Spotlight on Shift by Kim Curran

416 pages

Published by Strange Chemistry

Published September 4, 2013

Find it on Amazon

When your average, 16-year old loser, Scott Tyler, meets the beautiful and mysterious Aubrey Jones, he learns he's not so average after all. He's a 'Shifter'. And that means he has the power to undo any decision he's ever made. At first, he thinks the power to shift is pretty cool. But as his world starts to unravel around him he realises that each time he uses his power, it has consequences; terrible unforeseen consequences. Shifting is going to get him killed. In a world where everything can change with a thought, Scott has to decide where he stands.

As soon as I started reading this, I couldn't put it down. The story just sucked me right in. I loved the male POV. Scott is a really likable character, and I really felt for him. His entire life changes in a second—or in a shift. He alters a choice he made and shifts the reality he's in, which alerts others like him to his location. A girl named Aubrey tries to help Scott stay under the radar and avoid the training he'll be forced to do because of his ability. But Scott makes the mistake of shifting again, and sends himself into an alternate reality that he's not willing to stay in because it means he'd be responsible for his sister's death. 

Scott thinks turning himself over is the answer, so he trains and learns more about his abilities. But things aren't what they seem, and Scott learns about a secret experiment that is killing shifters. He'll have to uncover the truth, save the ones he loves, and try to get the girl.

This story is action-packed and a seriously great read. If you are looking for a good male POV, Scott is your MC.

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Mini-view with Kim Curran

1. If you could SHIFT, what event in your life would you do differently?

I don't really regret much in my life – I'm normally too busy worrying about the future to fret too much about the past. And I've found that even with bad decisions, good things have come out of it, so it's all so entangled I wouldn't want to change it. I would like to perhaps test out making alternative decisions, just to see what might have happened, but only if I knew I could go back again if needed. In which case, my one big 'What If' would have been applying to Oxford like my teachers wanted me too. But I decided against it. I wonder now where I would have been if I had have done. 

2. What was the best thing about writing a male POV?

Interesting question. I never really thought about writing from a male POV. It was always about writing from Scott's POV – he just so happened to be male! So the best thing about writing Scott was his dry wit and self-depreciating humour. I did have fun when writing the sequel for Shift (coming next year) when I asked the men of Twitter to describe what it was like to get kicked in the balls. I shouldn't say 'fun', but it was interesting to try and take those responses and write something I could never experience personally and make it convincing. I hope it's worked! (It totally did!) 

3. What's your favorite food? I'm guessing it's not the brains of shifters. ;)

Peking Duck. I could live on it!