13 minutes by Sarah Pinborough Review

13 Minutes: The twisty turny YA psychological thriller you will not be able to put down

Buy Link 

https://amzn.to/4wwCCwW

Blurb 

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?

Review 

Well that's my Thursday done 😂.

I picked this book up from an Auckland little library at the Viaduct.

And WOW 😳. This is not my usual genre, but the blurb piqued my interest and I read the first 3 pages and I took it home to read.

So first I it was going to be a little like the movie Mean Girls ( which I actually watched last week on TVNZ+)

This was definitely more twisty (OMG the plot twists kept me on the sofa ALL DAY)

This book captures all the toxic traits of 16 year old girls... (I felt very attached to Becca, her character being more like my old insecure teenage self)

The storyline is told in multiple POV, diary excerpts, and text messages.

This format really kept me on my toes until the author wanted me to doubt the scene opening on the page.

I was definitely swept back into the past, as the author really did capture the highschool cliques, the  intense, manipulative nature of those who were at the top of the social hierarchy (l was very lucky to go to school BEFORE SOCIAL MEDIA) l only have to look at my granddaughters social media to see how it can be weaponised.

The book is fast paced, kept me totally engrossed, and trying to find the truth of what happened keeps the tension high, so much so that I've read this book in one day ( good job I didn't have much to do 😉)

I could easily see people I knew at School , as I read the book, the characters having very realistic insecurities as teenagers tend to do.

The 'Barbies' were very typical of the narcissistic queens who thought that the world revolved around them.

This book did a good job at creating the narrative of all the dark stuff that goes on in schools.

It deals heavily with bullying, manipulation, and betrayal, this book was highly engaging, quite dark and the mystery of what really happened was definitely a twisty plot reveal.

Although this is a YA Thriller, if you enjoy tense, character-driven mysteries where everyone is a suspect, it is well worth a read.