"I'm sorry, but i cannot in good conscience promote this title due to the openly abusive nature of the author on social media towards anyone who has a different opinion than them...

This is an awesome addition to the sci-fi genre: tense (there's a clock down) and full of futuristic technology. Fans of the worlds of Illuminae and Gemina will like this book: there's a visually stunning foreign planet, human space colonies, a fascinating indigenous alien race, and SPACE DRAGONS. And of course the diverse, inclusive cast is great and fun to see in any genre book. In spite of all the technology and whats-it happening, the main focus is on the characters, friendship, family, love and relationships. The world-building occasionally got muddled and there were a few flat character moments when the characters rode a zig-zagging plot wherever it took them, but on the whole, this was fantastic.

I am honestly hesitant to post this review since I have read/heard about the author's behavior on Twitter and it is completely deplorable. However, I will still review this book as honestly as I can.

It's a DNF for me at 30%. I give every book at least 30% and I just couldn't do this one. This book felt like someone took every spice in the spice cabinet, put them all in a pot and asked "What's the worst that can happen?"

My main issue with this book was the colonialist centered POVs. I think that Aimal's review pretty much says it all. To read her review click here: my link text. As an Ukrainian - I have come across racism, probably not as much as Aimal or people of color, but it's there. Furthermore, I have studied post-colonialism and let me tell you the marks which it leaves on the psyche of the individuals and on nations as a whole are disturbing, egregious and long lasting. Colonialism is not something that should be glorified, no matter how diverse the cast of characters is. The fact that this novel had none of the POVs from the occupied species, just made me sick to my stomach. How can one promote diversity with one hand while silencing the voice of another group?

Moving on, the writing was so flowery that I honestly zoned out on a lot of it. I had to read sentences over, and over and over again. Let me just say, I have read Salman Rushdie - the king of beautiful prose - and even his sentences were not as convoluted as these were. It seems like the author made them complicated for the sake of them being complicated.

Honestly, I would have loved the cast of MCs this diverse (w/o their prejudices) in another book, but this disturbing futuristic tale was just not for me. I gave it a month. I am done.

I really loved this book. I loved the diversity in this story and loved just the world building so much. I loved easy the represnrtion was built in the story and all the characters that we meet. We did meet so many characters so sometimes the details of who was connected to who confused me a tad but it was such a fun read. I loved the political elements of the story and also the "powers" these kids had. I loved the unexpected twists that happened in the story and will def tune in of for the sequel book in this series.

Let me just start off by saying that I really respect everyone’s opinion on the POC rep in this book, but I want to give my own opinion on some it. If you want to read more into these opinions, let me refer to this review, which explains everything clearly. The POC characters in this book were lowly developed concerning their ethical background. I completely understand how many POC readers are offended by this, but in my opinion, it does kind of make sense. I understand why Tristina Wright decided to do this. The five main characters of this book live in a colony on a different planet and have a 200-year separation between Earth’s culture and their own culture. The cultural background of the characters faded over many generations.

Nyx supposed that was the ultimate trade-off for exploring the cosmos. They’d gained the stars, but had lost the ground they came from. {Nyx thoughts on her cultural background}
Now that we got that over with, I loved the characters of this book. My favourites were Nyx, who is pansexual, in love with her best friend and Deaf, and Braeden, who is asexual and an amazing friend. I loved the way the relationships between the characters evolved and how some went from disliking each other to becoming friends. The characters were all very distinct and different from each other, they were well-developed and I cannot wait to follow them through more adventures.

“Fine, but when your arm falls off, don’t come crying to me.”
“I’ll just get a badass cyborg one with a gun built into the wrist compartment,” Nyx retorted.
“Smart ass,” he signed.
She stuck her tongue out at him.
I loved the diversity in sexual orientations and none of the main characters are straight. Nyx is pansexual, Dahlia is transgender and bisexual, Braeden is asexual (I think he’s also aromantic but it is not described in the book), Rumor is also bisexual and Jude is gay. I liked how it was not really about their sexual orientation, how it was just a given thing, but still, it explored their orientations quite well. I especially loved the asexual representation, because it is very rare to see accurate representation in a book. As someone who identifies as asexual, I think I can say it was relatively well done, it was not perfect, but perfection is a hard thing to do when it comes to representation. I also LOVED the Deaf representation and the pansexual representation, because those are hard to find as well.

A thing that bothered me a little throughout the book had nothing to do with the diversity or representation. I found it quite hard to keep track of where the characters were in the story. There was a lot happening and there was constant action, but I found it hard to picture where they were. I think that adding a bit more description between the action and dialogue would have really helped me.

Is that where they were now? Not moving. Not going forward. Not backward. Just trying to make it in the now. Hunkering down until the latest storm passed and they could count their dead. Watching the clock until the next dayside. Until those twin suns peered from behind the giant planet in the sky and something resembling peace counted down to nightside.
Despite some things that were less good, I really enjoyed this first book in a new sci-fi series. I think that in the next book, a lot of these issues can be improved and the world can be more developed. I loved the characters and seeing their relationships develop more really excites me. I am giving this book 4 stars because it isn’t perfect, but it’s a great start! I would definitely recommend this book, but to be aware of the controversy surrounding it and the possibly problematic content concerning the POCs and colonial perspective.

“Don’t you dare die, or I’ll resurrect you and beat your ass.”

I was contacted by Entangled Teen to see if I would be interested in a review copy of 27 Hours and as this was already an anticipated release for me there was no way in hell I was saying anything other than yes.

I’d heard so many positive things about this book due to its diverse cast and as I love science fiction I was excited to get started.

From the first few chapters two things are clear to me. One, this is going to be an action packed journey. Two, the praise it was getting for a diverse cast is true and it didn’t feel forced.

I was about half way through and loving the book when 27 Hours blew up on my twitter feed again. This time though it was in a much more negative light. There is no way I can write this review without addressing the important and informative criticism it has received on how it centers on colonist guilt so I’ll direct you to Aimal’s review so you can get a better view of things. I believe Aimal has addressed very important issues and you can’t read my review without hers because the aspects she’s been critical on shouldn’t be swept under the rug. I’m not super eloquent so hopefully I’ve made sense here.

However, I still really enjoyed the book. That isn’t to say the book doesn’t have flaws. Its clearly it does.

I like my books how I like my movies. Fast paced and action packed.
Things I liked:
The characters

27 Hours is from multiple point of views which I find very hit and miss as I think its easy for characters voices and identities to get lost. However I didn’t find this the case for this book.

I really loved getting to know these characters in this format and how there was a clear focus to make sure Nyx was included in all the scenes that feature her, and done so correctly. The mention of signing, or the well too known look of someone not knowing how to converse with her, and many others all made me smile.

The fact that queerness is openly talked about indicating its not taboo made me very happy too. As did the other rep too!

A really huge bonus was how well the characters interacted and connected with each other as one big group but also the smaller pairings too. I thought it was great seeing how each person adapted to their new lives, how differently they fought and viewed their world.
The Plot

As mentioned, I really enjoyed how full of action this story was.

I also liked how this wasn’t a story of good vs evil. Both sides had done bad things, some in retaliation and some in ignorance. Following the story from a younger generations point of view as they uncover the truth about their world and the lies/propaganda their elders have spread felt rather relevant and helped me see how their was still hope for peace.

There was some almost sex scenes on page too! Which I don’t think happens very often in YA. Both were fully consensual and one even had some great puns. (I love puns guys, give me more)

Two of the characters have some special abilities too. Its not fully explained as to why but one can see people’s colours/auras and another can hear the moon speak to them. I think these two additions helped to add another layer to how the story was told, particularly the latter as it connects well with how the chimera experience things too.

Lastly, I guess this falls under both character and plot. There is a mysterious hooded person with no aura. But who is features twice (I think?) and both time appears to be helping the rebels. I’m really intrigued by this person and their importance to the saga overall.
Things I didn’t like:
Timing

The story takes place over 27 hours. *roll credits*

That is the length of one night. I find stories that take place over a day/time like this usually bother me as it makes me question when the characters have time to sleep, eat, shower, and go to the toilet.

There are a few mentions of food and one character even passes out from exhaustion but this was set at night so surely they’re all due to go to bed. I get that adrenaline and fear are things to help but still?
Point of Views

Part of me feels like having the story be told from point of views from humans-only helped in the reveal of the plot, the truth, and how corrupt their military/government its.

But a larger part of me does feel like having a chimeras point of view would’ve helped the narrative too. Even if it was only used after the introduction of the rebels. The chimera are there. They’re interacting with the main characters. So why not?

I think I can forgive not seeing Reaper’s point of view as I think keeping the reader in the dark helps to feel how the main characters feel as they’re uncovering why all this is happening.

I would definitely like to see chimera’s point of view in the sequel though.

I dunno, there is probably more I could talk about but I’m just tired and don’t want to be ignorant? If you think I missed something vital I’m all ears.

To summarise, I really enjoyed this book. I found a few flaws with it but more importantly listen to the book community who’re informing us of much tougher flaws (and way more eloquently than I can ever handle in any review). Some of these characters will stay with me for a while for sure. #IDidn’tGetTearyOverBi+AceRepNope

This was a book that I was really looking forward to. I seriously could not wait to get my hands on this book! The synopsis of the book drew me in and I was so excited to get lost in this book. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into this book. I think a lot of people will love this book, but sadly, it just wasn't for me.

Even though I didn't love this book, there were some things I really enjoyed about this book. One of the best things about this book was the diversity. I SERIOUSLY LOVED THE DIVERSITY IN THIS BOOK!!! THERE WAS SO MUCH DIVERSITY AND I WAS LIVING FOR IT!! GIVE ME MORE DIVERSE BOOKS LIKE THIS ONE, PLEASE! I also really liked the characters in this book. The characters were all unique and extremely interesting. Each character was well developed and they had a lot of growth throughout the story. I know a lot of readers will really connect with the characters and love them to pieces.

One of the things I did not like about this book was the world building. I had a really hard time wrapping my mind around the world the author created in this book. I felt like there was a lot of information in a short amount of time which made it really hard for me to understand. Some of the timelines also were hard for me to really understand. The way the fantasy elements were presented just did not connect with me. I still think the author created a really imaginative world, but I just never got into it. There were also some plotlines that didn't gel with me, which caused me to lose some interest.

I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style. There were some moments of really beautiful words, but most times, it felt too detailed for me. The writing was so dense and detailed at times that I got lost in the words and I couldn't even remember what I was reading about in the first place. However, the author did a great job at writing fast-paced action scenes!

Overall, I don't think this is a bad book. I am sure a lot of people will love this book, which I totally understand! This is just one of those cases where the book was not meant for me.

1 / 5 Fangs

*This ebook was given to me in exchange for an honest review. *

Wow - what a wild ride. Action packed, vivid world and characters who also have unique abilities. My favorite character was Braeden although many of the characters had one liners I loved. Story line was good with a couple twists thrown in. Book ended well with the opening for the next one. I received a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Kudos to the author for creating such a diverse and inclusive cast of lovable characters.  And boy, do these characters get put through the wringer - nearly nonstop action, incredible world-building, tense, heart-stopping moments.  All of this, along with strong themes of family, friendship, and acceptance make for a thrilling, engaging read.  Admittedly, I struggled with the pacing at times - it's a tad over 400 pages - and some of the actions scenes were quite long.

If you're a YA sci-fi fan or searching for #ownvoices books, you can't go wrong with 27 Hours.  Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.

I struggled a lot with this book.
I don't like using the word "unrealistic" while talking about SFF books (and this one is set in the future and in space), but I found it so unrealistic! I'm not only talking about shit ton of stuff happening in a span of 27 hours (which may be believable but kind of wasn't) but also about the overall presentation and instalove.
As for presentation, I just feel like this book was clearly-written-in-2010s-but-trying-so-hard-to-be-futuristic. It's 300 years in the future but here were references to ninja turtles (a classic, apparently) and a lot of current language quirks. I don't know, if it's writing issue or planning issue or it's just hard to write a futuristic-set story in general, but this was my biggest problem.

Now, let me whine at you how much instalove annoyed me. Look, characters (Rumor and Jude) locked eyes and suddenly they're lusting after each other. They spent like less than 24 hours together and suddenly there is "im not here for a quickie I CARE" thing happening. I just don't believe it. I mean, I already feel like requited love is a weird concept, but requited INSTAlove? Seriously, these dudes are absolutely different, they grew up differently, they lived differently, they have absolutely different views, but they see each other, spend like 12-15 hours in each other company and suddenly there is BAM! love? I don't get it.

I also did have some issues with the writing - I couldn't focus on it. I didn't have a full picture. I don't know again, if it's writing issue actually or if my reading comprehension sucks. I also feel like Wright tried a little too hard with writing banter, because it was kinda forced. And, personally, I feel like the writing was very unemotional. I spent the whole book being either irritated or sporting a poker-face feeling nothing. But it's a debut book, so I can let it slide.

I loved some things though! Characters are amazing, they're all different, have their own quirks,opinions and views, which are very interesting to see in dynamics. My favorite character is Jude, and apart from reading very irksome instalove stuff, I absolutely loved his POV.

My biggest favorite thing is queerness though. This book is really queer and it's amazing. I see a lot of people whining that it eclipses the plot, but lemme just tell you bros, IT DOESN'T. While characters do spend some time talking about gender and sexualities, it absolutely doesn't outshine anything. As for representation, there are non-binary characters, transgender character, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, gay, lesbian representation, e.t.c
Also, there are disabled characters, both physically and mentally, which you also rarely meet in books. A-and a lot of PoC characters!

All in all, this book didn't live up to my expectations. I feel like it had a lot of potential but it wasn't executed that well. But I'll give the series a chance and will continue it. My rating is 5 out of 10.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was an interesting sci-fi /fantasy read. There were a lot of diverse characters. ( like a lot of them). The story also uses multiple pint of views which I enjoyed.

27 Hours was probably my most anticipated book of the year. I first got to know about it on Twitter before it had been announced thanks to the author’s #queerteensinspace, so it’s safe to say I’ve been waiting for this one for a long time. Did it meet my expectations? Honestly, not quite, which I can understand in part because my expectations were really high.

I still liked it well enough and will continue reading the series, but this book feels a lot like a debut (and it is). The plot is nice, the writing is good and the characters are entertaining, but the execution doesn’t quite manage to make it all shine as it should. Some of the banter was a bit tiring and I really missed knowing more about the world, and most of the relationships didn’t convince me. I didn’t dislike them, but I didn’t fall for any of them either.

And honestly? The big culprit here is the one right in the title: this book happens in only 27 hours, which is a whole night in the Sahara. I tried, really, but I just can’t understand falling in love with someone in 27 hours. Liking them? Liking them a lot? Of course. But love? Not that Rumor and Jude say the three words, but I felt like they got too close too fast because the initial romancing (?) had to happen in the first book instead of because it was the natural progression of things. Nothing big, but certainly something that made me only kind of interested in their relationship instead of full on invested.

The other thing that bothered me was the worldbuilding, or the lack of it. There is no infodump or anything of the sort, which is nice, but the world – Sahara – feels too thin. The history of humanity’s arrival also felt too sparse and I couldn’t actually follow how everything happened.

Now on to the rep: the more I think about this book, the more confused I get about Braeden’s sexual and romantic orientations. Yeah, he defines his asexuality as not wanting sex, which wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t made clear that’s how it works for him and not for every ace (asexuality is about attraction, not behavior, and yes, lots of aces don’t want sex because they don’t feel sexual attraction, but not having sex =/= ace), but that part didn’t bother me much, to be honest. Which left me puzzled was his romantic orientation. Or how he doesn’t even considers it.

At first, back when 27 Hours had just been announced, Braeden was said to be aroace. Then the author corrected it and said he was only ace and would find out more about his romantic orientation in the book. Which, fine, I get it. Except… he doesn’t? Maybe she meant in the series (which will be a trilogy, if I’m not mistaken) and not the first book in specific, but the thing is, Braeden doesn’t even think about his romantic orientation. During the whole book, he mentions many times that he doesn’t want sex and doesn’t get how everyone is always crazy about it, but not once does he reflects on how relationships can exist without sex (or sexual attraction) and where he fits in all this. I got strong aro vibes from him and really strong queerplatonic vibes from him and Trick, though I’m still thinking that is me projecting. If that’s the end game, I will be really happy, but still puzzled. If Braeden finds out he is aromantic or at least in the aromantic spectrum later, what let him to not question his romantic orientation sooner? Didn’t he know about aromanticism? If that’s the case, why did he know about asexuality and not aromanticism? (Or why did all other queer identities were known, but aromanticism was not?)

Again, this is all me speculating because as far as I know Breaden can end up being bi or gay or hetero or whatever and not aro. But I did feel like he was aro.

Last thing about the rep: Aimal wrote an awesome review highlighting how 27 Hours centers colonialist views since most characters are colonists and even the one who isn’t is still a human aka the alien species aka the invaders. Not one of the POV characters is a chimera, the indigenous species to Sahara.

But now that I’ve talked about the bad and the confusing, let’s move on to the good, or the reason I still liked this book and plan on reading the next volume: 27 Hours is fun, engaging and well, important. Most of its characters are diverse and all of them have well developed personalities. It’s easy to feel for them, to care about them and their problems, and to hope everything will turn out okay for them.

My favorite was Rumor. He was, in my opinion, the most complex of all and the “core” of the book, so to speak. He went through a lot of shit, is (rightfully) angry and is at the same time honest and just good. He’s the main reason I’m interested in this series.

I also loved Breaden and Dahlia (and, well, all of them, but mainly these three) and really enjoyed some of the worldbuilding, like Nyx being able to hear the moon and the tech the characters used. The chimera were also really interesting and I liked how they were not a monolith, each of them having their own personalities and ideologies. Even the antagonist pleased me.

In conclusion, 27 Hours is a flawed debut that still manages to be fun and entertaining, having the most interesting and well developed cast of characters I’ve seen in some time. 3.5 stars.

I am going to decline to review due to the hostility that is brewing about this book. I've read half, and I am enjoying it so far.

27 Hours is a fast-paced queer sci-fi with fascinating world building that made my inner sci-fi geek squeal. While there was a lot of unnecessary exposition, and the plot dragged at certain parts, I mostly enjoyed the novel and can’t wait for the sequel.

By far the best element of 27 Hours is the incredibly diverse cast. Every single character is on the LGBTQ spectrum, and I actually believe that their society as a whole is intersectional and queer. It is very obvious that Wright did her research in regards to positive representation for sexualities and identities, and it still shocks me, in the best of ways, that a book like 27 Hours – a sci-fi fantasy book with bisexual, gay, pansexual, asexual, trans, POC, and deaf characters – even exists. It really shows how far publishing has come.

The main characters, although diverse, did not have especially distinctive voices and were actually a little bland. Rumor’s POV had a tendency to feature the action/fight scenes, and so everything moved incredibly fast and the reader had less time to connect with him, as opposed to the other characters. I still liked him, but I found his POV chapters rushed, which meant I struggled to pay attention and found myself skimming his chapters. Rumor is Nigerian, Portuguese and Indian, and bisexual; and he crushes on Jude, a boy who has been raised with the chimera – or gargoyles as the humans know them.

Jude was protective and loving to both humans and the chimera. The best way to describe him would be ‘soft’, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. He has a big heart and loves deeply. I was a little irked by the speed in which he falls for Rumor – they only know each other for perhaps an hour or two before they both begin to have romantic feelings – but I guess this was necessary considering the entire novel takes place over just 27 hours. I did really enjoy their relationship towards the end of the novel, but the pacing was a little off simply due to time constraints. That can actually be said for a lot of the issues with the book.

Nyx was by far my favourite character and I loved her from her very first POV chapter. She’s chubby, Cuban, deaf and pansexual, and has been in love with her best friend, Dahlia, for almost a year. She’s one of the novel’s strongest characters and frequently puts herself in harm’s way to protect those she loves.

Dahlia, a black Latinx bisexual trans girl, was just as protective as Nyx was, and is probably my second favourite character of the group. Although she didn’t have a POV, the reader interacts with Dahlia through both Nyx and Rumor’s chapters, as Rumor and Dahlia used to date. I just adored the relationship between Nyx and Dahlia and was glued to the page each time they interacted. Nyx could be a little jealous of Rumor and Dahlia’s bond, but she eventually comes to realise that what she and Dahlia have is just as important. Dahlia and Nyx’s growing romance is just beautiful to see develop and I can’t wait to read about them in the next book.

Braeden, one of the novel’s best characters, was asexual. He was loyal, selfless and willing to sacrifice himself if need be. He was the son of the city’s commander and often feels as though he had to live up to his mother’s legacy. Braeden was also cast the group’s joker, although there were many occasions the reader saw his vulnerable side. He used humour as a coping mechanism and a way to keep his true emotions hidden. I really enjoyed his relationships with both Nyx and Dahlia, and it was refreshing to see that this book doesn’t just focus on romantic relationships, but platonic as well.

I thought the world-building was fascinating, although it takes quite a while before everything is explained fully to the reader. Usually, I don’t mind this, but in 27 Hours there were a few occasions where an unfamiliar term was dropped into the text with no explanation until many chapters later.

There are undoubtedly issues with the novel’s world building history, and I have to say I was uncomfortable by the level of prejudice shown to the chimera. One could say this was the author’s intent – especially in today’s climate where there is decidedly an us vs. them mentality – but several characters go through eye-opening experiences as they begin to realise that their deep-seated prejudices are unfounded.

The novel tries to open a dialogue about these significant issues: your ancestors landed on this world centuries ago, to the chagrin of the indigenous species, but it’s your land now too. How do we balance this? What happens now? These are the questions 27 Hours attempts to answer, but in reality only scratches the surface. It would be remiss of me to not say the question that is on everyone’s mind: is Tristina Wright, a white author, even qualified to answer these questions? Remember what happened with Laurie Forest? This is something I think many readers should be aware of before they read this book.

It is also probably important to note that for the humans, issues of culture and ethnicity no longer exist between them. That has been left behind on Earth, as Nyx frequently explains, and the most humans ever talk about it is to find out where they come from, because they’re simply interested.

27 Hours is an interesting novel, but all in all I found it quite average. There are important issues the novel attempts to address, but ultimately doesn’t. The representation was amazing, but I still felt a few characters to be bland and similar to each other. If you’re interested in queer sci-fi, definitely check this book out. Just make yourself aware of the problems beforehand.

DNF - 43%

Even though I don't agree with anything the author says - I received this copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley - I told myself that I was going to do my damn best to separate the art from the artist and read this book as I would any other book. I was doing alright, the beginning was actually really good, it started right into the action, no punches held back at all and I enjoyed Rumor, he's pretty damn badass.

Then we kept switching POVs and Nyx (LOVE the name!) was kind of mean, I get it, she's lived a hard life but when she flipped off the guy just for trying to make sure she understood what he was saying... that's not cool. That made me dislike her, not to mention how when her best friend/crush was going through some hard stuff all Nyx wanted to do was make out with her. Didn't like her character at all.

There are other characters but I've got my point across with just naming these two. Now, while reading this book, I can tell you the color of every single characters' skin, if they have a disability, and their sexuality. I can also tell you that Rumor's parents are dead. That's it. 43% into the book and that's it.

How is that character development? I mean, we are way more than our skin color, our disability (if we have one), and what our sexuality is. I don't want to be known to people as the "white Apache bi-sexual girl with the really severe nerve damage". I am more than that, I love to read, I am a mother, I was a straight A student, I was class president in 8th grade. I love to write. I am overly nice to people, even when they are mean to me because I just can't help myself. I am scared of spiders. I am shy till you get to know me and then I never shut up.

These are the things that would've helped me connect to the characters, that would have made me feel invested in them and want to know more. I don't connect to a character because of their skin color or what they are sexually attracted to.

Honestly, it felt like to me that the author was just trying to add things to check off a diverse list. Which I hate. I want diversity, I want to learn more about other cultures and the people that live in them. I want to read about all kinds of different characters. I want true diversity, like what we have in the real world. The kind of diversity I see every single day when I go to work.

So while some will praise the diverse characters in this story, I think it falls short, they are nothing more than what label the author gave them. They don't feel real, they just felt like a checklist. Guess that's what you get when you read a book by an SJW author.

I don't recommend this, not only because I think the book was lackluster but because the author isn't the nicest person around and doesn't like anyone who disagrees with her. There are much better books out there if you are seeking more diversity. Books that don't feel fake and are just trying to get browny points from their fanbase.

As I always do with books I DNF, I will not rate it as I only rate books I read in full. Though I'm sure you can tell from my review what I would rate this book if did.


It will go live on my blog - 10/03/2017
http://sweetcherry69.blogspot.com/

It also will be on my Tumblr to - 09/25/2017
https://midnight-on-blake-lane.tumblr.com/

27 Hours is book one in the Nightside Saga and its one hell of start. 27 Hours starts explosive and does not let up. 

In the midst of a war loyalties are divided, peace seems unattainable and love might be found only to be ripped away. 

We have Rumor Mora, Jude Welton, Nyx Llorca, Dahlia Adams and Braeden Tennant making up the main cast. Each of these characters are really well flesh out and vivid, with their own desires and wants. You can imagine these people living their lives outside of the book. 

For me what was so magical about the book was the sheer amount of queer characters and how normalised it was. Rumor is bisexual, Nyx is pansexual, Braeden is asexual, Dahlia is transgender and bisexual and Jude is gay. A wealth of side characters are also queer. More books like this please! There's diasbility rep and PTSD rep among others. 

The twists and turns were all executed really well. 27 Hours keeps you on your toes and guessing about what might be coming next. I am so excited to see whats going to happen next.

27 Hours is one of those books I’ve really been looking forward to. The author’s presence on twitter sparked this for me. The start of the book made me hesitate on if I would like this book, but once it grabbed me it would not let go.
Right from the start we get thrown into this world that we know nothing about and into action with only little offerings of explanation. I had to do a little double take with that. It was a little jarring and I struggled to get a good hold on the world initially. But as the action slowed down we got more explanations and I was finally able to be taken in by this book.
27 Hours is a sci-fi and dystopia, set about 200 years or so in our future I believe. But this group of people is no longer on Earth. They have colonized a planet that has 27 hours of night. It is during one night that this book takes place. It is interesting because it has a lot of different things. There are obviously the small dystopian aspects to this story, the -to us- aliens, but also these interesting paranormal powers within some of our characters. It makes for an interesting mix of things to follow along. But the reason for coming here and things like that are still vague and I really hope that we will get more answers to that in the next books.
Writing wise this book is mostly strong and focuses on four point of views. However I do have a bone to pick with some of the first chapter openings for each character. As they had basically the same set up and that just didn’t really work. Unnecessary and a bit gimmicky.
The characters are diverse. There is deaf, pansexual, asexual, gay, bisexual and lesbian representation throughout the book that was great to read about.
The characters are well developed. One of the things that made me take a liking to his book was them and their interaction and (developing) relationships. There is a certain humor and snark throughout, especially with Rumor and Braeden that I love. I took an instant liking to Braeden because of this. Rumor took some warming up to but that has to do with the situation we met him in. Jude gave us a different look on things as he was on the rebel side. He was so cute (and hey, partially Dutch so obviously he is awesome by default). Nyx was the only female point of view and I felt that she fell a little behind compared to the boys. I hope she will get more attention towards her arc and powers in the next book.
There was some delicious on page chemistry between these characters and I am totally on board for Rumor and Jude.

I struggled to write this review, probably more than I have in a while for a book. Part of this is because I've seen backlash on lower rated reviews for 27 Hours and there are SO MANY higher ratings that I thought that I was crazy for not enjoying this one as much as other readers have. And before I say anything more I want to add in a few disclaimers.

First, this review is not a reflection on the author as a person. I don't follow them or keep up with what's going on in regards to their work or this book. I received 27 Hours for review and that's it. Second, I cannot say whether the rep featured in this book is good or not because I am not a part of any of the groups mentioned so comments on the rep should be considered with that in mind. And finally, I read for entertainment. A book can be beautifully diverse and not entertain me, and that's where I sit with this one.

I generally like to start off with the characters. 27 Hours bounces between four different points of view. Each character is not only culturally and racially unique, but they also feature a wide variety of sexualities. It's honestly amazing. We need more of this in fiction, especially SFF. Again, I can't speak to the rep but I can say that I think the character diversity was my favorite part of this book.

But while you could write a detailed character bio for each one, I never cared about them. For all the diversity, the characters fell flat for me. I see this happen a lot when a book features multiple PoVs, especially right off the bat (compared to series that introduce more as the story progresses). I guess I never really understood why we needed this many perspectives, especially when none featured a character from the other side of the story's colonist vibe. Furthermore, this book seemed to be so focused on the diversity that it lost the story, the world, everything else that I would look for as a reader.

Now, you probably think I'm crazy. Too much diversity? No, that's not what I'm saying here. My point is that it felt like the characters became their respective diverse representations but that's where the development of their personalities and backgrounds stopped. I saw this with Sal in Mask of Shadows as well. To offer a contrasting title, Marie Lu's Warcross is not only beautifully diverse but it was written in a way that the story is fully fleshed out and engaging, and the various representations are as much a part of the book as the story and world. Nothing is sacrificed there.

Characters aside, I had issues with the world-building and the pacing. I'm picky about my science fiction. I want to feel that this world is real. Humans colonizing a new planet in the next couple centuries then forgetting where they came from? Unrealistic to me. The fact that we teach history in school NOW, for starters, makes me question if the timeline for this story should have been more removed into the future. Yet the writing style, the language used, it gave me the sense we were in the present day, not the future. I felt like this world was a lot of surface with little depth.

As for the pacing, we're thrown right into the action from Chapter 1. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there wasn't enough time spent on introducing the opening character (Rumor) so all of these things are happening but as a reader, I'm not invested in the character to care whether they make it out of the conflict or not. This became a reoccurring problem when the chapters moved between characters so quickly that I never latched on to even one of them to invest in their future. No matter how good or bad a story is, the characters make it or break it for me. If I can't get behind the characters, I can't get into the book.

So. In short, 27 Hours did a great job at bringing diversity to YA SFF but the execution of the story left me wanting more. I think this book had the potential to be amazing but didn't quite reach it. I'll reiterate once more: this is a reflection of the book, not the author. I was reading for enjoyment and I didn't get that, unfortunately.

I received a copy of 27 Hours via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.


I went into 27 Hours full of anticipation and excitement. I was left with a little bit of a dullness that is hard to pinpoint. As has been stated before, 27 Hours had fantastic representation on many levels, albeit it has some racial rep issues that have been noted already. There have been many reviews talking about representation in this book, and while those are all worthy discussions to have, none of it factored into my 2 star review.

A book can have all the representation in the world, and still suffer from subpar world building and vague writing. For me, this book was a miss. I am a huge fan of Science Fiction, but this book failed to deliver what good and great SF accomplishes often, which is the wonder and total envelopment into a world that isn't quite our own but that could be, one day. Instead it felt forced, vague, and extremely rushed. It is by no means the worst book I've ever read, but I did feel like it was ultimately a waste of my time.