Author: Marieke Nijkamp
Series or Standalone: Standalone
Genre: YA Thriller/Contemporary
Publication Date: 5/1/2016
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Star Rating: 3.5 stars
GOODREADS
Synopsis -->
10:00 a.m. The principal of Opportunity High School finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.
10:02 a.m. The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.
10:03 a.m. The auditorium doors won't open.
10:05 a.m. Someone starts shooting.
Told from four different perspectives over the span of fifty-four harrowing minutes, terror reigns as one student’s calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.
I keep changing my rating because I have very mixed feelings about this. Firstly, I stayed up into the early hours of the morning reading this because I couldn't put it down. It was completely gripping and horrific and I just had to know what happened. However, I felt as though some of the characters (especially the shooter) were very underdeveloped. I have personally never experienced a school shooting, but some of the things that characters did/said seemed completely ridiculous and unrealistic to me - for example one of the characters confronts the shooter and says 'You know, sweaty chic does't suit you'. Like, what????????? If there was the possibility that you were about to be shot, that's really what you would say? You wouldn't be shaking in your boots? That just didn't make sense to me. But like I said, I was hooked from page one, and I didn't think I would be because the entire novel spans only 1 hour, but through the different perspectives there were expertly placed mini-cliffhangers and you had to wait until you got their perspective again to find out what happened.
The novel also has a very 'black and white'/'good vs evil' stance which I don't necessarily agree with either. I think I'll keep it at 3.5 stars for now because of how it kept my eyes glued to the book until the very last page.
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