3:59 by Gretchen McNeil

3:59 by Gretchen McNeil
Release Date: September 17, 2013
Publisher: Balzer & Bray
Source: Borrowed
Star Rating: ★★★
Rating: Enjoyable

Josie Byrne's life is spiraling out of control. Her parents are divorcing, her boyfriend Nick has grown distant, and her physics teacher has it in for her. When she's betrayed by the two people she trusts most, Josie thinks things can't get worse.

Until she starts having dreams about a girl named Jo. Every night at the same time—3:59 a.m.

Jo's life is everything Josie wants: she's popular, her parents are happily married, and Nick adores her. It all seems real, but they're just dreams, right? Josie thinks so, until she wakes one night to a shadowy image of herself in the bedroom mirror – Jo.


Josie and Jo realize that they are doppelgängers living in parallel universes that overlap every twelve hours at exactly 3:59. Fascinated by Jo's perfect world, Josie jumps at the chance to jump through the portal and switch places for a day.

But Jo’s world is far from perfect. Not only is Nick not Jo's boyfriend, he hates her. Jo's mom is missing, possibly insane. And at night, shadowy creatures feed on human flesh.

By the end of the day, Josie is desperate to return to her own life. But there’s a problem: Jo has sealed the portal, trapping Josie in this dangerous world. Can she figure out a way home before it’s too late?

Josie crouched behind the photon laser module and aligned it with the beam splitter at the other end of the lab table.

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I am a little bit disappointed by 3:59. Everyone should know by now that I love stories about parallel universes. Since they starting springing up in YA last year, I have been hunting them down and trying to get to as many as possible. It's a great trend, as is the time travel one, and I am so pleased that the science fiction genre is blowing up. But... 3:59 wasn't all that great.

Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Ten by Gretchen McNeil
Release Date: September 18, 2012
Publisher: Balzar + Bray
Source: Bought
Goodreads Stars: 4
Rating: Essential
Buy it: Amazon UK

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine? - Goodreads

Minnie's face was deathly pale.

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I'm fairly certain that most people think I'm slightly disturbed when I announce my fascination with death, murders, etc. I can't help what I love, and creepy stories or murder mysteries tend to draw me in. I love having no clue who the killer is, and struggling to put the clues together before time runs out. So when I heard that Ten is a novel about a bunch of teenagers who get murdered while on a creepy island, I was all over that. Unfortunately, due to the ridiculous pricing, it took me a while to get to it.