13 Minutes

I don't really read Thrillers, but my best friend does. Every now and then, she throws one my way to read. She received 13 Minutes as an ARC from the publisher  because she read the author's adult novel, Behind her Eyes, and wrote the author to tell her how much she loved it. The problem is, 13 Minutes is YA. My friend vehemently doesn't read YA.

But she read it! She asked me to read it for a second opinion since she's not familiar with the genre. I don't read very much Teen Fiction--mostly just Fantasy--and most of the problems I had with this book are the reason.

13 Minutes is about a girl named Natasha who is found dead on a river bank. They revive her, but she was dead for (pause for dramatic effect) 13 minutes! Natasha doesn't remember how she got into the lake. She knows it wasn't a suicide attempt, so it seems to be foul play. The story is told from the third person with a mix of diary entries, police reports, and news articles thrown in.

Natasha is one of those 'most popular girls in school' type people. And not one of the super nice, friends with everyone type. The school calls her and her two best friends, Hayley and Jenny, the Barbies. They rule the school and make or break others' reputations. But when Natasha wakes up in the hospital, it isn't the Barbies she asks for; it's Becca Crisp, the childhood best friend she dropped. Becca is on the fringe of the social ladder at school. She's a bit rougher around the edges, has a 19 year old boyfriend, and only one real friend at school. So when Natasha starts paying attention to her again, it makes her feel pretty good.

Natasha knows something must have happened the night she was found, and she suspects Hayley and Jenny. They've been talking about her and hanging out with her behind her back, and they'd been fighting a lot before Natasha's accident. So she asks Becca to help her figure it out. They start hanging out together more. Becca starts ditching her other friend to see Natasha, which causes friction between them.

The whole first half of the book was painful to sit through. I tend not to read YA Fiction because I don't care about teenage mean girl drama or the romantic relationship drama or the angsty 'I feel sorry for myself but I'm hiding it by acting out' drama. And while I am aware that some teens relate to it because that's what being a teenager is, I personally, do not care to read about it. Just not my speed. So, I did not enjoy most of this book. The second half of the book, where you really get into the meat of what happened and Becca has nothing but solving this mystery on her mind--that almost made up for the first half.

So it was not a failing on the part of the author that I didn't like this book--it was just a matter of reader preference. Others may really find it compelling.

But me-I'm off to find a good fantasy!