An American high school is the setting for a day of drama.
Originally Joelle Charbonneau wrote THE TESTING about
students living in a dystopian world where adults dictated
their moves, dreams and successes. TIME BOMB is the
opposite. All the main characters are modern teens, they
are planning and scrambling in an attempt to stay alive...
and one of them may be a bomber.
First we are introduced to the six young adults who come in
to school shortly before term begins. Each one has a reason
for being there, although I can tell you I never went to my
school if I didn't have to go to class. And while they are
scattered around the building, an explosion suddenly rips
through the structure.
The rest of the tale is not for the tender, as Tad, Rashid,
Cas, Z, Kaitlin, Diana, and Frankie scrabble to free
themselves and climb over rubble or through ceilings. The
school is a few floors high, the stairwells are blocked,
and more bombs detonate as the first responders arrive.
Just possibly, one of the group is the bomber.
The young people themselves are peculiar. Not one of them
has real friends. They are each self-righteously sure that
they have the worst life in the world. The footballer who
thinks he may be gay, the biracial lad, the senator's
daughter, the sulker whose mother died, the kid who has to
say 'I am not a terrorist' constantly, the bullied girl, in
short a bunch of the usual tropes found in American school
stories. The only person I really felt sorry for was the
girl who was trapped under an air conditioner and obviously
couldn't be detonating any bombs. That's probably
deliberate on the part of the author, but if I don't like
the major characters it's hard to worry about the outcome.
Just read this as a thriller for young adults, then, rather
than a heroic journey. Each character gets a chance to
behave like a hero. Most of them take it, in however
limited a fashion.
TIME BOMB didn't take me long to read and most readers will
probably skip quickly through the early chapters to get to
the meat of the story. This part is very well described,
the shambles, hazards, and sheer terror. What do you think
you would do in this situation? You can learn a lot by
reading the list of what works for the students. I
recommend the adventure for those over fifteen. It contains
some moderately strong language.
Seven students trapped in their school after a bomb goes
off must fight to survive while also discovering who among
them is the bomber in this provocative new thriller from the
author of the New York Times bestselling Testing Trilogy.
Perfect for fans of THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS.
A congressman's daughter who has to be perfect. A star
quarterback with a secret. A guy who's tired of being
ignored. A clarinet player who's done trying to fit in. An
orphaned rebel who wants to teach someone a lesson. A guy
who wants people to see him, not his religion.
They couldn't be more different, but before the morning's
over, they'll all be trapped in a school that's been rocked
by a bombing. When they hear that someone inside is the
bomber, they'll also be looking to one another for answers.
Told from multiple perspectives, TIME BOMB will keep readers
guessing about who the bomber could be—and what motivated
such drastic action.
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