Alive

Written by Chandler Baker

Narrated by Christie Moreau

Stella Cross's heart is poisoned. After years on the transplant waiting list, she's running out of hope that she'll ever see her eighteenth birthday. Then, miraculously, Stella receives the transplant she needs to survive.

Determined to embrace everything she came so close to losing, Stella throws herself into her new life. But her recovery is marred with strange side effects: Nightmares. Hallucinations. A recurring pain that flares every day at the exact same moment. Then Stella meets Levi Zin, the new boy on everyone's radar at her Seattle prep school. Stella has never felt more drawn to anyone in her life, and soon she and Levi can barely stand to be apart.

Stella is convinced that Levi is her soul mate. Why else would she literally ache for him when they are apart?

After all, the heart never lies . . . does it?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Release date: Dec 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781549190803

Chandler Baker

Chandler Baker grew up in Florida, went to college at the University of Pennsylvania and studied law at the University of Texas. She now lives in Austin with her husband and two young children, where in addition to writing, she practices corporate law. Chandler has ghostwritten a series of YA novels that have sold over one million copies, and her first novel for adults, Whisper Network was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick and a New York Times and international bestseller. Follow her on Instagram @chandlerbakerbooks and Twitter @cbakerbooks or visit her website at chandlerbakerbooks.com

Reviews for Alive

[kbranfield-837433 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fans of horror stories are absolutely going to love Alive by Chandler Baker. This young adult novel starring seventeen year old Stella Cross is a deliciously eerie and spooky thriller with supernatural elements. It is an utterly outstanding debut novel that I recommend to readers of all ages.

Stella's two year wait for a new heart has finally ended and she has successfully undergone transplant surgery. Although fully recovered from the surgery, she is plagued by a searing pain in her chest that occurs every day at the same time, but all of her tests have come back normal. Ready to get back to regular life, Stella returns to school where she begins dating new student, Levi Zin. Much to her surprise, when she is with Levi, the horrendous pain in her chest disappears. However, her friends' begin to grow concerned about her when she begins acting out of character, but it is their observations about Levi's behavior that worry her. It is not until her bizarre hallucinations start coming true that Stella becomes truly frightened. She then turns to her good friend, Henry, and they uncover shocking information about Levi.

Stella handles most of the changes in her life with grace but once she meets Levi, she slowly becomes obsessed with him. In the beginning, she wants to spend time with him because of their strong attraction but then she realizes when they are together, she is blissfully pain free. Stella does not question this strange phenomena too deeply especially since Levi opens her up to new and exciting experiences. While she feels twinges of guilt over how badly she is treating her friends, she becomes deliberately hurtful when they try to talk to her about Levi. It is not until she attends a party with Levi that Stella realizes that her friends have been right all along and at long last, she delves into Levi's past.

Stella has an amazing set of loyal friends who easily forgive her despite how badly she treats them. Brynn is no nonsense and honest to a fault. Henry is the only guy in the mix and while their feelings for one another run a little deeper than friendship, the timing has never been right for their relationship to turn romantic. They share a love of all things paranormal and Henry is the logical choice for her to turn to when she needs help getting to the bottom of the mystery surrounding Levi.

The supernatural/paranormal aspect of Alive is extremely well written. Stella's bizarre experiences are initially easy to discount because the visions are so fleeting. Her hallucinations become more vivid and frightening but they are still infrequent enough that she continues to ignore them. It is not until her visions start coming true and she is plagued with nightmares that Stella is forced to confront her growing fear that an otherworldly influence might be responsible for what is happening to her. After her investigation hits a dead end, she turns to Henry for help and together, they learn the horrifying truth about Levi and her connection to him.

Alive by Chandler Baker is a riveting young adult novel with a unique and well-written storyline. The characters are multi-faceted and superbly developed. The supernatural element is brilliantly executed and fans of the genre are going to love how this aspect of the plot plays out. An positively marvelous debut that I highly recommend to anyone who loves reading horror stories.

[brandileigh2003 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3 stars (I Like It)

I wanted to read Alive because I am drawn to books about teens dealing with illnesses. Heart transplants are also something that I have been very interested in, especially when the cell memory theory is thrown in, which is what the pain reminded me of. I figured she was experiencing things with the donor's death possibly, and the connections of him since the heart is such a personal organ.

I liked the strength of Stella, how she faced such hard things and still managed to have an attitude of facing the world, and focusing on getting back to school and regular life after being sick for so long. She has a sort of boyfriend Henry that she talks to and whose been texting and been there for her, but they haven't really been defined mostly because of Stella and her reluctance.

Family is a focus, even though of course Stella feels at times that her mom hovers and worries too much and also doesn't understand her. You can tell that Stella loves her toddler sister, but she also jokes with bitterness about her being the replacement or upgrade child since she was born after Stella got sick with the cardiomyopathy which is what landed her needing the transplant.

It does take a mysterious turn with the pain that she feels and like I said earlier I thought might be related to the death of her donor I really wasn't expecting a paranormal fantasy type explanations to be behind the mystery of the book but it makes sense even though it takes it out of the category of contemporary.

I like part of the romance for this one but not all of it. I wasn't fully convinced either way until the book was almost ending, which was fine because then it was sweet and it gave it feeling of the second chance love kind of thing for me.

I did like how the book ended it was fitting for the story and actually pretty upbeat which is a little surprising considering how dark it was at one point.

Disclaimer: I received this book as an ARC (advanced review copy). I am not paid for this review, and my opinions in this review are mine, and are not effected by the book being free.


Bottom Line: Enjoyable read with blend of contemp and fantasy element.

[cherylk_44 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I thought this was a good book. I was expecting for it to be darker than it turned out to be. I did not really find what was happening to Stella to be that scary. The moments were quick flashes without real explanation behind the images that things happening to Stella. I did want some more detail.

Then there is the romance between Stella and Henry. It was sweet but I did not find it added anything to the story as a whole. I thought that it was nice that Stella had Henry by her side as a friend, which if they had stayed this way would have been fine with me.

I found that the whole story really came together in the last eleven chapters of the book. This is where the action and the intensity built up and got exciting. Also this is where my details of everything that was happening to Stella was explained.