It's been decades since anyone set foot on the moon. Now three ordinary teenagers, the winners of NASA's unprecedented, worldwide lottery, are about to become the first young people in space--and change their lives forever.
Mia, from Norway, hopes this will be her punk band's ticket to fame and fortune.
Midori believes it's her way out of her restrained life in Japan.
Antoine, from France, just wants to get as far away from his ex-girlfriend as possible.
It's the opportunity of a lifetime, but little do the teenagers know that something sinister is waiting for them on the desolate surface of the moon. And in the black vacuum of space... no one is coming to save them.
In this chilling adventure set in the most brutal landscape known to man, highly acclaimed Norwegian novelist Johan Harstad creates a vivid and frightening world of possibilities we can only hope never come true.
*SPOILER WARNING*
Oh. My. God. This may have not been
the best book I’ve ever read, but it definitely made it onto my
‘favorites’ shelf. Now, if you’ve just finished reading it, go
back and reread the ending of the chapter “Departure.” Go ahead.
I’ll wait.
Now, you’ve read it right? Don’t
read on if you haven’t read, or I will totally spoil everything for
you.
Again: Oh. My. God. I had to reread
that chapter three times before I finally got it: the doppelganger
was the one that made it into the escape pod. I feel like an idiot
for not getting it the first time, but I still got it. The ending,
though… It was a BRILLIANT ending, even though I hated that the
doppelganger is just loose on Earth. And the Japanese legend Midori
told everyone that the doppelganger brought up at the end gave me
chills!
Now, about the entire book: it’s
about three teenagers, Mia, Midori, and Antoine, who are sent to be
the first teenagers in space. They go through their tests and
trainings for a few months, and then they are sent into space with
five other astronauts.
I admit that the characters could
have been a bit more detailed, but Mr. Harstad did spend the first
half of the book explaining who they were and what was going on.
The plot was… Oh my, God, it was
amazing. Three teenagers being sent into space and then they
encounter strange things called their doppelgangers mixed with
a Japanese legend, the moon, and suspense just made me immediately
want to finish it, even though it was close to impossible to stick
through the first half of the book. I mean, I was already begging to
read it when I read the summary on GoodReads, but when I bought it
and skimmed through it, I was freaking out about how amazing it
looked. The first chapter was pretty good, and I try not to judge a
book by its first chapter (because I am oh so guilty of judging books
by their covers) but it was hard to stick to. I kept going though,
because I was determined to find out what happened. The turning point
for me was when Mia saw the “6E” on Murray’s jacket. That’s
when I decided, “Okay, I’m not putting this book down until I
finish it.” And I didn’t.
I was so afraid that there would be
a sequel when it got to the middle of the book and they had just
arrived on the moon (the title clearly says 172 hours, which is a
week) and I didn’t know how Mr. Harstad was going to scrunch a week
into half of a book. Plus, I didn’t want to wait a year before a
sequel came out, especially since it was starting to get really good. But, there was absolutely no week on the moon, though I do want a sequel!
One line is stuck on my mind though.
It’s from page 312 of the hardback edition: “There was a man
sitting under the apple tree in the greenhouse. There was no oxygen
left for him to breathe.” Now, by that point, I was close to
crying, just because he had sacrificed himself so that the women
(Caitlin, Mia, and Midori) could get home. And then they didn’t.
At least, none of the real ones did.
And now there’s a doppelganger
that can mock a nightmarish Japanese legend roaming the Earth killing
people and taking their places.
Overall, because of a few things
that I think could have been done better, such as shortening the
character backgrounds, I give it a four and a half.
No comments:
Post a Comment