Out of My Mind by Pat White was one of those books I came across while reviewing the lists in Netgalley and it sounded super interesting. This story is about a girl (Catherine) who was hit by a car and has suffered a traumatic brain injury and is now a completely different person than she was before. Where the story kind of lost me was more around the pacing, the characters, and some of the unbelievable situations.

Catherine is the girl who had everything before the accident. She was popular, a cheerleader, and the quarterback was just about to ask her out. Now, she can’t even remember what she needs to take with her when she leaves the house every day. Obviously this is a struggle for her. As Catherine attempts to figure out who she is now, she is also coming to terms with the idea that her accident has given her access to visions (past and future) and she doesn't really know what to do. I liked her and I thought White did a great job portraying the struggles she had with not only the changes in her life but also the things that were impacted by the change in Catherine, including her relationship with her friends and parents.

J.D. lives across the street and is seen by everyone as a delinquent and troublemaker. He also happens to be the person who hit Catherine with his car and the reason why she almost died….or so we are told. J.D. has secrets and is doing whatever he can to make sure no one finds out what they are but as he is put together with Catherine more and more often, she begins to find out more about him and it definitely changes her view. I though J.D. was a solid character. I felt his pain and struggle and thought White did a great job pulling the reader into his story and understanding what he was really going through and ultimately, why he did what he did.

I thought the pacing was a bit off in places. At the beginning of the book Catherine clearly hates J.D. but very quickly her mind is changed and they seem to have this somewhat antagonistic relationship and then all of a sudden they realize they are in love with each other. I just didn't believe it….I was happy for them because clearly he had no one and none of her friends really knew her anymore but it didn't feel right.

Also – everyone was on J.D. about the fact that he was trouble but other than the accident, there wasn't much proof that he was, in fact, a delinquent. And why was he completely to blame for the accident if Catherine was wandering in the middle of the road…and why was she in the middle of the road. I am missing some backstory that would help a bit in providing clarity around everyone’s perceptions.

Greg was a mystery to me. I know through the one vision that Catherine had we were supposed to get a sense of him but being picked on as a kid doesn't explain his level of twistedness in my opinion.

I thought the idea of the story was great and it is ultimately what intrigued me in the first place. The idea that a brain injury could impact more than just someone’s memory and actions is something I find interesting and the way that White tied the story back to these high school kids was great. While there were some things that pulled me out of the story, there were some things that were done well and for that, I give this a 2.5-3 star rating.

Thank you to Netgalley & Joy Creek Press for the review copy.