What happened Slide by Jill Hathaway - Recaptains

The basics

Title: Slide

Author: Jill Hathaway

Series: Slide #1

- Slide (March 2012)
- Imposter (March 2013)

Add it: Goodreads

Goodreads Summary:

Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth--her sister's friend Sophie didn't kill herself. She was murdered.

Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn't actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else's mind and experiences the world through that person's eyes. She's slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed "friend" when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie's slashed body. Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can't bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting distant lately, especially now that she's been spending more time with Zane. Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.

Read a full summary of Slide by Jill Hathaway below. If you can’t remember what happened in Slide and you need a refresher, then you’re in the right place.

in short

Everybody thinks that Vee is narcoleptic, but instead of falling asleep, she is actually sliding into people’s bodies. She does this when she’s touching an item that a person was holding/touching while experiencing heavy emotions. A couple of girls from her school seemingly commit suicide, but Vee was actually in the head of the killer when the first one died, so she knows it wasn’t a suicide. She’s determined to investigate. Meanwhile, she starts a relationship with a new guy named Zane, who eventually turns out to be the killer. Poor judgement there, eh?

what happened in Slide?

• Vee has been prescribed pills for her narcolepsy, but has replaced them with caffeine pills since rather than falling asleep, what she’s actually doing is sliding into other people’s heads. She can feel everything that they feel while she’s in there. She has to be touching something that that person was touching while experiencing high emotions.

• Vee comes across Sophie, Vee’s younger sister’s friend, in the bathroom. It’s her birthday, which makes it very sad when Vee slides into a girl called Amber’s head and sees Amber and Mattie, Vee’s sister, bitching about Sophie. Amber says that she has a plan to put Sophie in her place.

• Vee is sitting under the bleachers at lunch, waiting for her best friend – Rollins – to turn up, when she overhears a guy called Scotch (Scott) and a friend talking about something on a cell phone. They’re talking about a “chick” that Scotch apparently “banged”.

• Vee comes across the new guy, Zane Huxley, at the office. Vee walks him to class. Zane used to live in town, before he and his mum moved to Chicago after his dad died to live with his grandmother.

• Rollins makes his own magazine, “in which he reviews concerts and writes articles about the suckiness that is high school.”

• Mr. Golden asks Vee why she didn’t do too well in the test. He offers her after-school help. Later on that day, Vee walks by Golden’s room and sees Sophie sitting on one of the couches, crying. Golden is leaning over her.

• For some reason, Rollins has never invited Vee over to his house, even when she drops heavy hints.

• Vee goes home, and sees a page of a desk calendar taped to the door. Today’s date is circled several times.

• Vee thinks about her sliding, and how she can’t actually remember the first time it happened. But after a few times, she started telling her father that she was sliding into people’s heads, he started sending her to a shrink. Lately Vee has been sliding more often – almost every day.

• Vee and Rollins have a movie night at her house. Mattie and Amber were supposed to stay at home, but Mattie asks if they can go to a movie instead. Vee agrees to let them, even though Mattie is clearly tipsy.

• Vee slides inside Sophie’s head. She sees her crying about Mattie and Amber. They’ve done something terrible to her. Seeing this reminds Vee of how badly she was treated when she was a cheerleader. She went to a school dance with Scotch (Scott), despite her friend Samantha liking him too, and she slid into Samantha’s head. Samantha/Vee watched as Scotch took Vee’s body into the locker room. Rollins ran in and saved Vee before Scotch could do anything more serious.

• Later that night, Vee slides into someone’s head again. This time it’s the killer’s. He’s in Sophie’s room, and is holding a blade. Sophie is lying in her bed in a pool of blood with her wrists slit. Vee comes out of the killer’s head, and phones Sophie’s parents, who go to check on her. Sure enough, Sophie is dead. and everything thinks it’s a suicide.

• Mattie tells Vee that Amber took a picture of Sophie while she was in the shower, and the whole plan to get back at her was Amber sending the picture around school. That’s what Scotch and his friend were talking about by the bleachers. Mattie says that she feels awful because she feels she had something to do with Sophie’s suicide. Vee reassures her but doesn’t let on about it being a murder.

• Vee makes a list of potential killers – Amber and Scotch. Vee realises that the calendar that was taped to the door belonged to the killer. She tries to find it, but her dad has burnt it along with the rest of the trash.

• There are rumours going around that Sophie and Mr Golden were sleeping together. The principal asks Golden about it, and Golden keeps quiet. So Golden is asked to leave. He tells Vee that he and Sophie went to the same church, and Sophie felt that she could confide in him.

• It turns out that Sophie was pregnant when she was killed. The baby was Scotch’s. Scotch didn’t want to know it because he thought it would get in the way of his scholarship. A motive?

• Zane tells Vee that his father killed himself when Zane was three. He also says that he had a little sister who died shortly after she was born. His mother doesn’t like to talk about her, and so he doesn’t know anything about what was wrong with her.

• Vee tells Zane about her “theory” that Sophie was murdered. Zane doesn’t agree. Vee and Zane kiss.

• Vee falls out with Rollins because she doesn’t think he’s been there for her lately. One night, Vee slides into Rollins’ head. He’s on the football field with Amber. Shortly after, Vee’s father tells her that Amber is dead. She killed herself. Mr Golden was at school at the time.

• Mattie’s locker is covered with red paint because people are arseholes.

• Vee takes a figurine from Mr Golden’s classroom, as well as a leather glove that Scotch drops. She tries to use the glove, but instead she slides into Scotch’s father. Realising that she still has the dress from that school dance when Scotch tried to assault her, Vee uses that to slide into Scotch’s head. He’s at the graveyard, talking to Sophie’s grave. He’s an ass, and Vee gets so angry that she controls Scotch’s body and makes him punch himself in the balls. This is new. Vee also sees the grave of Allison Morrow, a baby who died a couple of days after she was born.

• Vee tests this new development on her father, but it doesn’t work. While she’s in her father’s head, he gets a phone call from a heavy breather. Apparently whoever it is has been calling him a lot. Vee’s father opens a draw to his desk that he always says he didn’t have the key for. There’s a folder with the name Allison on it. Vee goes to look when her father is out, and sure enough it’s Allison Morrow. She died shortly after Vee’s father tried to operate on her since she had an anorectal malformation.

• Vee takes a look at the figurine she took from Mr Golden’s classroom. It’s from someone with the initials N. P. Vee slides into Golden’s head, and sees that he’s gone to Amber Prescott’s house. He tells Nora, Amber’s mother, that he’s there for her. Nora must have been the one to give him the figurine.

• Vee slides into Rollins’ head. He’s at his house. He lives with his uncle and his mother, who is in a wheelchair and needs to be cared for and bathed. He has pictures of Amber, Sophie, and Samantha. Vee doesn’t know why.

• Samantha asks Vee to get Mattie to come to her party. Vee agrees as along as Samantha doesn’t invite Scotch. Before they leave, Rollins turns up with his latest magazine. The pictures from his room – the ones of Sophie, Amber, and Samantha – are in it. So that’s what the pictures were for.

• It turns out that Rollins saw Amber the night she died because he wanted pictures of Sophie for the magazine. Amber was very upset. Vee convinces Rollins to go with the police with what he knows.

• Zane arrives at Vee’s house and Rollins leaves. When it’s time for Vee and Mattie to go to the party, Zane leaves, and Vee notices that there’s a red paint stain on the carpet.

• Vee confronts her dad about Allison Morrow, and it turns out that he had an affair with the baby’s mother. While Vee’s mother was still alive.

• Samantha picks Mattie and Vee up for the party. Vee asks to be dropped at Zane’s house so he can drive her over to the party. When Zane doesn’t answer the door, Vee walks into his house and sees a desk calendar with today’s date circled in read. Just like the one that was taped to her front door the day Sophie died. Vee calls Rollins to ask him to come and get her. They drive to Samantha’s house to find Mattie.

• At the party, Vee finds Zane and Evelyn Morrow, Allison’s mother. Evelyn sets fire to the house. Vee gets Mattie out, but Samantha is still inside. Vee runs back in to get her, but she passes out. Rollins gets both girls out because he’s awesome.

• Vee figures out that Evelyn Morrow is Zane’s mother, and Allison was his younger sister. Evelyn went crazy after Vee’s father couldn’t save Allison. She was trying to kill Vee and Mattie.

how did it end?

Mattie goes missing from outside Samantha’s house. Rollins takes Vee to Zane’s house, and she slides into Zane’s head. Evelyn is driving somewhere with Zane in the passenger seat. She’s angry with Zane for trying to save Vee. It’s revealed that Evelyn believes that Vee’s father didn’t save Allison because he was protecting his family – Allison was his daughter too. And Sophie was born the day that Allison died, so that meant that Sophie had to die too. Evelyn didn’t kill Amber, though. Their car crashes into a tree.

The cops arrive at Vee’s house and question her father about Evelyn Morrow. Zane died in the crash.

Vee’s father tells Vee and Mattie about the affair. It was a one night stand, and he really did try to save Allison when she was born. Vee and Mattie forgive him.

Vee tells Rollins about how she can slide into people’s heads. She tells him that she saw him giving her mother a bath. Rollins gets upset and leaves because he feels violated. Mattie later asks Vee if she loved Zane (she did, apparently), and she says that Rollins loves her. Vee writes Rollins a letter, and Rollins comes around.

This is a full plot summary of what happened in Slide by Jill Hathaway. Check out our recap list for more recaps. If you can’t find what you need, you can request a recap from us!