13 Minutes

13 Minutes

Sarah Pinborough

Goodreads Link
Book Depository Link

American Release Date: October 3rd, 2017

I received this as an Advanced Reader Copy from Flatiron in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

I don't know where to start when describing this book because it's not like anything I've ever read. Now, granted, it's not exactly in the genre I read, and that certainly has something to do with how much I enjoyed it, but it still really defies a description. It's a dark and moody British high school drama that features a cast of rather despicable characters doing mean things. The whole time it keeps you second guessing who to trust and also wondering what actually happened the night Tasha died for 13 minutes.

There are some characters in literature (*cough cough* looking at you ASOIAF) that are so evil and so awful but so well written that you can't help but absolutely love them as characters if not people. Basically every single person in this book is that way for me. It's not on the scale of some epic fantasy, but perhaps because it's based so much in the real world did it feel creepier and more awful when they did things. Basically, these are the mean girls- they ditch friends when they get bored, they create and spread rumors when they dislike someone, they steal boyfriends when they hate someone- that high school dramas warn you about. Except, from my own experience, these felt very real and very much like some of the people I went to school with. Even working with what could be very stereotypical character traits these are all well-defined and three-dimensional characters. The three barbies- Natasha, Hayley, and Jenny- balance well against each other and felt like they had not just a history with each other but also that there is a tension between the three of them. Becca, the narrator for the majority of the book, is also incredibly believable... all the way until the end. I liked Becca a lot, and I felt incredibly sad for how insecure she was, but at the end it's like a switch is flipped and she becomes some sort of uber-sleuth, which I couldn't believe. A caveat for the reader: even though she's out protagonist you're not going to be rooting for her the way you normally might.

Because this is a mystery/thriller there's not much I want to say about the plot lest I give it away, but I can tell you all about the writing which is just so absolutely beautiful. It was delicate and evocative all at once, capturing the lines of a character and then taking it a tad further to make it real. Even as awful things were happening I couldn't help but love what I was reading because of the spell the words seemed to be casting. I don't think there are specific quotes I find beautiful, since it's not, in a way, a beautiful book, but it's the mastery of the language and text itself that are so engaging. I turned every page eagerly and stayed up late into the night just to read it for the sake of reading, alongside reading it because I wanted to know what happened next.

TL;DR? Rather dark and moody but definitely a great YA thriller to pick up if you're in the mood. You're not going to walk away with a favorite character but you'll be able to appreciate everything, particularly the beautiful and engaging writing.

"Mean Girls for the Instagram age." --The Times (London)
The New York Times bestselling author known for her thrilling twists is back:
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.
Natasha doesn't remember how she ended up in the icy water that night, but she does know this--it wasn't an accident, and she wasn't suicidal. Her two closest friends are acting strangely, and Natasha turns to Becca, the best friend she dumped years before when she got popular, to help her figure out what happened.
Natasha's sure that her friends love her. But does that mean they didn't try to kill her?


13 Minutes is a psychological thriller with a killer twist from the #1 internationally bestselling author Sarah Pinborough.

Sarah Pinborough is a critically acclaimed adult and YA author based in London.

Sarah was the 2009 winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story and also the 2010 and 2014 winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Novella, and she has four times been short-listed for Best Novel. She is also a screenwriter who has written for the BBC and has several original television projects in development.
Her next novel, Behind Her Eyes, coming for HarperFiction in the UK and Flatiron in the US (January 2017) has sold in nearly 20 territories worldwide and is a dark thriller about relationships with a kicker of a twist.


You can follow her on Twitter @sarahpinborough

Cover linked to Goodreads; cover, description, and author bio taken from Goodreads.
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