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squintyfarmer's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Stalking, Car accident, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
stephanie_jmc's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This one started off strong but got a little repetitive and predictable. Giving it a 7.3/10. If it had ended about 50 pages sooner would have been a solid 8.5/10.
A mystery / thriller that is based on trying to find the truth as to what happened the night of an accident where a young girl is killed. The brother, who was driving the car, took 27 minutes to call 9-1-1 and 10 years later, people are still trying to find out why (this isn’t a spoiler - this is basically the description on the back). The story alternates between 5 people and has a little twist at the end - it’s clear what’s going on with about 50ish pages left in the book and that’s why I think the author shouldn’t have dragged it out. It killed the suspense. Up until then I was very intrigued and making guesses about what was true and what wasn’t. I read this book in just under a day so I think that speaks to the level of intrigue. It’s not super complex writing and an easy read.
I think this book would make a great movie. Would recommend to anyone who enjoys thriller / suspense books !
A mystery / thriller that is based on trying to find the truth as to what happened the night of an accident where a young girl is killed. The brother, who was driving the car, took 27 minutes to call 9-1-1 and 10 years later, people are still trying to find out why (this isn’t a spoiler - this is basically the description on the back). The story alternates between 5 people and has a little twist at the end - it’s clear what’s going on with about 50ish pages left in the book and that’s why I think the author shouldn’t have dragged it out. It killed the suspense. Up until then I was very intrigued and making guesses about what was true and what wasn’t. I read this book in just under a day so I think that speaks to the level of intrigue. It’s not super complex writing and an easy read.
I think this book would make a great movie. Would recommend to anyone who enjoys thriller / suspense books !
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Car accident and Murder
astoriareader's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
SYNOPSIS
-Ten years ago, Phoebe Dean, a highschooler, was killed in a car accident on the way home from a party. Her brother, Grant Dean, was driving the car, and Becca was in the backseat. Grant waited 27 minutes to call the police.
-Now, the small town is still remembering Phoebe, and lots of people are still wondering what happened to her. A memorial is scheduled to remember her, and it brings a lot of questions.
MY THOUGHTS
-This was a major snooze fest. Truly, nothing actually happens in this book.
-The writing is not good, and I'm not sure why exactly this needed to be written.
-None of the characters are likeable, which is fine, but they also are not developed.
-The same thoughts are repeated over and over again.
-The ending was not satisfying, and it felt really cheap to me.
-I read so many books in this genre, and this is not one I would recommend. It isn’t even a thriller or suspense.
-Even when we find out what happened to Phoebe, it is not satisfying.
TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️There’s too many books out there. I wouldn’t recommend this one. It isn’t even a thriller or suspense.
Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book is out now.
-Ten years ago, Phoebe Dean, a highschooler, was killed in a car accident on the way home from a party. Her brother, Grant Dean, was driving the car, and Becca was in the backseat. Grant waited 27 minutes to call the police.
-Now, the small town is still remembering Phoebe, and lots of people are still wondering what happened to her. A memorial is scheduled to remember her, and it brings a lot of questions.
MY THOUGHTS
-This was a major snooze fest. Truly, nothing actually happens in this book.
-The writing is not good, and I'm not sure why exactly this needed to be written.
-None of the characters are likeable, which is fine, but they also are not developed.
-The same thoughts are repeated over and over again.
-The ending was not satisfying, and it felt really cheap to me.
-I read so many books in this genre, and this is not one I would recommend. It isn’t even a thriller or suspense.
-Even when we find out what happened to Phoebe, it is not satisfying.
TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️There’s too many books out there. I wouldn’t recommend this one. It isn’t even a thriller or suspense.
Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book is out now.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Stalking and Gaslighting
Moderate: Cancer, Car accident, and Death of parent
maggiespages's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Car accident
Moderate: Stalking
avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
It took Phoebe's brother Grant 27 minutes to call 911 after a car crash on the bridge. On the same night, June's brother Wyatt goes missing. now 10 years later the truth about what happened that night will finally come to light.
If I hadn't been so overwhelmed by the CRAZY of everyone in the book (I say that as a person with multiple mental health diagnoses and an almost complete psychology degree), I would have seen the truth sooner. I did not guess the truth since Wyatt was supposedly there. And it seemed like everyone whose POV it was from had some level of mental illness or was suffering from severe grief. I mean talk about unreliable narrators!
None of the characters were very likable, June, but the rest ugh! The book was okay but not great.
Narrator Rating: 3.5 stars
The narrator did a decent job, but at 2.05x speed she pronounced some words very oddly, not sure if that was supposed to be a regional accent or if it was the speed at which I was listening. She did not do many tonal shifts for different characters. Though she was not too boring either.
If I hadn't been so overwhelmed by the CRAZY of everyone in the book (I say that as a person with multiple mental health diagnoses and an almost complete psychology degree), I would have seen the truth sooner.
None of the characters were very likable, June, but the rest ugh! The book was okay but not great.
Narrator Rating: 3.5 stars
The narrator did a decent job, but at 2.05x speed she pronounced some words very oddly, not sure if that was supposed to be a regional accent or if it was the speed at which I was listening. She did not do many tonal shifts for different characters. Though she was not too boring either.
Elemental Levels: Heartfelt-5/5 Helpful-1/5 Mystery-2/5 Predictability-4/5 Suspense-3/5 Tear- 3.5/5 Thrill-4/5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Vomit, Medical trauma, and Death of parent
Minor: Addiction
The child death is that of a 17-year-old, not a young child.nicolesbookreviews's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug use, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
bellebookcorner's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Twenty Seven Minutes is a suspense mystery told in multiple POVs and dual timeline.
It started with a strong opening with a suspicious set of well developed characters that makes me wonder who to trust.
While it started out great, the pacing turns slower as the story goes building up the suspense with unreliable narrator and also the flashbacks chapters to ten years ago, to the night Phoebe died.
As for the characters, it’s hard to like them. At times, I feel sad toward them but their action makes me feel frustrated as well. But, considering the environment of the house they grew up as well as the pressure from parents and school, no wonder they had a hard time which eventually affected their mental health.
The twist at the end wasn’t really that surprising since I was able to figured out early on before the big reveal.
It ends with the truth finally out in the open, but I still feel slightly unsatisfied with that epilogue.
I really wished it showed more of what happened after the truth was revealed especially to the culprit and also the town’s reaction, instead of only showing one person's reaction.
Overall, for a debut novel this is pretty good. I enjoy reading this intense book despite the slow pacing to build up the suspense from the beginning until the end.
I would recommend this to those who likes a slow-paced character driven mystery drama with unreliable narrators.
I received an advanced review copy for free through Netgalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Huge thank you to the author and publisher!
⚠️ 𝐓𝐖: Death, grief, gaslighting, addiction, alcoholism, brief mention of drugs and cancer
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Car accident
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Gaslighting
Minor: Cancer and Drug use
stephs_cozycorner's review against another edition
3.5
(3.5 Stars)
I will admit I was a bit nervous going into this one because it had quite the mix of reviews. But I always like to make my own opinions, and I am glad I did!
I was pleasantly surprised and was kept engaged from the first to last page. This book kept me guessing with every turn of the page wondering what would happen next.
For the last ten years, the small town of West Wilmer has been wondering why it took Dean Grant twenty-seven minutes to call 911 the night of his sister Pheobe’s death. Someone knows what happened that night, someone who might finally be ready to tell the truth.
𝙏𝙬𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙮 𝙎𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙈𝙞𝙣𝙪𝙩𝙚𝙨 is told over multiple POV’s with flashback chapters to give us glimpses of that fateful night.
It took me a bit to get a grasp on who was who, but once I did it was not hard to follow along with the story. Every single person is unreliable and I didn’t know who or what to believe.
I did have a bit of a hard time with all the characters because if I’m being honest, I hated every single one of them. The only one I kind of liked and felt sorry for was June.
And I felt like some aspects were very repetitive which made the middle drag on a little bit.
But it was because of these unreliable characters that we had some very engaging conversations in our @tandemcollectiveglobal readalong group.
All in all I enjoyed this one and look forward to what Tate writes next.
Pick this up If you like small town thrillers with unreliable narrators.
Thank you @penguinrandomca and @tandemcollectiveglobal for a #gifted copy of the book.
I will admit I was a bit nervous going into this one because it had quite the mix of reviews. But I always like to make my own opinions, and I am glad I did!
I was pleasantly surprised and was kept engaged from the first to last page. This book kept me guessing with every turn of the page wondering what would happen next.
For the last ten years, the small town of West Wilmer has been wondering why it took Dean Grant twenty-seven minutes to call 911 the night of his sister Pheobe’s death. Someone knows what happened that night, someone who might finally be ready to tell the truth.
𝙏𝙬𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙮 𝙎𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙈𝙞𝙣𝙪𝙩𝙚𝙨 is told over multiple POV’s with flashback chapters to give us glimpses of that fateful night.
It took me a bit to get a grasp on who was who, but once I did it was not hard to follow along with the story. Every single person is unreliable and I didn’t know who or what to believe.
I did have a bit of a hard time with all the characters because if I’m being honest, I hated every single one of them. The only one I kind of liked and felt sorry for was June.
And I felt like some aspects were very repetitive which made the middle drag on a little bit.
But it was because of these unreliable characters that we had some very engaging conversations in our @tandemcollectiveglobal readalong group.
All in all I enjoyed this one and look forward to what Tate writes next.
Pick this up If you like small town thrillers with unreliable narrators.
Thank you @penguinrandomca and @tandemcollectiveglobal for a #gifted copy of the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Stalking, Car accident, and Gaslighting
sarakdot's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This was a fabulous thriller with a touch of (maybe?) magical realism? Psychological warfare? Hard to say!! But, I absolutely enjoyed every minute. The beginning was so different from anything I’ve ever read that I knew it was going to be a gripping story. What else was super intriguing to me was that I didn’t particularly think any of the characters were ones to root for but I was still fully invested! This is an amazing debut by the author and I can’t wait to see what she does next!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Grief, and Gaslighting
mrscorytee's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident