“If I were a conscientious student, I would be studying for my chem quiz instead of sitting on a window ledge, chain-smoking. But it was beautiful outside- clear, starry, kind of chilly. I loved the way the air in Brentwood smelled on nights like this. it was crisp and still and promising, and if you closed your eyes and inhaled deeply enough, you could even fool yourself into thinking you were catching a little whiff of the beach five miles away. So much better than the aroma of the high school, which smelled like old food, new money, and competition. And phoniness. So many fake people. sometimes I wondered if a real feeling actually existed in this city if you could trust the words of anyone here. I sure as hell didn’t.”

That is the first page of Jennifer Browns’ Shade Me. A novel in which Nikki Kill finds herself trying to solve an assault case, though she is a senior in high school, who is struggling with passing her classes enough to graduate. She has synesthesia, a phenomenon in which her senses overlap. For example, when she is scared she sees bumpy grey and black. Basically, it connects everything with colors.  

My personal review