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. 

 

 

⚠️ 𝐓𝐖: Death, grief, gaslighting, addiction, alcoholism, brief mention of drugs and cancer