I want to start by saying that I really liked this book. It was one of my most anticipated 2017 releases, and I literally screamed and danced around when I was approved for an ARC.

 

At the end of the review, I’ve included some links to other blogs, including one from Tristina.

 

The good…

Wright’s writing is fantastic. With every scene, every character, every place, I felt like I was there and could see and hear it all. The descriptions were great. Every character really stood out, too. I never had the issue of confusing two of them, like I’ve experienced with some other books with such a huge cast. I’m really hoping that in the next book we’ll have more time with more chimeras, because I’m so freaking interested! I want to know everything about them and the different kinds. A couple were explained in 27 Hours, but there’s so much more to learn about them, and the moon. Oh. My. Gods. The moon, you guys! I don’t want to say much so I don’t spoil something, but holy crap it’s awesome and I want to know more! There are other things I really want to know more about that involve at least two of the characters and the moon and the chimeras, but I don’t want to talk about that because ~spoilers.~ But I’m really hoping it’s addressed more in the next book, because I need answers! (It’s not really a plot-hole kind of lack-of-answers, it’s just a really good thing to not fully explain in book one so it can be explored more later in the series.)

The diversity in this book is the best I’ve ever encountered, and I want a thousand more books with rep like this or better. We have multiple main POC characters, a bisexual deaf character, a couple of gay characters (if I remember right), a pansexual trans character, an asexual character, a lesbian couple and a gender neutral (I think, so please correct me if I’m wrong) character. There were probably more, but I stupidly didn’t take many notes about anything because I read this in like a day and didn’t think about it. So, A+ for diversity, I think. (But definitely check out other reviews from people whose voices count more than mine for things like the POC, deafness, ace, trans, and gender-neutral reps, because I really can’t make any comments or judgments about those. I’ve been seeing some not so positive comments about some of these reps since I read the book.) I can’t speak for most of the rep, but omg the pansexual character. My ❤ I had to take short breaks a couple of times because I related so much to what she was going through. What she experienced captured so well how I felt for a while in high school and shortly after, and it felt so good to finally see some pan rep in a book. I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this, and I wish this book had existed when I was in high school.

The romances were so. freaking. cute. I’m usually thinking something like, “Ok, ok, I get it, they like each other, blah blah blah, can we get back to the story, now?” when I read a book with a romance sub-plot. Not so with 27 Hours. Honestly, I loved the romances. The puns from one character almost killed me, though. (I related to that, too.) From the very beginning, I was rooting for the couples as well as the individual characters. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted book characters to get together and be happy as much as I did while reading this book.

This book is action packed. Like, from the first couple of pages, it barely lets up until the very end. This is about a 400 page book and I almost read it in one sitting. (I read it during a read-a-thon, but that’s still not normal for me.) There are constant threats of danger, fight scenes, escape scenes, just…so much action. I was literally on the edge of my seat for a while, my eyes flying over the words as fast as they could to find out if everyone made it out of whatever situation they were in. It was intense, but awesome.

And the not so good…

All that said, I have been sitting, thinking about this book and how to review it for a couple of weeks because I had mixed feelings.

When I first started this book, I liked it. Very soon, I loved it. But, the whole time I was reading it, I kept thinking something was a little “off,” or at least something made me feel a little weird. The idea was a confused, insubstantial thing in the back of my mind until I came across a couple of reviews that put it into words far more eloquently, I’m sure, than I can. This is a story of, essentially, human settlers vs the native beings (called “chimeras,” or, the derogatory term “gargoyles”) of a moon far, far from Earth, and the war they’ve been fighting for a few decades. I remember thinking it reminded me of something, while I was reading, but I read it so fast I didn’t really process it until later. It reminds me of European “settlers” fighting with and stealing land from indigenous people all over the place here on Earth.

Looking back, it kind of bothers me that all the perspectives in the book are human characters, and there are no chapters from the chimeras’s POV. That might not be the case with the next books, I don’t know. I just wish there’d been at least a few chapters from a chimera’s, or multiple chimeras’s, POV. At no point, that I remember, does it come across that the actions of humans against chimeras are justified or anything like that, though. The issues of the colonization are addressed in the book, pretty directly, I think. It might not be perfect, but it’s not brushed aside or ignored.

Another thing that just confused me was how all the people seem to have gone from varied cultures from all over Earth to being very Westernized and speaking one language (“the human language”), as far as I remember. This is set in the future, but I don’t remember there being any indication of how far in the future it’s set. There are mentions of where people’s families came from on Earth, and what things are left that their ancestors brought with them, and I just think it’s a little weird that they would have all adopted one language and forgotten their old ones and their customs and traditions and stuff. (There were a couple of words that weren’t in English, like one character referring to her “abuela,” so some things from Earth and the other languages still exist, apparently, but not everything.)

I also don’t remember race (with humans) really being addressed much, other than indicating POC  or white characters. So…is racism and all the other nasty prejudices on Earth right now, no longer part of this universe? Because of the human-chimera relations, prejudices obviously still exist. But there’s never any mention of racism, homophobia, etc. with humans. Did we actually manage to eventually, in however many years in the future this is set, get past it? Is it just that way with the settlers on that moon? Maybe I’m over-thinking all of this, idk, but I have questions. (It’s also possible that I missed some explanations in my binge read.)

Lastly, while I thought the world-building was very good, there were times when I was really confused for a while. I think I eventually caught up because things were explained later, but the characters are, in my opinion, more developed and stronger than the world-building. That didn’t bother me too much because I usually prefer character driven stories, and I struggle with extensive world-building sometimes (I can’t keep track of everything, etc.), and I didn’t feel the world was under developed by the end. It’s just been left open enough for going deeper in subsequent books.

 

So…

I really, really liked this book, and I’ve been talking about it a lot. Is it perfect? No, but what book is? I think Tristina Wright did the best possible job she could, and it’s pretty clear that she put in the work for the reps in this book. You can’t please everyone or capture everyone’s identity in one book, because everyone’s experience is very different. I personally felt a connection to a couple of characters in this book at various points, but that doesn’t mean everyone will have the same experience.

I’m torn between 3 & 4 stars, but I’m leaving it at 4 for now, I think. Maybe I’ll say 3.5 stars.

I will most likely read the next book, and probably count down days to release day after we get an official date. (It’s going to be a while, I’m sure, since this one just came out on the 3rd.)

This was probably the hardest review I’ve ever written, and I’m still not sure I managed to say what I mean. I tried, and all I can do now is direct you to other posts from people who can talk about the things I can’t.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I'm just going to level with you, this book did not work for me for a number of reasons. Despite that, I think Wright had a good idea. I applaud her for what she tried to do. Ambition and personal agenda seem to have outstripped writing experience here though.

27 Hours tells the story of a group of teenagers who live on a lunar colony, on a forested moon at the outer reaches of human explored space. All of the teens are queer and/ or poc and/or differently abled. The indigenous species, the Chimera - or slur term Gargoyles - are attacking the colonists in what amounts to an ethnic cleanse, spurred on by their leader and decades of unjust treatment at the hands of humans. (Yes it's making my teeth hurt to write that but bear with me.) As you can guess from the title, it takes place in 27hrs - the amount of time a cycle of darkness takes to complete on the moon. We're never given the name of the moon or the host planet. I assume that since an hour is literally a segment of evenly divided time of one complete revolution of planet Earth, that the colonists are using Earth standard hours otherwise to say that a dark cycle takes 27hrs is meaningless because it is set where a revolution of the planet or satellite body may be different - and clearly is if you get 27hrs of darkness and the same of daylight... I'm digressing but seriously if you're going to write a sci-fi novel do your research.

The fact that it's set in a 27hr time period ultimately makes the novel structurally unsound for what has to happen in the plot. I won't add spoilers but basically 27 hrs is a laughably short time to do in character development what has to be done. Not least are the romantic subplots which swarm and overtake the flimsy main plot.

The romantic subplots are a problem on two levels. For one thing, everyone who rolls their eyes at instalove in YA fiction should be up in arms about this. It literally is instalove in Rumour and Jude's case - or instalust at least. Let me put that in context. Rumour has lost a parent, run miles and is ready to drop with exhaustion, fended off a 'dragon' attack and many other things, yet the first thing he thinks of when he meets Jude is 'damn get me some of that'. He's just seen his entire city slaughtered and lost his dad, why is he thinking about dating opportunities?!

The more insidious and more disturbing level is that the main plot attempts to treat with something serious. Namely the issues surrounding colonialism. The big problem here is that the issues are not in fact explored at all. There is no pov from the indigenous species perspective, we are entirely supposed to sympathise with the colonists or at best the 'woke' forest rebels. It feels like the romantic subplots have been allowed to take over in an attempt to cover plot deficiencies by dangling 'great rep' and 'queer romance' in front of us. And it doesn't work because as I said it takes place in 27hrs and this makes the romance unbelievable. A war is going on and mid battle the MCs are thinking how hot their crush is. Add to that the fact that Rumour, who is black and half Nigerian, is the most vocally racist against the chimera and it's a really uncomfortable experience. And not uncomfortable in a making you think way, just uncomfortable. To add to that the two characters who most try to talk him round are both enlightened, white males... I'm just going to leave that there.

You can see the author has worked really hard to include all kinds of diverse representation. I do applaud this. All teens should be able to 'find themselves' in a book. Nyx for example is Pansexual, deaf, chubby and mixed race. Dahlia is bi, trans and mixed race. Braeden is ace. Rumour is black, mixed race and bi etc etc. At that point it really does feel like a minority tick box exercise. This is bad. If a character is not a fully rounded character but a collection of minority rep points, how is that good rep? There is a small but vocal contingent of the far right sneering at the need for diversity in fiction and offering this sort of rep adds fuel to their otherwise toothless arguments. Another point I would make is that if a character who is diverse rep can be removed from the story and replaced with one who isn't, then that's not really good rep either. This is noticeable with the the poc characters most of all. They are removed from their respective cultures, separated by a gulf of 100 yrs or so and now live in this supposedly very tolerant society but cut off from their origins. How representative of poc is it if you remove culture and custom, replacing them with a society and language clearly based on western models? Perhaps that's why we needed large amounts of implausible romance and Braeden's out of place ruminations of being ace (including one lecture on what it entailed in a break from the fighting that completely knocks the reader out of the story)? Because if you are making a character's gender and sexuality a reader hook then you have to prove that in the narrative. I want to see more ace characters. I want to see more diversity of all kinds, but they still have to be fully formed characters or you are just taking minorities and making them unique selling points and if you to that without backing it up with good writing and strong plot, then there's something almost exploitative about that.

Looking at the narrative itself, it just wasn't very well constructed. There was the shoddy main plot - which the author appears not to have done the work and research to really do justice to, there was a flimsy world build leading to the characters having to do more heavy lifting which would have been fine if the characterisation had been strong. It wasn't. And unfortunately it contained a few of my pet peeves too; flat dialogue full of info dump exposition being a prime example. Moments when the author stopped the story dead and practically addressed the reader was another.

As an example:

'Nyx smoothed down a piece of Dahlia's afro which was legit and not an excuse to touch her hair."

For context Nyx and Dahlia are close friends and Nyx is in love with Dahlia. It took a gesture that woul be normal among girls and friends and made it weird. Plus I also started wondering if the author was doing some kind of PC satire at that point.

There were things I liked - Vala, George - both Chimera. The chimera babies flapping around the forest village. Jude and Braeden - although the fact that the two white male protagonists were most sympathetic was problematic in itself tbh.

I also know some people like to be dropped right in the action from the start and I am all for that if we are allowed to connect with the characters. I don't feel we were given a chance to and that especially showed in the action packed ending where unearned payoff exploded onto the page. It didn't matter because by then I didn't care about the characters at all.

Ultimately this just doesn't work as a book. For me it doesn't work in terms of diversity rep - although I genuinely believe the author's intentions were good at the outset. I know I rant about this but say it with me: Story is King. First and foremost you must have a story or there is no tensile strength to hold up the scaffolding for all the issues and rep you want to bring to the table. I am genuinely sorry I didn't like this one more.

This was a fast paced sci-fi with action galore. I felt like the pacing was too quick. The book starts off throwing you straight into action and the action doesn't stop. It took me a while to get through the book because I kept having to put it down to take a breather. It was very intense. 

The writing was great. There were many sci-fi elements that were awesome. I would have liked to have more back story as to why the humans were fighting the aliens, but the story was well done. 

This was a great break out novel for Tristina Wright and I can't wait to see what she writes next.

'27 Hours' is fast-paced and absolutely packed with action scenes. These kids just don't stop. But that makes the down-to-earth moments even more beautiful. I've been so lucky with ensemble cast books this year, and '27 Hours' has to go down with Ryan Graudin's 'Invictus' as one of the best. The fact this is a fantasy debut is also incredibly inspiring, since the diversity was EVERYTHING. Practically everyone on the LGBT+ scale was represented, there's also disability rep with the potential for even more in the sequel! This is how you do it, people. Inclusivity is important, It makes readers feel important. I wish I could go back to the beginning and savour it all over again, I can't wait for this serious to continue because the drama didn't stop, and the final page was no exception.

I couldn't get into this book, the writing was not for me, so I did not finish this novel.

I'm happy to say that the hype is very well deserved! As a sci fi fan I appreciated the nuances of the world and the HUB systems. While at times I was confused by the narrative and some of the names etc, places, by half way I understood where we were and what was meant to be happening. 

The personal and chapter-led goals, on the other hand, were sometimes a little bit fuzzy for me. I didn't speed-read this - I don't think I can, actually -  and I know it's an ARC so things will change by the time of publication, but sometimes I didn't quite grasp character motives.

Did I care? No. Cause the characters were unique for me to devour this until 2am in the morning. (that's late for me, I have work!)

I didn't connect with Dhalia as much as I wanted to, and she seemed such an integral, almost glue-like friend (you know the ones that keep the group together?) I wanted to see more of her role within the group other than ex and love interest.

HOWEVER - Jude. Rumor. Braeden. Nyx. My word, my loves. I was very pleased to see such a diverse cast, and their voices felt very true to them. The action never swallowed them and it seems - at least to me - that these main four had so much attention to detail in characterisation maybe slightly more than the plot, but I appreciate that. If I don't give a shit about the characters, I won't care if they die. And I cared, if they were to live or die. And I shed tears. 

I WILL be buying this in physical copy when it comes out. Who wouldn't want this shiny cover on their bookshelf?!

Gargoyles/Chimera riding on Dragons in space !  What's not to like ?!!  This was an exciting read set over a 27 hour period .  It is not for sensitive or younger readers though as there are a lot of battle descriptions with bloody injuries and deaths .  It is a very different book because all the main characters are of different sexualities .  The romance parts are nicely written and heartfelt , the friendships and relationships are believable .  The descriptions of the planets that they are on are well written .
I personally can't wait to read #2 in the series and continue on with the story .
I recommend it to sci-fi, romance and fantasy readers .

Thanks to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for the opportunity to read and review 27 Hours by Tristina Wright.  Rumor loses his father when they're attacked by Hellhounds and a dragon. A gargoyle, speaking their language, rode the dragon as its leader. When the gargoyle spoke he yelled to find Vala, so they seem to be searching for someone. Rumor's dad ordered him to run and to warn others of an imminent attack. Rumor ends up in Epsilon. He meets with Dahlia, an old acquaintance. The hormones all over the place became confusing. Then we meet Jude who sees emotions and intentions of others in different colors. He knows deception and truth because of his sense; I did enjoy this power.  Dahlia's best friend Nyx wears hearing aids and they practice sign language together, which is awesome and interesting.  Nyx has a crush on Dahlia and this became too sappy. The setting is eventually explained, a two hundred year-long journey from Earth to colonize in space. I kind of got tired of hearing about everyone being gay because if somewhere down the line there are no heterosexuals then we will become extinct and if colonization is a priority then reproducing should be a priority also. I guess maybe they can produce test tube babies or something similar. This book is more about categorizing sexual preferences and less about the plot, which was annoying to me. I enjoyed the descriptions of the chimera and found them interesting. I also enjoyed Braeden's and Rumor's sarcastic humor. The conflict and prejudice of the war on the Saharan moon took precedence for a while and that's interesting enough to pull me into the story but then, for some reason, even though everyone is worried about death and impending battle in less than 16 hours, they act like they have time for sex.  Attraction and love were being confused with each other. Just because you're attracted to someone you just met, doesn't mean you love them and I feel that too many people use the word "love" too lightly. 3.5 stars for the storyline and world building. 
* I received a complimentary copy of this book for voluntary consideration.

Review:
Content/trigger warnings (in the REVIEW, THIS REVIEW) for: colonization, racism.

I want to just put a disclaimer here that I loved this book. It's been a rough year for me - a rough life? - and something about this book touched me? The characters, mostly, I adored them all. I'm aware there are issues with it, though. However, hi, I'm white so the recent talk about this is not for me to speak about, though I agree with them. I'm just linking some reviews about the problems people had below which were about how it has colonization issues, and also not great PoC rep.

I’m not going to go into depth about either because it’s not for me to speak on, so I’ll just leave these reviews and go:

"Has colonist guilt & flawed racial representation" by Aimal (Bookshelves and Paperbacks blog) (quotes used here and below cause what their review is titled with/called)

2/5 - "disappointed and frustrated" by Jesse

3/5 - still had problems, but enjoyed by Anna Elisa Monte


I still have a few things to say, but honestly I feel like I should just leave it there. I just can’t, though, because I did really enjoy this book. Like I really, really loved this book. Mostly because I didn’t notice this was happening – well with the colonist bullshit, I was a little skeptical about the heritage representation, but I guess I added more time in my head. Looking back, maybe shouldn’t have read this during/right after BEA.

Tristina has addressed this online yet, so I’m just going to link that here with no more comment from me. Once again, not something for me to speak of.

I've rewritten this part about 100 times in the past three weeks and I just don't know anymore. First off - I loved this book, as I'm sure you can see by the rating. It's been a rough year, hell a rough few years, and this one just was amazing to me.

It was completely that right time, right book kind of thing and I'm fully aware of  that but the characters. I love them so much. I had minor problems with it when I was reading it, but didn't see all the problems that are there. Mostly because I kind of forgot any of the main characters were white - and was confused a few weeks ago when I saw fanart and he was white, but apparently he's white.

I first read this book in June and haven't reread yet, but I just got the physical copy in my hands - wanted to reread the physical one because things do change. My personal problem is that we never get a clear answer about Braeden, if he's aro/ace or gray-romantic, I'm kind of on board for either but really want gray-rom/ace.

I feel a little guilty now, which is why I've rewritten this review so many times, with that I love this so much and it is problematic. I just - I'm not dealing with that well but that's my problem. I still wanted to review this, though, because I loved it so much.

And, no, some good rep doesn't cancel out the bad rep, that's now how that works, but it meant a lot to me when I read it and I think it might to others. If it did hurt you, though, I'm sorry - and definitely, if you're going to check it out, check into this before you do (reviews above)

Happy reading!

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I freaking loved this book.

The plot is fast-paced with lots of twists and turns, that keep you on your toes. Granted, it is a young adult novel, so do not expect it to be on par with big names in literary fiction in terms of style or plot twists, but Tristina Wright knows her way around the prose and does it really well. The narrative flows easily. There wasn’t a moment in my reading when I would think: “yeah this is a bit slow”. It was action after action, and at times I needed a moment to process who was running where and who was almost killed this time.
 
Because I swear, all of the characters of "27 Hours" seem to have a death wish.
 
It is a well-constructed world, with enough composition and descriptions to fill you in as you go. I found the idea of mystic creatures, chimera (not gargoyles, thank you very much), living on the moon fascinating. The rules of the world are well defined, and even though at some point I was a bit confused about the hierarchy of HUBs and colonies, I felt quite comfortable while reading about the rest of it.

I think the characters of "27 Hours" is the best part of this novel. I have not read a single other young adult (or adult, for that matter) book that would have this much representation. We have characters of colour, various origins, ability, gender identities, and sexuality. There is no discrimination based on any of that either. However, using her characters’ voices, the author touches upon few very critical issues that exist in our world, making them sound as ridiculous and horrific as they truly are.

I loved this book, plain and simple. It gave me a band of incredibly brave teenagers, who are set on defending their home, even though it seems like a suicide mission. Who are willing to against everything they were taught. Who stand together in spite of differences that try to pull them apart.

I loved "27 Hours" so much that I doodled George. I am not an artist but it had to be done. Just because.
 
I loved all the characters in the book, I can’t even decide who is my favourite. And I ship all of the ships. Yes.
 
And today, I ordered my own copy of "27 Hours" - because I need to have something to console me as I impatiently wait for book two in this trilogy. 
 
I am usually pretty fair with my rating. To be honest, I would give the plot itself only 4 stars. However, the diversity and representation in this book are so good, that it deserves an extra star. I can not wait to find out what happens next in the story.

Personal rating: 5 stars

An exciting gripping sc-fi that was really enjoyable and exciting. Looking forward to what this author writes next!

*I received an ARC from Entangled Publishing for an honest review*

Engaging and interesting premise? Yes. Pertinent discussions of racism? Yes. Assorted cast of characters in the LGBT spectrum? Check.

This was a novel I snuck in reading bits and pieces whenever I had time to.

To discussions on the handling of racism and colonialism within the book, I can only offer a limited perspective as I'm a white individual. I appreciate the strides taken, and it was an engaging premise. I loved the sci-fi element. I do wish more time had been spent dissecting the human history and how they now have no internalized prejudice and racism when such things have existed in many cultures for many years. It is an issue I don't know if I can fully believe just got swept under the rug in a few generations. We see humans interact with the "sympathetic and intelligent" chimera, but we never get the story through them. I LOVE characters unlearning prejudices. But, I WANT them unlearning that from the people they are prejudice against. I yearned for a chimera perspective, or I yearned for a flip of the narrative where we as the audience what a group we thought was chill actually being racist asses going genocidal. Have us actively root against these main characters. Otherwise, I wanted chimera. I wanted their thoughts. I wanted it from them, not through a human spokesperson - no matter how much I loved Jude.

LGBT rep? Awesome. Nonbinary and trans characters without batting an eyelash. Multiple sexualities. Man, I even had an asexual guy. That thrilled me, since representation for me in sexuality is so rare. I also loved his light-hearted banner and puns with, yet the internal struggle of feeling wrong with society. I greatly appreciated it, and thought it was handled quite well. The medley of representation was greatly appreciated.

Overall: Engaging writing. Interesting premise. Awesome LGBT rep. A bit of wariness and lacking in terms of what could've been some epic colonialism commentary.

This book was a complex, somewhat intense YA adventure, with lots of diverse characters, set on a far away planet’s moon. The pace varied from fast-paced action/fight scenes to slow-paced scenes of inner turmoil and stolen moments between characters.

There was also some interesting commentary that I wasn’t expecting, basically about how humans ruin everything. I agreed with the commentary, but it was a little heavy handed. One character outrightly said humans are parasites. The moon was kind of a character of her own, and she was angry and hurt by the destruction. And pretty much the whole premise was about how the humans showed up on the moon that was home to the native gargoyles/chimera and then proceeded to go to war with them and how now there are kids and teens living there that had no say in the matter and call this place home but have to deal with the consequences. I was struck with this immense sadness at one point though for a dragon in the book because it wasn’t his fault that any of this was happening or that he was big and scary and deadly, he was just an innocent creature harmed because of the humans and chimera. That was a more subtle moment that I appreciated.

And if you’re looking for books with diversity rep, as I mentioned, this one had a lot of that—gay guys, bisexual characters, an asexual guy, a pansexual girl, a non-binary person, a trans girl, a deaf girl who used ASL, a guy with three fingers on one hand, a guy with anxiety and PTSD, POC characters (including Latina, Cuban, and Nigerian/Indian/Portuguese). I don’t fall into any of those categories, so I can’t say how well any of them were portrayed, just that they were present in the book and that none of the characters were judged or treated badly for these things. And each character was an individual person with their own personality traits and motivations and emotions.

I have to admit I had a hard time feeling gripped by the book or really connecting to the characters though. One problem I had was that there were so many characters that it was hard to remember who was who, what each looked like, what their relationships to each other were, etc. Plus there were four different POVs, and sometimes the chapters were very short, making it hard for me to sink into the story or into any of the characters’ minds. There was also so much going on—gargoyle/chimera attacks, dragons, trying to stop a war between chimera and humans, multiple romantic subplots, friend/family drama, secrets/conspiracies, a mysterious cloaked figure, one character could understand the moon language, one character was an empath… I also didn’t feel much chemistry in any of the romances. *SPOILER* I thought it was strange when Dahlia suddenly loved Nyx even though there were no signs of that before, at least not from what I could tell, not to mention that literally just hours prior to this love confession, Dahlia had broken up with her previous partner, who then died, and she was still grieving him. As for the romance between Rumor and Jude, it was kind of cute, but their feelings still seemed kinda strong considering they just met. *END SPOILER* But I did like all the consent, communication, and playfulness in the romantic scenes, like how characters asked before even kissing each other.

But despite not being gripped by the story, there were no serious flaws that I noticed. It didn’t quite suit my taste, but I can see other readers, especially teens, loving this YA dystopian in space.

I first saw this book on Twitter a few times and saw it in people’s Book Expo Advanced Reader’s Copy hauls. I never thought I’d get to read this book considering my huge to be read pile and I was so excited about it because I heard about all the amazing representation that was included.

Then, one day a few months ago, I got a surprising email. It was from Heather at Entangled Publishing, and she wanted to give me an e-book copy of 27 Hours in exchange for an honest review! I was floored. I never thought, in a million years I would actually get contacted by a publisher who wanted my opinion on a book. I felt so great and agreed almost immediately.

Soon I got the copy and was so excited to dig in. I ended up reading finishing this book slower than I anticipated; I guess I was trying to savor every single moment. I always wanted to keep reading this book. I squeezed reading sessions of this book in between breaks at work; I ate it up in bits.

From the very start, I was invested in the story. There was almost no time to set up the world as the action began, which was what got me hooked. The first third of the book was a little heavy with description (of the world, the new technology, the characters), which I didn’t mind, but it seemed to shift from that as I went through the book and as the action progressed. I kind of wish the descriptions were more spread throughout, as it seemed crammed into the first section. I feel Wright was trying to sell the world a bit too hard, which was a little off-putting.

One of the things 27 Hours did well was making me care about the characters. The book followed a lot of different perspectives, and with their many personalities, I felt really attached to pretty much all of them. If I could pick a favourite it would probably be Rumor. He had so much growth throughout the novel, and I loved the romance/relationship that ensued with him. He felt the most fleshed out and well-rounded out of all of the characters.

Along with great characters, 27 Hours contained a lot of representation. It’s not really that common for most Young Adult novels to have this much representation. Here is a list of the representation that I noticed (there’s probably more):

Bisexual
Asexual
Trans
Lesbian
Gay
Deaf/Hard of Hearing
Anxiety and/or PTSD
Gender Fluid
Although I cannot speak for a majority of the representation in this novel (ie. whether or not it was accurate), I felt it was all done in a very believable way. I especially enjoyed the way the characters interacted with the world, in their own particular way. Nyx is deaf and I felt every aspect of how that was handled was respectful. She was not forgotten or hindered by that aspect of herself.

In terms of plot, I think that is where my final rating kind of lowers. I enjoyed the story, don’t get me wrong, however, there are definite issues that another review has raised in terms of the colonization being a huge factor of the plot. That was not the only reason why my rating is a bit lower, however.

There were some issues I had in terms of consistent pacing, either things were moving too slowly (like some of the introductory babble) or things were moving too fast (how attached the characters became, almost within hours of meeting). The romances were definitely adorable but since this novel is going to be part of a series, I feel it would be more believable if the romances were developed throughout the series.

Another issue I had with 27 Hours was that I didn’t feel any fear for the characters well-being. Of course they came out of near-death experiences with injuries. It also was questionable whether or not that impeded their progress, but I still had this feeling that they were all gonna be alive at the end of the day and have their happy endings. It does make sense in that you don’t want to kill off a character in the very first book, but I would have liked some more atmosphere expressing how dangerous their sotuation really is.

I also felt the ending where the defeat of the final antagonist, that was built up for chapters, was a bit too easy. It was built up for so long I thought it was going to be this intense confrontation, but I was disappointed how quickly everything was wrapped up. I wish there was more to this villian, in all honesty.

The last paragraph makes me want so much more. It leaves me wondering even long I finished the novel of what’s going to happen next. I enjoyed that aspect. If you really like a character oriented, diverse Sci-Fi, and are ready to be thrust into the world of Sahara, this is the book for you.

Overall, I was entertained by this novel and was excited to see so much representation. Some of the characters I wished were fleshed out a little more, but overall, Wright made me care about each one and their growth. I also did have some other issues that I listed above, which made me give it a lower rating. I am hoping to purchase this book as soon as I can, so I can have my own copy, and perhaps dig deeper into this new world.

"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...

pub date snuck up on me and I haven't finished reading this book yet. but so far, i LOVE it, so I'm pretty confident I'll be done with it soon. at that point, I'll post my review to goodreads, but I wanted to send partial feedback now in case I don't get it done before the archive date.

so the number one strength of this book is the characters. they're diverse, which i love, but they've also got strong, distinct personalities that jump right off the page almost the moment they're introduced. i can't really enjoy a book unless i'm invested in the characters, so the fact that the cast in 27 Hours drew me in right away is a HUGE plus. i adore nyx. she might be my fav. 

the prose is up and down for me. sometimes it feels kind of stilted, but other times - like in combat scenes or other fast-paced, action-packed moments - it's great. 

one thing that bothers me is that the world-building sometimes feels lazy. for example, the moon on which this story is set orbits a planet that doesn't have a name...? i mean, it has a name, but it's just "a string of numbers" that the protagonist, Rumor, doesn't even bother to remember. to me that's kind of ridiculous. this planet fills a third of your night sky and you don't have an unofficial name for it? when you're teaching little kids about the world, and you point at this giant thing in the sky, what do you tell them it's called? and another thing is that apparently in outer space they still use American Sign Language. I just don't buy this - different countries have different sign languages (even if the verbal language is the same, for ex British Sign Language versus ASL) so I'd be pretty shocked if a colony on a distant moon many years in the future hadn't developed their own version of sign language. so... some things about this story are very vivid and cool, but it feels like the author cut corners with the world-building and that's a bit disappointing. 

i am aware of the criticism from other reviewers re: how the author handled the topic of colonialism. that's not going to have an impact on my final opinion of the book or my rating. based on my enjoyment so far, i'm going to be giving it 3 or 4 stars (depending mostly on my ~feels~ by the end of the story). will update this feedback with the link to my goodreads review as soon as i'm done.

The world building confused me a bit. But I loved the diverse array of characters. Each character was so unique and I really do appreciate seeing so many LGBTQIA+ characters in one book. I would have given 27 Hours more stars if the world building was a little more easier to understand.