Author: Nicola Morgan

Publisher: Walker (3rd May 2010)

Pages: 290

ISBN: 978-1-4063-2195-1

Heads or Tails? For most people it’s a simple question with no real or dangerous consequences but Jack is not most people and most people don’t play Jack’s game, or if they do they don’t play it for real. To play for real involves letting the toss of a coin rule the decisions you make regardless of the risks involved.

It’s not his game however but chance that brings him Jess, a beautiful singer who will transform his life, but their luck can’t last forever and during a night of heady recklessness the pair run out of choices and only you (the reader) can determine the outcome, spin a coin – play Jack’s Game and determine, life or death!

Wasted is a book which is so different from anything else I’ve ever read and in a very good way too. It’s told in third person allowing the narrator to explore a wide array of what if scenarios where getting somewhere earlier or later or one innocent decision by a third party can make all the difference in the world especially when you consider all of the knock on events.

I really enjoyed the parts of the book where we see Jack play the game, we get to experience both sides of the coin watching as one path of possible opportunities fade away as the coin decides we will be following another path.

At the end of the book the reader takes an active and very important role, you must play Jack’s game, spin the coin beautifully (or not) – it’s up to you and find out what happens, it really is the difference between life and death adding a real element of risk for the reader. But it’s up to us – we spin the coin and decide the ending.

This review was based on a copy sent by Walker – thank you!

Nicola is currently running a blog dedicated to Wasted (http://www.talkaboutwasted.blogspot.com) which contains extracts, competitions and writing activities which you can try. In addition you can also find information about Nicola currently is on her blog tour and please come back on the 22nd May (this Saturday) when Nicola will be stopping by here.