lying to her the entire time and she doesn't know a thing about the girl she spent the last few months with. It's a race against the clock as Megan tried to get back to her own body before it's too late.

This is a compulsively readable story giving reader's just enough to keep turning the pages. Towards the end especially the story became very unsettling. It definitely brings both the horror and sci-fi vibes.

It is fast-paced which I overall appreciated but that did make it hard in the beginning to connect with Megan because the switch happens so soon in the story. Readers don't have time to get to know her before the body swap. And then once bodies are swapped she's busy trying to get back into her own body while also trying to keep up appearances as Jade.

In 2023 (so I guess last year, but it still doesn't feel that way) I read Nia Davenport's adult sci-fi duology and really enjoyed it, so I was curious to see what she did with a YA sci-fi, and while they are wildly different (like, the only similarities are the fact that our main character(s) are black girls and there are sci-fi elements) I also enjoyed this story. I read this book very quickly, and while it's a little hard to tell because of formatting and whatnot it didn't seem super long. The plot moves along at a rather quick pace, and there's not really much filler, so it certainly has that working for it, especially if you are trying to get a more reluctant reader into it. I liked Megan as a main character, she was smart, sympathetic, and resourceful, and I especially appreciated the fact that we got to see small snippets from LC's POV, I think it not only helped move the story forward, it gave more depth to the story. I think my only real complaints with the story were 1) it seemed a little far out there and 2) there were some elements that were just kind of dropped in and never mentioned again/seemed like a throwaway. So for the believability of the plot it's not completely out there, but I do have to admit it's a little hard to believe. But then again I don't know what kind of research Davenport did, so perhaps it's actually more realistic than it seems. Take that "criticism" with a grain of salt. My second point is probably more important in terms of a review; there were some things that were included and seemed like they might become relevant later, but then were just dropped. The main one that comes to mind is the parents of the body Megan gets swapped into get a call from the police (or the government?) about a comment she left on an instagram post. I don't think that's actually how it works, but it's also kind of dropped in there and then never mentioned again. The police/government don't come up again, so it makes it seem somewhat...sloppy? I don't know. As a whole though I was pretty pleased with this book, and I'll be more than happy to recommend it to any teens looking for a good sci-fi thriller, as well as adults. I also appreciate the fact that it touches on some important racial issues, and brings up some interesting questions about body swapping. It's a solid YA debut and I'll be curious to see what Davenport puts out for her next book. It's not perfect, but it's certainly entertaining, and I don't regret reading it, although I do think I prefer her adult duology if I had to pick a favorite.

I of course have been a fan of Nia Davenport since The Blood Trials, but outside of my obvious love for her work this, to me, was the perfect debut YA thriller! This book read like a movie as I felt there was very a dull or slow moment and I honestly would so be down for an adaptation of it. Now what I will say is that it is a very easy read and can, at times, come off as very YA instead of on the more mature side. However, I still very much enjoyed the story and was hooked from the very beginning.

Let me start by saying this was well written! I was a little worried that the whole body swapping stuff might get confusing and I’m happy to say that it did not.

I really enjoyed the set up of this one and could physically feel the anxiety the MC here must have been feeling.

My only issue was that the resolution wrapped up a little too neatly for me. There was still some unresolved things but the switching back was just too easy. Also, personally I wanted a different end for our main villian. But besides that I thought this book was great and will definitely be recommending it to thriller fans!

This book was so good! It was very interesting, I had never read anything similar. I really liked the concept, and it was also well written. I really couldn't put it down! Overall, great book.

Perfect for fans of Tiffany D. Jackson, "Out of Body" is a gripping thriller that keeps readers on the edge of their seats, eager to unravel the mysteries surrounding Megan and LC. This YA gem is a must-read for those who crave a thrilling blend of suspense, friendship, and identity exploration. I would definitely recommend grabbing this one when it releases!

Wow, this took me on a *ride* !!!

I was hooked from the end of the first chapter until the very end of this teen fictional body-swap adventure/thriller. This is told in first-person, present tense of our main character Megan, as well as a few snippets with third-person, present tense POV of LC. This story is set mostly in Graysonville, Georgia.

This story follows Megan and LC, who have been friends for three months. LC pierces Megan's neck as a friendaversary gift, and then they attend a party where they take Molly (ecstasy). Megan wakes up disoriented and walks straight home, even though it's way past curfew, but then her parents are furious when they open the front door and ask her what she is doing there. It's at that moment when Megan realizes she sees *herself* standing on the staircase behind her parents and her world is entirely thrown off its axis. She realizes that she is inside LC's body, and LC must be inside her body. How did this happen?! This sets off a series of events with Megan desperately trying to find a way back to her body, out of LC's, and to prevent this from happening to anyone else ever again. A fake FBI agent comes into the mix, adding even more uncertainty into Megan's new reality, but regardless, Megan will not give up on getting her body and her life back.

The pace moves quickly, as thrillers do, and something you must do is suspend disbelief for some of the answers Megan receives. Suspending disbelief for some parts sat fine with me (like how easily the TikTok answers came to Megan and Ryan, but also, TikTok is a fantastic crowd-sourcing resource, cry about it) because other portions of this story ring so true, such as the small ways Megan must constantly assess her safety as a young Black woman in America. As she examines different situations, such as Megan's parents calling the police on her (as LC), she resigns herself to recognizing that pleading her case of body swapping to the police is not a safe, feasible route for her. She regroups, goes to Jade's (whose body LC had swapped with previously), and thinks of what her viable options are.

There are also moments where her Blackness is most salient to others, such as an elder Black waitress at the diner where Megan meets with an older White woman named Tess; the waitress gives Megan a knowing look, as if to say "do you need help" or "are you okay?". I appreciated how Davenport nodded to the care that the Black community displays for each other, since the people who are *supposed to* protect them do nothing of the sort. Davenport cleverly and subtly added these instances of what it's like to navigate America in a Black body because that comes with just as much (if not more) uncertainty and feelings of dangers/threats as someone physically taking your body, and forcing you to be in someone else's. There is a real violence in never being believed, seen as a human worth saving, or being universally protected.

There are also real fun moments that most sci-fi/body-swap fans will appreciate, such as Jade's best friend Ryan and Megan's best friend Ava realizing the moment that Megan was telling the truth about body swapping, by spouting off intimate shared memories that *only* Megan would know. I also squealed with delight as the final reveal unfolded in the last few pages, and think readers will be so satisfied with the ending.

I highly recommend this to everyone who enjoys body-swap sci-fi tropes, and wants more young Black girls as the "final girls". Though this is not particularly a slasher book or one where people are murdered, the stakes are still just as high and I was so proud of these characters for getting their bodily autonomy back!

cw: kidnapping, infringement on bodily autonomy, gaslighting, unethical use of police role/position of authority, foster care abuse, character is unhoused and orphaned as a minor, drug use, physical violence

Megan is having a tough time figuring out who she really is in high school until she meets LC at her favorite coffee shop one day. They seem to hit it off and Megan finally feels like she's found her person but things take a strange turn when Megan wakes up in LC's body and realizes that LC has taken over her life. Now, Megan must find a way back to her own body and her own life.

This YA thriller had me hooked from the very first page. The fast-paced story kept me engaged throughout with so many unexpected twists. Just when I thought I had it figured out, I indeed did not. It's been a while since I found a book that allowed me to lose myself in its pages, letting my imagination run wild, but this one did just that. If you're a fan of Young Adult literature with a thrilling twist, then you’ll enjoy this one.

Release Date: February 6, 2024

*Review based on Advance Reader Copy*

This young adult body-swap thriller was so fast paced and suspenseful! I was hooked from the very beginning & stayed engrossed in the story throughout the whole book! I loved that the mystery wasn’t easily predictable and that I had no idea the turns it would take. I cared about the characters! This does have a little bit of romance, but not so much that it takes over the story and distracts from the mystery. I was in a terrible reading slump when I started this book. No book I picked up could keep my attention. But when I started this, the fast pace & intrigue pulled me right out of that slump!

I also appreciated how this story didn’t ignore the realities of being a Black person in thriller-genre situations and how there are very few safe options for us in instances like these. In thrillers by white authors we know that when the cops come, the day is saved. Or that people will actually believe those characters when they tell a person of authority the truth. That is not the case for us. And I really appreciate that this book touched on that and how we have to take things into our own hands to make sure that we keep ourselves and each other safe.

I did want to mention something that I didn’t like really quick. There was a point in this book where a character says “I don’t have the spoons for this.” I’m not sure if the author is aware, but the term “spoons” in this context is specifically used for the disabled community when pain or illness keeps us from being able to do the activities that we want or need to do. This term isn’t synonymous with the word “tired” or having “low energy”. It’s specifically for the chronic pain & chronically ill community. This didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book because I feel like the author really probably doesn’t know. But I just want to address it so that the term doesn’t get misused.

I received a free early e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Balzer + Bray and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

TW: child abuse, parental death, foster care

This story follows Megan and LC. One of these girls has a hidden agenda, while the other has no idea how life as she knows it is about to change . This story is a mixed of Freaky Friday, The Matrix,. And Jordan Peele. If that doesn’t tell you that you are in for a while ride, idk what does. The story starts off already with these teens making bad decisions and it just doesn’t let up. Nia this was a great story from beginning to end. I thought it was going to be another body switching story but it was so much more. Please go read this book . It is just that good . Thank you netgalley and harpercollins for this Arc. All opinions are my own .

Out Of Body is a YA thriller about a young Black girl who finds herself in a body swap nightmare. Megan is a pretty well adjusted musical average teenager. Her new friend, LC, who takes her to a party,drugs her and uses a device that makes them switch bodies. Desperate to get her own body back, Megan must convince an old friend to help her.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the chance to read this book in exchange for my honest review. I am giving this book 3.5 stars. This book was very fast paced and very quick to read. While I did enjoy this authors other books more than this one, I feel that this was well.done for a YA crowd. This was like an introduction to Sci.Fi for newer readers of that genre without really being a pure Sci To book. I do feel that at one point there may have been one too many body swaps happening, but I was satisfied by the ending and really enjoyed the main character. I also.appreciate that the author chose not to.focus on the love interest aspect of the story. Sure there is a potential character for that in this book, but it was never the focus and kept the narrative purely on Megan and her plight. I will continue to look for more books by this author and will post about this book on my social media closer to the release date.

Thrilling, fascinating, strange and a really good read! I heard about the author before but this was a such a really great book.

Nia Davenport is now an auto buy author! I loved this book so much. It was filled with mystery, suspense, social commentary and beautiful representative among black girls. I enjoyed the story being about out body experience and how people see others. The pacing was good, the characters were well thought out with great purpose. I will be recommending this book for a long time.