The first third of this novel is heart-racingly tense (no exaggeration, i was reading it in the middle of the night and i felt genuine tension). However, it rather tails off in the second third, with what felt like a lot of running to keep still and little further development. There’s a reveal 2/3 through that allows pace to pick up again, but the reveal was so clearly sign-posted beforehand that this lacked the shock i suspect was intended. Anyway, once that was out the way the pace and tension pick up again.
There are enjoyable parallels to Macbeth, and students staging of the play are neatly linked to draw out parallels with some of the students and the nature of both love and evil.

I’d thoroughly recommend this - it’s not perfect but it’s a page turning thriller.

I wasn't expecting a book set during a school gun siege in the UK during a snow storm to be about love.

It's every parents worse nightmare your kids are at school with a gun man on the lose. The characters are well observed, the book is atmospheric and emotional in equal measure. It is a story of love and survival.

I don't really know where to start with this book. I expected to find it interesting (which I did), but it hit me pretty hard. It hit me in a way that I book never has before. Especially towards the end, it felt like the line between fiction and reality was uncomfortably thin, but that really worked in the book's favour. The way I initially reacted - a mix of shock, anger and hope - is really to the book's merit and that did change my thoughts (and rating) on the book phenomenally.  

In this book, as a reader, you get to know quite a cast of characters in not very many pages and somehow, I found myself rooting for pretty much all of them. Each character you follow has their own individual story and as readers, we get to know just enough to make us care. If I had to select a few characters to mention as "favourites" would be Hannah, Rafi and Basi. When the focus shifted away from these characters, I really wanted to get back to them and check that they were okay. Considering that I read this book in a day, I essentially gave my heart to these characters so quickly and got ridiculously invested in their lives. 

The plot itself, I did find a little bit predictable. Just through the way the story is told I found my guessing where character's were and what their role would be. Having said that, the pages just flew by. As I mentioned I read this in one day, in a few sittings (a lot of it on train journeys), because I just wanted to know how on earth it was going to turn out and where the character's would end up - so much so that my internal predictions were pushed to the back of my mind.

Now, the writing. The only thing that really brought this book down was the writing. This is absolutely not a badly written book. Judging by my intense emotional response, the writing is fantastic and I found the pacing pretty good. It was just the stylistic choice to write in from a third-person perspective in the present tense. It was fine when I settled into it, but every time I sat down to continue reading it I had to remind myself of the writing style and get used to it all over again. It just felt a little bit off and made the reading experience a little jolted(?) rather than smooth and easy. 

As usual, I want to avoid getting into spoilers in my review, but the key issue at the heart of this story is the fact that a school is at the mercy of a gunman. Something which is horrifically real. I cannot say anything about the representation of the experience but I do want to warn anyone who is considering giving this a read that there is gun violence and other violence associated with school shootings.

Overall, this book is extremely well-written and thought-provoking. For me, it was a shockingly quick read - a page-turner, if you will - which quickly establishes characters and their lives. Perhaps if you're newer to thriller (like me) it will hit you in a way that more experienced readers of the genre might not experience, but its worth the read regardless.

Oh dear, did I read a different novel to everyone else? I don't want to imply that this isn't a good book, as multiply people before me have felt touched and moved by it, but I personally experienced it as a struggle to make it through.



The premise sounded intriguing: the entire novel is told over the course of 180 minutes. During those three hours, a snowed-in school in Somerset is attacked by masked gunmen. The headmaster is wounded, the pupils are held hostage.

It's a brave and touchy topic to write about, especially considering the stories parallels to many events that have truly happened. The Columbine High School shootings come to mind, which adds an urgency to the narrative. Yes, it's fiction, but you keep reminding yourself that this could be happening for real. Because it has happened before.

Lupton writes with sensibility and from a place of compassion. We witness the story from different viewpoints and experience the trauma from all possible angles: we meet the students that are trying to rehearse for their performance of Macbeth, we learn what it is like for the refugee brothers Rafi and Basi from Syria, we see the police trying to get on top of the situation while mother Beth just wants any information on her son she can get.

It's tumultuous, full of panic, but underlying it all is compassion. Rosamund Lupton may write about horror, but the message she wants to get across is a positive one. We see what strength it demands from people to survive a harrowing situation like that and we get to read about acts of selflessness and pure bravery.

Despite all that, I just couldn't find my way into the story. I can't pinpoint what it was, but I didn't feel a connection to any of the characters, making me feel like I was just reading names on a page (which, obviously, I was, but you get what I mean). Maybe that's similar to how one would live through a situation like that - maybe names and people become blurry, maybe you always feel a bit detached from the horror happening around you, but I don't think it was the author's intention to raise those feelings in the reader. I just didn't feel involved and therefore wasn't able to show any kind of emotional reaction to what I was reading. I was just glad when it ended.

It is rural Somerset and a progressive & liberal private school is under threat. There are gunmen and the school is in lockdown. There are a group of children in the library with a gunman walking up and down the corridor outside, the group in the theatre practicing Macbeth as if their life depended on it and the younger children in the very exposed pottery studio. Then there are the other few unaccounted for. A lot can happen in three hours.

I very much enjoyed the whole idea of this book. We follow various characters throughout the three hours – sometimes minute by minute and sometimes with longer gaps. There is a lot of jumping around in the narrative which some readers may feel left the story slightly disjointed. I enjoyed the different perspectives.

There are a lot of characters who are integral to this story. Consequently the reader doesn’t get to know each one particularly well. We get little back story unless it is relevant to the current events. I do usually prefer much more in depth characters but on this occasion it just couldn’t be done. I wouldn’t say the characters are cardboard just that we don’t get to know them terribly well.

There are a few things which require the suspension of belief – not all of which I want to mention as I don’t want to give out spoilers. Suffice to say that these are probably the calmest children ever!

I very much enjoyed this book. The idea is unusual and I thought it was well written. There are a lot of comparisons in this book to the play “Macbeth” so it may be useful to have a basic working knowledge of the play in order to get the best from this book. I enjoyed “Sister” from this author which is also an unusual book. I look forward to seeing what else she produces in the future.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

I’m struggling to score this book because whilst I did enjoy reading it there was a lot I didn’t like. The story is told from the point of view of various chatCters and this I liked and I felt empathy for the parents waiting for news. However the whole premise of the book right from its title is that of a dramatic event over a short space of time... three hours and the tension was totally lacking. I understood how the teachers might want to play it all down but surely no teacher is that good at defusing the situation. The kids had social media up and running but still no hysterics. The other big negative for me was the location. An English school next to the coast but a Mike between the buildings? It just never painted the location picture for me.

I’m going to be in the minority here but although this book is beautifully written by a writer I’m a huge admirer of, it didn’t hit the spot for me. I got to 20% and hadn’t connected with any of the characters and didn’t even care enough about any of them to flick to the end to see what happened to them.
Not for me.

In a small private school, in the middle of woods, a siege is taking place. The head master has been shot and children are hiding as best they can from the gunmen who are bent on bloodshed.

Rosamund Lupton writes tense thrillers and this is no exception. Previous novels of hers have been bestsellers and without doubt this will be too. The narrative is set over a space of three hours with several points of view including those of the head teacher, various pupils, teachers, parents and the woman who is in charge of the police operation and trying to find out who the gunmen are and what their motivation is. This is well done on the whole. It can be very confusing when there are multiple viewpoints and there are times when you have to skip back a little to check on what you've just read but it works well overall.

The storyline is bang up to date and with judicial use of quotes from newspapers it makes its point very well. Quotes from Macbeth are also used to excellent effect. To say more would be to risk spoilers.

To sum up, this is well worth a read. It's not perfect, there are perhaps too many points of view for me and I also found it quite unrealistic in places. The children seem unnaturally calm for instance and the reaction of one parent in particular just didn't ring true. But it's a book that will stay with you. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

I am - like other reviewers - struggling to find a way of describing the impact this book has had on me as a reader. This is a fantastic piece of writing - crisp, economical and deeply moving.

The author handles this difficult subject with great skill and sensitivity. The characters largely are strong and believable - as is sadly, the situation.

I'm hugely grateful to the publishers and netgalley for allowing me to read this book in advance.I suspect I will be talking about it for years to come

I don't think any words I can write will do this book justice.

A fantastic piece of writing; thrilling, moving, topical, sensitive subjects skillfully handled. I've just finished this book and am already thinking who I can buy it for when it's released.

This is also a real cinematic feel to it too, crying out for a film to be made, somebody snap it up!

A fairly basic story line very relevant to today's world, cleverly done by using various perspectives to tell the story. It reminded me a bit of We Need to Talk about Kevin. This book was engaging and relevant and gave me a lot to think about, especially as a parent.

Thank you for allowing me to review this book.

thank you for allowing me to read this book. it was very easy to read. i enjoyed the story line and the characters. look forward to reading more from this author.

WoW! This book has everything I want in a thriller. It's unputdownable. Be prepared to be glued to this story! I won't give anything away so just read it!!

Fast paced and lots of twists. One of the best I've read.

Good versus evil. The novel had an emotive plot. I think Dunblane in 1996 was the last school shooting in the UK. In the USA I discovered re-Google that there had been eight school shootings this year already with four killed and 17 wounded including two incidents in the past week. I recall the horror of the Columbine massacre, and since Sandy Hook in 2012 140 have died in school shootings. Years ago I read “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult. I couldn’t wait to read this book, but I thought it fell short despite being a fan of this author.
A rural English village during a snowstorm. A shot in the wood. I caught myself holding my breath at first, with the tension when suddenly the momentum dipped into tranquillity and life proceeded as if on a normal day. The plot sagged hopelessly at this point. The children seemed calm and unfazed at lockdown despite their Headmaster shot. Nobody is screaming, panicking or hysterical. The children are vaguely uneasy but make models and rehearse for their performance of Macbeth. It hardly seemed credible. Intermittently, there’s the sound of the unknown, ominous footsteps pacing the corridors, which caused a whisper of tension. The snowy weather conditions worsened. As high-profile national news, many factions became involved, and there were some topical issues thrashed out. The plot jumped haphazardly from person to person, group or an official faction of assistance. I found this confusing with the need to backtrack constantly. Nothing vital seemed to happen for ages. A poor advert for mobiles which ran out of charge or unanswered and useless in keeping frantic parents assured. More useful to the perpetrators proving the dangers of technology in the wrong hands. I found it longwinded, slow and with a predictable ending. I didn’t find myself fully connected with any of the characters. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK.

It's taken me a couple of days since I finished Three Hours to think about this extraordinary story and what I can write in my review.

Three Hours is based on every parent's worst nightmare - a school siege, young pupils held hostage, teachers being shot and gunmen surrounding the school seemingly uninterested in negotiating.  What makes this particular story stand out from others in this genre is that the school in question is based in Somerset, UK and in the midst of a fierce and unrelenting snow blizzard.

The weather is almost a character itself within story line - as it's instrumental in obstructing police surveillance and causing severe delays when it comes to bringing the siege to an end.

This beautiful and sensitive story is narrated through the eyes of several main characters bringing a multi-layer human angle enabling the reader to watch the story unfold through so many different sides.

It's emotional and raw in places leaving your heart breaking, but inspiring and courageous in others allowing our hearts to soar with hope and love..

Three Hours is NOT an easy book to read as a parent or even as a human being, however it has an important message running through the pages “Love is the most powerful thing there is” and after finishing this story I certainly felt that message loud and clear.

It's every parent's worst nightmare - only doubled; a school is under attack by one or more armed killers and the fear is that it's part of a terror attack, even if there's unlikely to be any difference in the resulting carnage. What is worse in the case that Rosamund Lupton develops in Three Hours is that this attack on Cliff Heights School in Somerset doesn't appear to be following the expected pattern of such attacks, but rather seems to have a plan of its own that is difficult to identify. Worst of all, the attack is taking place in real-time, with the teachers and pupils holed-up under siege.

Rosamund Lupton handles the growing tension and horrifying progression of the terror attack well. There's the initial confusion, a bomb going off in the woods, the head teacher shot by a masked gunman, the implementation of the emergency drill eventually put into practice. Some pupils are able to retreat to the security of the school theatre where they are rehearsing a production of Macbeth, others barricade themselves into the library with the wounded head teacher, the younger children escorted to a safe place. But as the attackers stall before their next move, there's a sense that the drill procedures might be playing into their hands and they are just biding time.

Who is behind the attack and what exactly their plan is keeps the tension going for a while, and while they sit out the siege, it gives the police and counter-terrorism units not only a surprising amount of time to work out what is going on. You might be glad to find that the police are completely in charge and competent in how they enact emergency procedures, but there are unrealistically a little too quick to break the heavy encryption on the release of time-managed messages and warnings while it is still going on, but again there is a suspicion that it's a little too easy and that they are just playing into the hands of whatever scheme the attackers have in mind.

One interesting feature of the modern terrorist siege that Lupton picks up on is the role that live 24-hour news channels, mobile phones and social media can play. Not only can the terrorists strike fear into the wider public by getting their message out much more quickly, but the flow of information works both ways, and if the armed attackers are watching TV or listening to the frantic messages and live interviews on the phone with children locked in rooms, they know exactly what the police are planning and what measures are being taken.

Taking such matters into consideration keeps up interest as much as the mystery of why armed attackers would target a liberal, progressive, open-minded and non-religious school. Lupton zeroes in also on a couple of significant pupils in immediate jeopardy, with their concerned parents going frantic outside. As a thriller, Three Hours is undoubtedly tense and well-paced in its drama, tension and gradual revelations, but there is a sense that it is a little unrealistic, and it does seem a little academic and progressive-media-friendly, not least in how it counters the meanness of the attackers with the heroism of brave heroic young pupils, including those who continue with their dress-rehearsal of Daesh-inspired take on Macbeth, even as their school is under siege.

What Lupton really can't escape however, and what takes away some of the tension, is the tone of the concerned liberal parent who, despite developing a situation where their greatest fears are being realised, always operates with the underlying assumption that we can trust in the good guys to win out in the end. It's not that she side-steps the controversial political questions, in one case impressively taking to task the xenophobic UK tabloid press for their fearmongering and misrepresentation of ethnic minorities - but her counter-argument that the highly-professional rapid-reaction code-cracking security services will prevail, operating freely, unburdened by political pressures or austerity funding cuts, feels somewhat naive. One can only hope that she is right, but should a similar circumstance occur, I suspect that it could be turn out a lot worse than this.

What an incredible book. I was totally immersed in it from the first page right to the last paragraph. So well written and what a difficult upsetting subject to deal with, but tackled head on, and at times, brutal. I loved the Macbeth storyline that twisted through it. Not an easy read at times, but if I could give it more than 5 stars I would!

Wow what a fabulous book, it reminded me of Nineteen Minutes by Jodie Picoult.

I got into the story line straight away and just loved Rosamund's style of writing. It kept me gripped throughout, I cannot speak highly enough of this book and it was an excellent page turner that I didn't want to end.

A very worthy five stars and I thoroughly recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Books for giving me the opportunity to read this superb book.

What A Read.

Just a couple of books ago I mentioned that reading third party present from multiple view points made me feel disengaged from the characters. Three Hours goes to show that tense and POV is in the hands of the writer because in this book it just pulled me right into the pulsating heart of the action as I jumped from character to character, adrenaline ratcheting up the further I read. In fact, I stopped reading at 80% last night and had a wakeful night full of tense dreams, dreams influenced by this book.

So the plot: A school is on lockdown, bombs have exploded, gun shots have been fired, evacuation in place. All that are left are a handful of sixth formers in the library, English room and theatre - and a class of seven year old out in an art room in the woods. For a UK reader there's both a connection and disconnect here; sixth former, junior school, these are our words. But school shootings happen elsewhere, don't they?

The headteacher is lying shot in the library, inexperienced teens trying to save his life and barricade themselves in, the Deputy Head is isolated in an office, the art teacher is trying to distract her young class with pottery whilst doing her best to protect them, in the theatre they are getting on with a rehearsal because what else can they do? Parents are gathering in a leisure centre, the police are trying to manage an unmanageable situation as the snow falls and social media catches fire and Rafi can't work out what is real and what is his chronic PTSD. The book takes place over the next three hours jumping from POV to POV; a police officer, Hannah, trying to save her head teacher's life whilst worrying about her boyfriend, Rafi, needing to take care of his brother, multiple teachers and pupils, a worried mother - but never the gun men themselves. They are as anonymous as their balaclavas. Their hate might ignite the plot, but not the narrative.

This is a book about love, about hate, about family, about loneliness and failure, about courage, about ordinary people being extraordinary, about fear and about hope. It's an intense, emotional, erudite and beautifully written read that buries deep into the question of what it means to be human. It's going to be huge. Read it.

It's not often that I struggle to find the words to describe a book, and how it made me feel, but here I am, struggling. Rosamund Lupton is a well-known, successful author, so her brilliant writing is not a surprise, but the depth of Three Hours, how it covered everything from white supremacy to Trump to Katie bloody Hopkins, from Macbeth to teenage love to Columbine, is just unreal.

I won't attempt to pick this book apart, as I don't feel I could do it justice. Many, if not most, people will recognise the issues discussed in this book. Brexit has created a broiling pot of racism and hatred and divide. People like Trump and Katie Hopkins and the Daily Mail feed that pot, stirring it and making it go viral on social media. I have no doubt that the shocking headlines used in this book are real.

The hopelessness some of the characters feel, Beth Alton in particular, is raw and cutting. The overriding feeling, though, is one of love. Of acceptance, peace, community. When one turns against a particular group within society, one turns against society as a whole. We live in a wonderfully varied society, full of different cultures and religions and traditions, and that is to be celebrated. And there is nothing more powerful than a society united against hate. Thank you to the author for writing such a powerful, poignant book.