Sarah Pinborough

They say you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but when you're a teenaged girl, it's hard to tell them apart. Natasha's sure that her friends love her. But that doesn't mean they didn't try to kill her. Does it?

13 Minutes

I was dead for 13 minutes. I don't remember how I ended up in the icy water but I do know this - it wasn't an accident and I wasn't suicidal. They say you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but when you're a teenage girl, it's hard to tell them apart. My friends love me, I'm sure of it. But that doesn't mean they didn't try to kill me. Does it? 13 MINUTES by Sarah Pinborough is a gripping psychological thriller about people, fears, manuiplation and the power of the truth. A stunning read, it questions our relationships - and what we really know about the people closest to us . . .

Addie 🌻

** spoiler alert **
           Well, that’s wasn’t a fun ride....

Before I start this review I just want to say a couple things: 1- I did NOT go into this book wanting to hate it. It was quite the opposite in fact I wanted to enjoy it!! But as you can see from my rating that wasn’t the case. 2- The following review contains MAJOR spoilers for the book so it would probably be best to read the book before consuming this lengthy rant.

With that all out the way onto the review....

Let’s start with the plot/story line. I did enjoy the premise of the story as mentioned above and it was interesting to see how the author let it all play out. I thought I knew what was going in but nope I was none the wiser, which was fun. I just wished that the ending had some more closure for Hayley and Jenny, I would have liked to have known how they sorted themselves out, if they even did... Speaking of the end of the book wtf was that?? I was SO MAD when I read it and realised that Natasha died like ughhh I wish she didn’t just so she could be jailed and the families got justice. But had she not died she probably would have been released later in life and killed more people who tried to leave her so maybe that ending was better. I can’t decide to be honest.

There were some plot points that I just didn’t like in the slightest. My main issue was what happened to Hannah. Oh my, that poor girl deserved so much better than she got. It felt like to me that the author cared about her as much as the characters in the book did, which was zero. No one in this book liked or cared about Hannah. She was forever being branded as a “nobody” and to me it felt like she was just there to move the story on further for our other characters.

At one point in the story after we thought it has all been solved I found myself wondering why wasn’t the story over? Of course it was because there was still more to unwrap but I just felt it could have been handled better. As with many things in this book. With is a good segue into my next issue with the book; all the illegal and underaged drug use and drinking. To me the author totally glorified it and I DESPISED it! I don’t like reading about parties as the best of times but that wasn’t the even the main problem with this book it was need to constantly question if Jenny was high or not because she did it so much. And to have her do it at school. Nope. That’s where I draw the line. There wasn’t really any need to have all the main characters smokers it’s unrealistic to me, personally.

Now, moving onto the characters. Oh my life. Teenagers, ew. I’m not long out of high school myself so I remember what it was like but only just, I have blocked the memories of that place but anyways. Every time I read a book about teenagers at high school I feel like I had a completely different time. Don’t get me wrong, I was the “Hannah” in my year so I wasn’t involved in all the drama and drinks but still I don’t ever remember seeing or hearing girls being at each other’s throats like that, Christ. Maybe I’m just wanting to make this an issue when it doesn’t have to be but that’s on me. This book has really set in stone for me that I will no longer be reading book about teenagers that are set in high school because man do I HATE the drama!! 

But anyways, back to the characters! None of the characters in this book were great except Hannah and Miss Borders (the art teacher). Everyone else can CHOKE. 
Let’s us start with Rebecca. She was really irritating to be honest. It was annoying to see her just drop Hannah when Natasha came waltzing back into the picture. And her need to be there for Natasha was pathetic, she was so quick to forget about everything cruel that was said to her just so see could be “relevant” again. Ugh. On the plus side I liked how she was EVENTUALLY able to figure everything out. But to be honest if Natasha hadn’t dropped Becca AGAIN then I don’t think she would have started seeing the flaws of it all. 
Up next we have Natasha known as “the barbies” and yikes what a nut job she was. Her whole plan was so f***ing crazy I couldn’t believe she did all this just to get back at two people all because they didn’t want to her mate anymore. Like jeez, as if Natasha hasn’t been dropping people whenever she didn’t need them anymore, I guess she didn’t like getting a taste of her own medicine.
I could go into detail about all the other characters and what I didn’t like about them but to be honest I only really had an issue with those two and Jenny. She’s was a poor soul that was dealt a bad hand but the sounds of things. But, that doesn’t mean she can just shag her teacher. Like good lord. I read a review but someone else and they felt that the relationship between Hannah and Mr Garrick was glorified and I suppose in a way it was. Hayley knew about the relationship and did nothing to stop it, between the two of them it was okay because at long as Jenny passed maths then who cares right?? ... WRONG!! For once in this book I actually agreed with Natasha when she told them it needed to stop. I just wished she’d gone about it better.

Another thing I had an issue with was the bullying and fat shaming but I can’t disagree with the author on this. Both those things are super common in high school no matter what.

I think I have more or less covered everything I wanted to say. I’m still in the early stages of writing reviews for books so sorry if this isn’t very well structured but I just needed to get all this out.

I was dead for 13 minutes. I don't remember how I ended up in the icy water but I do know this - it wasn't an accident and I wasn't suicidal. They say you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but when you're a teenage girl, it's hard to tell them apart. My friends love me, I'm sure of it. But that doesn't mean they didn't try to kill me. Does it? 13 Minutes is a gripping psychological thriller about people, fears, manuiplation and the power of the truth. It questions our relationships - and what we really know about the people closest to us.

Sofia Arcângelo 

A fascinating psychological thriller where the dog is the real hero! 🐶 A story about mean teenager girls, with characters so unlikeable, except for the musician and the dog Biscuit that saves helpless girls from drowning.
This book was addictive, I just had to read another chapter, and another, and another. It was so entertaining and hard to understand where the plot was heading, and the end really blew me away. I just wish that we had some closure to what happened to some characters in the end, aside from that it's an amazing YA thriller!

Marta C

Erin Russell

3.75/5 stars. The characters were so unlikeable, like even the character you’re supposed to feel for is just so selfish and dense. The plot was good though. Kind of guessed the final twist in the beginning but assumed I was wrong. Came around in the end though.

Alaia

** spoiler alert **
           Hoooolllllly shit. 

When I was about 80% into the book, I was disappointed. The big climactic reveal had seemed lacklustre and predictable, and I didn’t understand why people seemed to like it so much. 

But then I kept reading. 

I am shaken to the core. Natasha Howland, A* student who plans everything, who never loses to anybody, played me like a flute. 

What I loved most about this book is how it didn’t have any unrealistic parts written meant to fool the reader. It absolutely did fool the reader, but it was all seamlessly planned, showing the reader in real time the intelligence of Natasha Howland instead of just telling it to us. 
For example, I realised that we never actually read Tasha’s actual perspective until Becca begins to unravel the truth. All we ever read was her diary entries, and, like everybody else that Tasha fooled, we believed every word of it. Like pawns on a chessboard.

And that ending was fantastic. It was chilling to the bone, a perfect finish to this novel. 

4.5 stars—not a full 5 because of how long it took to get to the good bits!

Britt Jansen 

Malin Alexander

Loved this book, the suspense was really well built, and the twist was definitely a surprise! 
On the cover of my edition it says "mean girls for the instagram age" but I would rather compare it to Heathers actually!
Only disappointment was the ending - there was no "new equilibrium" after the resolution and I really wanted to know what would happen to the characters afterwards...

Paige Green

Rating: 3/5

Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller

Recommended Age: 15+ (death, statutory rape, twists and turns)

Pages: 406

Author Website

Amazon Link to Order the Book

I received a free copy of this book through KidLitExchange. Thanks KidLitExchange and Gollancz. All opinions are my own.

Again, another mystery. These seem to really be hit or miss with me and I feel that I can’t find true equilibrium with mysteries nowadays. So I was a bit hesitant going into this book. This book is about a girl named Natasha who is found dead in a river, but is revived. She has memory loss and there is a big black hole as to what happened to her. Her two friends, Haley and Jenny, are acting suspicious and her ex friend Becca is dealing with relationship drama. You follow through the story to find out how Natasha ended up in the river. I liked how well developed the characters were and I found the overall plot interesting, but those are the only things I really enjoyed about this book.

I felt that this book had a lot of faulty police work, which bugs me the more I see it in these books and I felt that the pacing was a bit too slow for this book. I also felt that this book could have been a great mystery novel, but it was told way too early in the book what really happened and the rest of the book felt like it dragged on for me. But then again I’m really picky with mysteries so it might have just been my pickiness.

Verdict: If you want a book about friendship and romance that harkens back to Pretty Little Liars, then this is the book for you.

Ciska van Bokhorst

Wat komt dit boek sloom op gang. Pas op tweederde van het boek begint het een beetje leuk te worden.
Het plot vond ik op zich goed. Wilde toch wel weten hoe de vork in de steel zat. Maar vond de uitvoering niet zo sterk. Het blijft voor mij allemaal een beetje vlak en langdradig. En had totaal geen klik met de hoofdpersonages en zelfs een beetje moeite met het drugsgebruik in dit YA boek.
De opbouw van het boek met de artikelen, verslagen ect vond ik wel wat hebben.
Viel voor mij dus enorm tegen..

Nadia Leontescu

Man this book was a wild ride with a lot of plot twists that I did and did not expect. It was definitely sad and intriguing at the same time!

Kate

I have very mixed feelings on this book. On the one hand, it was an intense, gripping thriller that kept me guessing from start to finish. On the other hand, I disliked every single character. They were nasty, cruel and I didn't care for them at all but I'm assuming that was mostly intentional, considering the book. There were also examples of homophobic and ableist language being used and the constant focus on weight, dieting etc was something I didn't enjoy in the slightest. Trivialising and demonising eating disorders and mental illness doesn't add anything to a character or plot and I'm 100% over it. So yeah, I don't really know how to feel about this one. I was close to putting it down at times but my intrigue and need to know got the better of me. Overall, I enjoyed the mystery and the psychological thriller aspect. It's rare that I don't predict the ending but if you're going to pick this up, I'd definitely be aware that there are regular instances of potentially hurtful and upsetting language. 

(TW: Eating Disorders, Ableism, Homophobia, Slut Shaming, Body Shaming, Trivialisation of mental illness such as eating disorders and suicide)

13 Minutes

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