This is a fantastic read it reminded me a bit like the book numbers which has the same sort of consept that she can see when people are gonna die what a strange but amazing story well done.

Life really sucks for Ivy Erickson. Not only does she have a short time to live, but she knows it. Ivy can see a digital clock ticking above every persons head, including her own. Slowly the time counts down to the moment that person will die. As if that wasn’t bad enough, young girls, starting with her own best friend, are being murdered in Ivy’s town and she feels compelled to solve those murders before her own clock reaches zero.

For me, the mystery part of this book is secondary to the larger dilemma. How would it feel to know when the people around you are going to die? Time would be present in a way that normally we don’t understand. Seconds, minutes and hours usually slide by so quickly, we hardly notice. Worse yet, we trade our time away. We waste the moment we are in right now because we are impatiently waiting for the weekend, or for our favorite tv show to start, or something else equally unimportant.

I recognize this more since I’ve become a parent. It seems like just yesterday that my boy Jay, was a 6 year old little boy who I was dropping off at elementary school. He was wearing holes through the toes of his shoes at an alarming rate and it drove me nuts. I couldn’t wait for him to grow out of that habit. I couldn’t wait until he was old enough to play video games with me. Until he was big enough to get on the big rides at Disneyland. Until a million different things. Suddenly, he’s 16 and all that time is gone. All too soon he’ll be out of school and making his own life. I can see that without a clock above his head telling me exactly when he will become old enough to move on. If I could see it, would that make the intervening minutes more important, or less?

Ivy is greatly affected by seeing The Clock. She is constantly aware of how many seconds it takes to walk through a room, or for a person to respond to a question, and of how quickly the lives of people around her is passing by. I liked that about the book. Being a teenager she didn’t always respond in a healthy way, but that’s completely understandable. It made for an interesting approach to her character and to her interactions with others.

Don’t let me and my ruminations scare you away though. This is not a deep, existential novel. It’s a fun and interesting YA mystery. Not too heavy for consumption, but can still provide enough texture to let your mind chew on. I enjoyed it.

I have always been a big fan of YA books but ones that are not heavy into supernatural elements, Gardenia has just a little bit and was more a mystery/suspense story.

I found the concept interesting, imagine knowing the exact minute that death will strike not just those around you but yourself as well. Ivy has that gift and she used it as she volunteers at a nursing home to give comfort to those as their lives come to an end. I found that aspect endearing and tells you the kind of person she is.

Even though Ivy knew the death of her best friend was imminent she was still deeply traumatized, especially in it's manner. This paves the way for the mystery part of this book. Determined to find the killer, as her own countdown clock is ticking, Ivy seems to be getting closer to the truth as her life is threatened.

Gardenia was a well written book set in a realistic location with all the high school drama. While I found the romance part a little off Ivy playing the sleuth was interesting and wanting to know the out come kept me interesting in this book.

Thank you to the publisher (via netgalley) for an arc.

Unfortunately I really didn't enjoy this book which is a same because it has such an interesting premise.
I felt like the story was far too slow to get going, and it wasn't actually all that clear that Ivy was looking for Vanessa's murderer until far too late in the book as there was so much focus on other stuff/characters.
Ivy herself also didn't come across as a particularly likeable character, so there was no sadness when it came to the end of her time. I also felt like there would have been more impact if there wasn't more after the ice part.

I did however like the sub plot with Anna, that was quite sweet and the moments Ivy works on improving her family home is also very nice.

I love this book! It is a paradoxical mix of mundane normalcy with some supernatural ability tossed into the mix.

I will highly recommend this book to my students.

This book was a lovely excuse to not get out of bed all afternoon, though I did have Nickelback's Savin' Me stuck in my head the entire time...

A delightful mystery, I found myself in suspense through most of the book, which was quite realistic despite the supernatural elements. Ivy's bitter cynicism was ironically a breath of fresh air and I found her voice to be quite unique, for YA. She showed herself to be secretly, underneath it all, optimistic, and I felt like she'd be someone I'd really want to get to know in real life.

The romance was thrilling. I didn't analytically think it would be good due to my detesting of instalove, but the way Ivy talked about her significantly-more-off-than-on boyfriend Myers had my stomach in butterflies. Their history comes out slowly, but it's clear that the emotions Ivy feels are incredibly deep.

I loved the setting of this book. I loved that Ivy lived in a trailer park. I loved that her sister ran a website for men in order to have an income. I loved the nitty gritty elements of the family struggling yet, in one scene, each taking a day off to go bowling together. (Also, they have a parrot. Many kudos to the parrot.) I loved Ivy's art and the role it played.

A true suspense, I didn't see the ending coming until it happened. This was a mystery alongside a coming-of-age story and I was intrigued to read about how Ivy found clues and eventually came to the conclusion she did.

This was solid. Not spectacular, and I felt like there were some deaths that were glossed over, but a solid way to pass an afternoon, and I recommend for YA fans.