Double Negative

“I had always loved strong, healthy bodies. But now I understood vulnerability. I respected tenacity. I knew that strength was not always physical.” (Quote from ARC)

“Double Negative”, by Susan Marshall (Evernight Teen), is a very entertaining story with teen people who are realistic, relatable characters, showing a mix of innocence, maturity and smartness that can be irresistible. The love story is very sweet and I really liked how it was developed.
I found the heroine very well written. I loved her passion for swimming and competing, how it is so ingrained in who she is and what she does. Her honesty is compelling, too.
Zain, the young hero, is very attractive: a bit tortured, living and adapting to a new reality in a very pragmatic way. "Hot and intense", as Reece says...
I thought all characters were interesting and well developed; even the annoying ones. The interactions and dialogue are vivid and seemed appropriate for the characters’ ages. I particularly liked Reece and Jamie’s relationship.

Evernight Teen,
Thank You for this eARC!

I devoured this exciting, action packed story which has a promising, intriguing, tempting premise.
Our characters are relatable and believable with their issues and drama.
Reece, I was pulled right into her world.
Zain was another great character who i really enjoyed getting a glimpse inside his world.
This has some romance which I thought added that much more to the story.
This was one well written young adult novel.
The book’s pace was fast, whirlwind, heart throbbing and conclusion was well wrapped up as it was expected.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

At first glance, I was a little overwhelmed with the sheer depth of descriptions surrounding Reece's love of swimming. Not too long into it, you get a better understanding of why Susan does this. Swimming has been this girl's whole life. It's how she copes, it's how she identifies, it's all consuming. Susan's writing is wonderful. I truly enjoyed reading this book. Her character development was on point; giving you characters you either loved, hated, or just wished would shut up. She reminds you about how it felt as a teen to go through heartbreak. Overall, this was a great read. If I could change anything, I would have liked the ending to be more solid. There just seemed to be this unexplained truce and all is forgiven type feeling.

This is very well portrayed and well paced. The characters reflect their age group. The trials faced by the MCs make for a gripping read.

Reece is a star swimmer whose unfortunate injury has set her back. She now finds herself in a new environment which is alien to her in many ways. Her brother, Jamie talks her into becoming Vice President to his Presidency. Here is where the story becomes interesting.

Zain is a star athlete too. He is an amputee who doesn't allow his disability to get in his way. He is also the President on the athletic side, and Jamie's biggest rival. The anomisity between them is palpable and Reece is stuck in the middle. When things go south, she finds herself working with Zain on a constitution. This brings them closer and an attraction develops. Everything appears to be going well until Zain drops a bomb that negates all the positives. In view of the gravity of these news, will things ever go back to normal?

Reece is committed to everything that she takes on. Zain is hurting, but puts on a brave face. He is very clever and in the end gets his poetic justice. It doesn't make up for everything that he has lost, but he gets some personal satisfaction. Jamie's interactions with Reece are interesting. Annoying and funny at the same time. There are a few lessons to be learnt from this story. Acceptance, forgiveness, perseverance and amendment. After all the family drama, it ends on a beautiful note. A gripping and satisfying read.

I received an eARC from Netgalley and the views expressed are my personal opinion.

This was my first ever arc which was very exciting!

I’ll start off by saying it took me a while to read this, but that’s not a fault of the book - I had a very intense reading month in October and clearly was feeling the effects throughout the month. Despite my slow reading pace, I rather enjoyed Double Negative - it’s a darker sort of high school romance which shows in the psychological effects on both parties. It’s not quite an angle I’ve seen before and it was interesting to see.

Reece is a very likeable protagonist and from the start she makes it clear how bad it’s affecting her to be unable to swim, everything reminds her of being in water from tapping noises reminding her of the sound of droplets to her spending as much time in the shower as possible to replicate the feeling of being in the pool. If you’ve ever seen the anime series Free! then you’ll know where I’m coming from, her descriptions of how it feels to swim reminded me of it.

I will say that I didn’t really care for too many other characters, especially Zain who is, in my opinion, virtually unlikable. I’m unsure if the author intended that or not, but he’s sly and extremely negative. I understand that he’s a young amputee and I can only imagine the psychological effects that would have on a teenager, but that doesn’t automatically make me sympathise with him. This is one of the few times I was honestly rooting for the potential couple NOT to get together. I did like Jamie as well, Paisley seemed nice but honestly I just didn’t care for most of the other characters.

My biggest gripe really is the inconsistency regarding swear words; the author regularly types ‘OMG’ instead of ‘oh my god’ and ‘WTF’ instead of ‘what the fu-‘ well, you get the idea. It seemed quite juvenile and lazy, is it really that hard to just type out the actual words? To make it even more confusing, towards the end the ‘F word’ gets used without any kind of censorship - why would you at first abbreviate it and then later on just put it anyway? It doesn’t make any logical sense, I could understand it being written during a text conversation - of which there are quite a few - but no, it’s written in both speech and thought. It honestly doesn’t make a lick of sense.

Despite the baffling use of swear words and a mostly unlikable love interest, I did actually really enjoy Double Negative. It was really easy to read and presented a different sort of love story that I found unique and refreshing. It’s no five star, but it’s worth a look if it’s your sort of book.

Double negative was a well written book that explored various themes. The main characters, Reece and Zain were very believable and encompassed all the elements of being a teenagers and the challenges that come with it.

Thank you Netgalley and Evernight teen for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!
It was so intriguing and realistic, and the fact that the book could relate to many other individuals or struggling teens was also so precious and heartwarming.
The character relationships and development through the story was spot on. It spoke about how others might feel pain or hold on to pain or a grudge for a while and the ending!
This book was such an emotional rollercoaster! Susan Marshall really does know how to make me cry.
The characters development as well as their relationship development was so cute to read about and I absolutely loved the chemistry and similarities as well as how some characters faced their problems.
In the end, life is like this, and many relate to this story which is what makes me like this book even more!

Thank you for access to the eARC, thank you to netgalley, the publisher and the author.

This is a breathtaking novel about teen love, relationships and hardships, this was realistic and raw and I fell in love with the relationship that developed naturally and beautifully. The writing and thought process was very accurate of the teenage mind and I think this novel is beautiful.