Of all of Abby Cooper's books, this one was our least favorite, but it was still pretty awesome and an intriguing premise that many fantasy books that feature full-blown telepathy, ironically, rarely focus on: that we lie to ourselves all the time. Our "thoughts," much less the thoughts of others, are not always to be trusted.
Sophie Mulvaney sneaks out of the apartment one night to peer into the window of her mom's latest ex-boyfriend and sees … is that really a thought-bubble, complete with three little bubbles leading to the words, over his head? What the …!? How is this possible? And is it good or bad that the man in question misses Sophie and her mom?
Because her mom's been depressed to the point of not being able to get out of bed since the breakup, and she's quit her job and …yeah, the problems are mounting as fast as the bills.
Then Sophie starts seeing the thought bubbles at school, hanging over the heads of other students, and suddenly, middle school is a minefield! Well, it was before this, but now it's really a minefield because Sophie knows what everyone is thinking! And thinks she can act on these thoughts.
A particularly troublesome thought bubble reveals she and her best friend have crushes on the same boy. Or she thinks it does. Because really, does any middle school kid know what they're doing, much less thinking, from moment to moment in school? It's a time of exploration, of trying things on for the sake of trying them on, and discarding them later, as Sophie painfully learns.
Because not everyone's thoughts are to be believed. Some of us even lie -- extensively -- to ourselves. They go so far as to live in a fictional world. The possibilities for misunderstandings, if our thoughts are read by strangers, are infinite.
I wanted to see the author go even further exploring the ramifications of this "power" than she did with this one, but it's a gentle read while dealing with complex emotions: depression, jealousy and general middle school angst.
Enjoy!
