Review: Surface Tension

Surface Tension by Mike Mullin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley, Tanglewood and Mike Mullin for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There is nothing that Jake loves more than riding his bike. He is addicted to the speed, banking around tight turns and the feel of the wind in his face. He not only loves to ride, but to race and not only to race, but to win. He needs to win enough races so that the USA team will make him an offer to join them. Jake trains very hard and today he is annoyed that a whole bunch of tanker trucks are lined up along his special route. Jake hears the roar of a plane overhead and all of a sudden, he witnesses the trucks opening up in unison when this horrid smell causes Jake to throw up and smash into one of the open trucks. He finds himself in the front seat of a pickup truck, with two men who, instead of helping him, are trying to kill him. Next, Jake wakes up in the hospital and discovers that along with his other injuries, he has undergone brain surgery. He doesn’t remember anyone, including his own mother and has no recollection of his life, including the day of the accident.

Betsy is 17, the same age as Jake, and lives with her father. Her mother left the family a long time ago when her father was becoming radicalized. Betsy was involved in helping bring down Flight 117 but her goal is to become the first full fledged member of the organization. But she needs to complete one more task before that can happen. It is something her father has been training her for her whole life. She just has to kill Jake.

I really enjoyed the first half of this book. It was exciting and there was lots of fast paced action and Mullin did a great job with the writing. We know that there is some sort of terrorist group whose members speak Arabic and dress up as Muslims, but are just trying to place the blame of the attack onto Muslims. You always had enough information to be interested in the mystery, without the author giving too much away. The story is told in the style of alternating chapters between Jake and Betsy’s point of view and I found that it worked really well. The characters were well developed and you were invested in their well being.

And then, about two thirds of the way through, the book took a sudden shift. I don’t want to reveal any spoilers but the whole thing just became so unrealistic. The actions didn’t seem true to character, there were too many unbelievable things happening, almost like the author decided that the storyline wasn’t enough and he had to add in a bunch of extra stuff in to keep it exciting. I didn’t really respond to the ending and how the whole storyline resolved itself.

Overall I enjoyed the book, except for the wild turn and some parts of the ending. I think that YA’s might enjoy it. One thing I got out of it - Jake made me take out my bike and go for a spin!

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