One Past Midnight

Every night just after midnight, Sabine “Shifts” between two lives, living every day twice as two different girls. In one, she leads a privileged life in Wellesley, Mass.; in the other, Sabine lives in nearby Roxbury with a working-class family. Sabine is understandably exhausted by this situation, and begins to consider killing off one of her lives, shifting to the other at the last possible second. After Sabine confesses her double life to her Roxbury parents, they immediately have her committed and put on suicide watch. This puts her in the way of handsome nurse-in-training Ethan, who might believe Sabine and be willing to help. Shirvington (Entice) gooses the premise by placing Sabine in high-tension situations (such as being on the brink of death or being physically abused) just as she Shifts, effectively pausing the fallout for a full day while Sabine spends time in her other life. Conveniences abound, beginning with the close proximity of Sabine’s two lives and concluding with a too-neat ending, which arrives in the wake of a melodramatic twist. Ages 14–up. Agent: Selwa Anthony Literary Management. (July)