Review: 3:59 by Gretchen McNeil

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Source: Purchased

Pages: 368

Series: Standalone

Release Date: September 17th, 2013

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Josie Byrne’s life is spiraling out of control. Her parents are divorcing, her boyfriend Nick has grown distant, and her physics teacher has it in for her. When she’s betrayed by the two people she trusts most, Josie thinks things can’t get worse.

Until she starts having dreams about a girl named Jo. Every night at the same time—3:59 a.m.

Jo’s life is everything Josie wants: she’s popular, her parents are happily married, and Nick adores her. It all seems real, but they’re just dreams, right? Josie thinks so, until she wakes one night to a shadowy image of herself in the bedroom mirror – Jo.

Josie and Jo realize that they are doppelgängers living in parallel universes that overlap every twelve hours at exactly 3:59. Fascinated by Jo’s perfect world, Josie jumps at the chance to jump through the portal and switch places for a day.

But Jo’s world is far from perfect. Not only is Nick not Jo’s boyfriend, he hates her. Jo’s mom is missing, possibly insane. And at night, shadowy creatures feed on human flesh.

By the end of the day, Josie is desperate to return to her own life. But there’s a problem: Jo has sealed the portal, trapping Josie in this dangerous world. Can she figure out a way home before it’s too late?

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

This is the first time I have read a book by Gretchen McNeil. I had NO idea what to expect. I saw a few booktubers talk about this book and they made it seem like it was a really good book. I picked up a copy as soon as I could and man oh man and I glad that I did. Even though there was a lot of science related things in this book that I didn’t understand, this book is still absolutely amazing and is easily my new favorite book! This book was written so well. From page one, it had me wanting to read more and more! I even got annoyed that I had to leave my house and do things. It literally aggravated me that life was getting in the way of finding out what would happen next!

This book has two doppelgangers, Josie and Jo. At first I was kind of worried that it would bound back and forth between both girls point of views in the book. I am really glad that this book wasn’t written like that! I think that the fact that it was only Josie’s POV, it made the book a lot more interesting. It was really neat being able to read about Josie being able to figure things out on her own throughout the story. I think it made the book even better.

The way that McNeil has Josie’s personality in this book is so great. Her personality and her actions is realistic. She’s like your average teenager. She makes choices for the wrong reasons, she has selfish moments, and she doesn’t always have the best judgment about people. But she also is SUPER smart, she’s really caring, and nuanced as a character. I think the fact that she saw that her newly ex-boyfriend is happier and in all ways better in the other world, that of course she wanted to go and be with that guy. I think that is something someone in real life would want to do too!

Throughout the whole book, it had you on the edge of your seat. Just when you thought things were going to work out, a new twist was brought about! Just when I thought I could predict something, the total opposite thing happened!

The way that Gretchen McNeil described the Nox was super creepy! She made them sound like something that would be in an awful nightmare! They are something that I would NEVER want to come face to face with!

Then, of course, there is the romance. NON-JERKFACE NICK WAS SO FREAKIN WONDERFUL! For real though, I loved him with Josie. Ahh, just so so cute.

If you are a fan of sci-fi/thrillers then you should definitely check it out! Even if you aren’t or you want to try something new, PICK THIS BOOK!