Fair Coin (Coin #1)
E.C. Myers
Pyr
Published March 27, 2012
Review Copy
Reviewed by Megan
Sixteen-year-old Ephraim Scott is horrified when he comes home from school and finds his mother unconscious at the kitchen table, clutching a bottle of pills. The reason for her suicide attempt is even more disturbing: she thought she’d identified Ephraim’s body at the hospital that day.
Among his dead double’s belongings, Ephraim finds a strange coin—a coin that grants wishes when he flips it. With a flick of his thumb, he can turn his alcoholic mother into a model parent and catch the eye of the girl he’s liked since second grade. But the coin doesn’t always change things for the better. And a bad flip can destroy other people’s lives as easily as it rebuilds his own.
The coin could give Ephraim everything he’s ever wanted—if he learns to control its power before his luck runs out.
I feel like everything I can possibly say about this book would be a spoiler. So…um…read it? Is that enough? No?
Each time Ephraim flips the coin his wish comes true, but always at a cost. With every good thing he asks for he loses something, whether it be his best friend or the girl of his dreams. Eventually he is caught up in a web of wishes, a chain of events that are just similar enough to the life before that Ephraim doesn’t fully comprehend what he is experiencing.
Confused? The book is not nearly as confusing as I am making it out to be. This book is smart and funny and had me on the edge of my seat wanting to find out what would be different after each wish. Things start to become a little clearer when Jena, the girl of Ephraim’s dreams, explains to him the idea of parallel universes. With each flip of the coin he is creating countless other universes where different outcomes occur. While he may fall in love in this universe, in another universe he may not. In another universe he is dead and in another universe he did not find his mother in time to save her. All of time is occurring at once and all of the outcomes are possible. You read this and think, “That is totally what it’s going to be!”
Only you’ll be sort of right. Myers has written a brilliant book that will challenge and entertain you. If you like science fiction and shows such as Doctor Who (which you totally SHOULD), you will love, love, love this book.