E. C. Myers

A teenage boy discovers a coin that can change his life with every flip in this Andre Norton Award–winning sci-fi fantasy for young adult readers. Sixteen-year-old Ephraim Scott is horrified when he comes home from school and finds his mother unconscious at the kitchen table, clutching a bottle of pills. The reason for her suicide attempt is even more disturbing: She had just identified Ephraim’s body at the morgue that day. Among his dead double’s belongings, Ephraim finds a strange coin—one that grants wishes when he flips it. With a flick of his thumb, he can turn his alcoholic mother into a model parent or catch the eye of the girl he’s had a crush on since second grade. But the coin doesn’t always change things for the better. And a bad flip can destroy other people’s lives as easily as it improves his own. Now Ephraim must learn to control the power of the coin before his luck runs out. Winner of the 2012 Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Finalist of the 2013 Compton Crook Award and 2013 British Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer (the Sydney J. Bounds Award)

Fair Coin

Eugene C. Myers

When evil versions of himself and best friend Nate appear one day, teenaged Ephraim embarks on a dangerous odyssey through parallel worlds to make things right.

Jessica Nottingham

From the start of Fair Coin I was enamored with Ephraim. He made this book for me. Here is a character who is so easy to relate to that I genuinely cared what happened to him. His friend Nathan was the same way. These two are the epitome of nerds, and I loved that! Their friendship is palpable and, even when it changes, that link is there. I happily followed Ephraim as he made wishes and changed his world. Of course I'll admit that I kept wondering when something bad would happen. I've read enough to know that things like this come with a consequence or two. Still, when it did happen, I was taken completely by surprise.

That my friends, is exactly when the book gets really interesting! When Ephraim discovers what the coin is really about, what it really does, the book blossoms into something brand new. I refuse to spoil this for you, and so you won't hear from me what happens. What I will say is that I applaud E.C. Meyers for taking such an abstract concept and putting it so simply that I was able to stay immersed in the story. It's almost like two separate stories were merged seamlessly into one. At this point I was glued to the pages. I warn you, this isn't a book you can read only a chapter at a time.

Another thing I wholeheartedly loved about Fair Coin were the moral dilemmas that pop up in this book. It's going to be a bit hard to explain without spoiling, but I'll try my best. Imagine that you could have anything that you want. Would that make it okay to take it? What if what you wanted caused someone else to loose something that they already had? These are the type of issues that Ephraim comes upon in this story, and I can't say enough how much I loved the way that E.C. Meyers addressed them. His characters have a conscience, and it made all the difference in the world.

As you can tell from this long, rambling review, I really loved this book! Fair Coin is a refreshingly unique read. It's a story that takes you from fantasy into science fiction and back again, and it does it seamlessly. I loved the characters, I loved the concept, and most of all I loved how immersed I was in the story. Thank you to E.C. Meyers for changing up my YA reads! When the second in the series comes out, I'll be there to devour it. You can count on that.

Fair Coin

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