Review: 3:59 by Gretchen McNeil

3:59

Author: Gretchen McNeil
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Genre: YA Paranormal
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Release Date: September 17, 2013
Source: Mid-Columbia Libraries
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Add to Goodreads
Buy the Book

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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?

From master of suspense Gretchen McNeil comes a riveting and deliciously eerie story about the lives we wish we had – and how they just might kill you.

My Review:

“You don’t know what you have until it’s gone.” “Be careful what you wish for.” Morals of this story. The main character Josie isn’t having a good week. Her parents are getting divorced and her boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend. Poor girl. Then she starts having dreams about herself living in a perfect, idyllic world. When she discovers that the dreams are actually real and a doppleganger of herself is living a perfect life in a parallel universe, Josie and Jo decide to switch places for a day. Josie is beyond excited. She gets to be with Nick again for one day.

And now I get to the morals of the story. Things aren’t quite as idyllic as Josie’s dreams made it seem. And Jo has conveniently left out many important details about her world. About how Nick is NOT her boyfriend and instead hates her. Jo’s parents are NOT happily married. Her mom is locked away in an insane asylum. Oh yeah and let’s not forget about the Nox, shadowy winged creatures that feed on human flesh. Those might have been good things to know. Josie quickly realizes that she wants to go back to her “horrible” life.

The plot moved at a pretty fast pace. There was tons of mystery and I couldn’t figure a single thing out. The ending shocked me. Never saw it coming. It’s unusual that a book can catch me completely off-guard, but this one did. I was impressed. Josie basically gets trapped in Jo’s world and has to figure out how to get back. There’s a lot of science-y stuff discussing parallel universes and how they work. I didn’t really understand any of it; it was far too complex for me. But I thought it was interesting and definitely made it feel more believable.

The Nox were terrifying creatures. You can’t see them. They are just shadows. The people in this world have no idea what they look like. I didn’t quite understand this. It was explained, but once again, it was a bunch of science jargon that went right over my head. But seriously guys, scary. Maybe they freaked me out so much because they are kind of like birds and birds scare me. They only come out at night so the whole town is constantly lit up. The Grid, a powerful government entity, controls the electricity. Their prices are extremely high and they have been known to shut off the electricity to people’s homes if their bills aren’t paid, leaving them to the Nox. Horrible.

As much as I loved the plot though, the characters fell a little flat for me. I wasn’t super invested in anybody. I thought the relationship was blah. I hated that Josie was so obsessed with Nick. It really bugged me and made me feel like she identified herself with him and wasn’t able to stand on her own. The rest of the characters were just mediocre as well. One of them dies and I just kind of shrugged. Not good.

I also thought that certain things worked out a bit too easily for the MC. She was trying to break into someone’s office in a super secure government building at one point and it just seemed too easy. She’s also really smart. I mean really really smart. I understand that her mother is a scientist, but it still seemed like she knew way more than a high schooler would. But that’s just my opinion. She could have been a child prodigy I guess. But no one really makes a big deal about it. So I guess that’s why I didn’t believe it.

But despite these flaws, I still enjoyed the book. The pace was blisteringly fast and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. The twist at the end made my jaw drop to the floor. I literally sat there going “no, no, no, no, no” because I couldn’t accept it as fact. It was just so surprising to me. This was my first ever parallel universe novel and it was definitely enjoyable. I will be checking out other books like it such as Tandem by Anna Jarzab. Happy reading all!  

Have you guys read this book? What did you think? Did you figure out the ending? Are there any other parallel universe books I should know about?