Julia Kononenko Kononenko itibaren Le Bouchet-Mont-Charvin, Fransa itibaren Le Bouchet-Mont-Charvin, Fransa

I almost gave this book a 5...it was that good. I really loved how there was no hope and I mean NONE! But they got to a place where I had hope. Great writing. I really really found myself wanting to return to it and find out what would happen.

Nineteen Minutes takes you into the minds and histories of several key players in a high school shooting, including the shooter himself. I read this book much too closely to reading Picoult's The Pact, so it was difficult for me not to find overwhelming similarities between the two books (and to find this one less interesting).

This book is short and aimed at a YA audience, so it was definitely a quick read. I kind of loved it though. The story is about a girl named Delaney who is a 17 year old senior one semester away from graduating as valedictorian of her high school in Maine. Then one day tragedy strikes. While crossing a lake with her best friend Decker the ice breaks and she is underwater for 11 minutes before Decker and her other friends manage to rescue her. Miraculously, even though there should be no way that she survived, it appears that Delaney not only survived but came out of the ordeal virtually unscathed. However, she begins to notice that things are not quite right. She seems to have returned from death with a new disturbing ability. She then meets Troy, who also seems to share her "gift", but his motives in befriending her are not clear. She also struggles to deal with what is going on in her life while maintaining the relationships with Decker and her parents that she once had. Even if you're not a young adult I highly recommend this book. It was a quick, engaging read that I didn't want to put down.