23 Minutes

by Vivian Vande Velde

Overview

A teen girl races against the clock to prevent a terrible tragedy in this time travel suspense thriller that will keep middle grade and young adult readers on the edges of their seats

By both society’s measure and her own, fifteen-year-old Zoe Mahar is pretty much a loser. Then one day she ducks into Spencerport Savings and Loan simply to get out of the rain—and witnesses a bank robbery gone horrifyingly wrong.
 
The good news is that Zoe has a unique ability: she can play back time and repeat events. But it's not an unlimited deal—she can only jump 23 minutes, and her first playback creates an even more disastrous outcome. Zoe has only ten tries to get it right before this particular 23 minutes becomes irreversible. But in the process of trying to become the heroine she doesn't believe she can be, Zoe will learn about herself—and realize that there is more to who she is than she thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629795614
Publisher:	Astra Publishing House
Publication date:	04/15/2016
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
File size:	761 KB
Age Range:	12 - 14 Years

About the Author

Vivian Vande Velde is the author of numerous fantasy and speculative-fiction novels for children and teenagers, many of which were ALA Best Books for Young Adults. She won the Edgar Award for Never Trust a Dead Man, which was also named a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. She lives in Rochester, New York. Visit vivianvandevelde.com.

Editorial Reviews

"(W)ith new details in each playback, a gradual explanation of Zoe's background, and a slowly forming bond between Zoe and Daniel, readers will remain engaged and invested in the story line.... For middle school and early high school fans of speculative fiction." -School Library Journal

"Blue-haired Zoe Mahar ducks into a bank to escape a downpour and comes face to face with a robber who's not afraid to use his gun. The violent encounter leaves two people dead, including a friendly young man who shields Zoe from a bullet. But Zoe, 15, has a special ability to turn back the clock 23 minutes just by saying "playback," allowing her to change the outcome of events....Vande Velde brilliantly opens the novel... Zoe comes across as a clever girl with a sense of humor about her own opinionated nature. A gripping page-turner for time fantasy enthusiasts." -Kirkus Reviews

(G)ripping from the start... Zoe is a compelling heroine in a tense situation... an ideal option for reluctant readers—they'll dive in in spite of themselves and likely find it hard to put down.' -The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"[Zoe] can travel back in time—within limits. She can play back exactly twenty-three minutes and can redo the same time block up to ten times....Just when she thinks she has things figured out, in the next rerun of those not-quite-the-same twenty-three minutes, a fresh revelation clobbers her. Velde strengthens the tension with a third-person point of view that allows readers to be clobbered more deliciously at a distance." -VOYA Magazine

From the Publisher

02/01/2016
Gr 6–9—When 15-year-old Zoe ducks into Spencerport Savings and Loan to escape the rain, she finds herself in the middle of a bank robbery. But Zoe is unique, and it isn't her blue hair, ragged clothing, and tendency to make the people around her uncomfortable that make her so. Zoe can play back time—but only the last 23 minutes and she only has 10 chances to get everything right before that window of time becomes permanent. The teen isn't sure that her ability will be enough to save the life of Daniel, the man in the bank who was nice to her. And she doesn't exactly have the best history when it comes to playbacks, anyway. With only two main characters and a simple plot told 10 different ways, 23 Minutes could easily be a tedious read. But with new details in each playback, a gradual explanation of Zoe's background, and a slowly forming bond between Zoe and Daniel, readers will remain engaged and invested in the story line. An open ending underscores that, as in each of Zoe's attempts at changing the bank robbery, anything is possible, while at the same time serving as a reminder to readers that things are always more complicated than they seem. VERDICT For middle school and early high school fans of speculative fiction.—Maggie Mason Smith, Clemson University, SC

School Library Journal

2016-01-09
Blue-haired Zoe Mahar ducks into a bank to escape a downpour and comes face to face with a robber who's not afraid to use his gun. The violent encounter leaves two people dead, including a friendly young man who shields Zoe from a bullet. But Zoe, 15, has a special ability to turn back the clock 23 minutes just by saying "playback," allowing her to change the outcome of events. She knows from experience that she'll have only 10 tries to get it right. Vande Velde brilliantly opens the novel with three generations of the robbery story, from a short prelude to a detailed, drawn-out version of the 23 minutes that Zoe is about to relive. Zoe reworks the events leading up to the shooting, getting to know her protector, Daniel, and finding a way to build trust so that she won't waste any of the precious 23 minutes. But each time something goes awry, with different (and more) people getting killed. One time she gets shot herself. Zoe, who comes from an abusive family, courageously grapples with the morality involved in choosing who lives and who dies as she literally runs out of time. Weighty issues aside, Zoe comes across as a clever girl with a sense of humor about her own opinionated nature. A gripping page-turner for time fantasy enthusiasts. (Speculative fiction. 12-17)

Kirkus Reviews