Life is over in an instant for sixteen-year-old Finn Miller when a devastating car accident tumbles her and ten others over the side of a mountain. Suspended between worlds, she watches helplessly as those she loves struggle to survive.

Impossible choices are made, decisions that leave the survivors tormented with grief and regret. Unable to let go, Finn keeps vigil as they struggle to reclaim their shattered lives. Jack, her father, who seeks vengeance against the one person he can blame other than himself; her best friend, Mo, who bravely searches for the truth as the story of their survival is rewritten; her sister Chloe, who knows Finn lingers and yearns to join her; and her mother, Ann, who saved them all but is haunted by her decisions. Finn needs to move on, but how can she with her family still in pieces?

Heartrending yet ultimately redemptive, In an Instant is a story about the power of love, the meaning of family, and carrying on…even when it seems impossible.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the eARC of this novel! I read the synopsis and was immediately intrigued; eager to see how the ghost of a girl would cope with her family’s disintegration, but also nervous about the reactions of the other people involved in the accident to her death. Little did I know that I was in for so much more than that. I could not have expected the quickness with which the inciting incident happens. It is over in one fell swoop, and it is irreversible. Before I had started the novel I thought that maybe there was a chance that Finn could come back, and that she was just observing the world as her life hung in the balance. This was not the case, however, and as death is in real life, Finn’s departure from her mortal life was a permanent one.

We are given just enough time to fall in love with this character, and even though you know her fate, when it happens, you feel as numb as the others, trapped in the cold. The conditions that Finn’s family and friends were exposed to were extreme but incredibly effective. They are stranded in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a blizzard, most of them not dressed for the outrageous cold they find themselves in. Lines are drawn, sides are taken, and mistakes are made. It is an up close and personal look at how tragedy brings out the best and worst of people. There are things that happen as these characters try to find their way out of this mess that are unforgivable, and it’s sickening to think that someone might actually stoop so low. Suzanne does an impeccable job of showing both sides of the coin, giving us acts of heroism that I, sitting now in my warm house away from the elements, could never consider taking upon myself.

This event is only the beginning, as such life-changing events are. We lose people, we lose body parts, we lose pieces of ourselves. The family that went into the car that night are not the same people who were later found and rescued. Each of them are coping (or not) in their own ways, and Finn watches it all. Her perspective is so bright with life and feeling, and it gives such a real look into the lives of the people she left behind. She knows them better than anyone, so she is able to read them and relay their pain and their future acceptance to us in ways that any other narrator could not. I thought it was so beautiful that she did not leave their sides until they had said their final goodbyes to her, and when she finally knew they were going to be okay.

This book was more heart-wrenching than I could have ever imagined. It was full of raw emotion and truth; and the afterword from the author tells us that this story stemmed from a childhood experience. I can’t imagine how hard this was for her to write and relive, but I’m beyond grateful she did. It’s a masterful exploration of death and grief, and I am so honored to have read it.

5/5 stars