Two teenagers are stuck in a time loop, reliving the last few minutes before a plane crash, in Rachel Reiss's clever and arresting YA locked-door mystery, Seconds to Spare.
Eighteen-year-old Evelyn Werth is trapped on a mostly empty flight from Hawaii to California, repeating the same 28 minutes before the plane plummets in a "one-person endless time loop of epically shitty proportions." Evelyn was in Hawaii to secure her estranged father's ashes and now she's terrified her time is up, too. No matter what dark-eyed, brunette Evelyn does, the same four things happen: 1.) "The pilot announces the internet has gone out and warns of upcoming turbulence." 2.) "The plane begins to shake for five and a half minutes." 3.) A woman "in the last row, collapses." 4.) The plane "begins to nose-dive." Evelyn's vision "flashes white for a split second" and the time loop restarts. Her fellow passengers have no memories of the previous loops and Evelyn is reliving the traumatic series of events alone with no idea "what the hell is happening, why it's happening, or how to stop it."
Orion James, a boy Evelyn had briefly met and formed a connection with at the airport, has "been asleep the entirety of every loop." On loop 395, blue-eyed, dark-haired Orion wakes up. Evelyn, who has already done some snooping in his baggage, knows Orion needs life-saving heart surgery and his waking only worries her further: "I can't think of a single worse thing for a heart condition than a plane in free fall." But Orion waking isn't the only change. The loop is "growing less than a second longer each time," and Evelyn worries that the next crash will be permanent.
Characterization is sometimes thin--for example, little information is shared about Evelyn's relationship with her still-living mother or her plans as a recent high school graduate--but kinetic pacing and unexpected plot twists make Seconds to Spare a gripping narrative. The time loop element, reminiscent of movies like Groundhog Day and YA novels such as Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall, adds an intriguing speculative element to the mystery, and the clock ticking toward a permanent plane crash raises the stakes. Reiss (Out of Air) develops visceral action scenes--"everything lurches forward at an entirely unnatural angle. Nothing's where it should be. Side is now down, down and up are now to the side"--and the plane cabin setting creates an atmosphere of claustrophobic suspense. Mystery fans will enjoy deciphering clues alongside the characters as this propulsive mystery reveals its secrets. --Alanna Felton, freelance reviewer
Shelf Talker: Two teens who keep repeating the same 28 minutes in a crashing plane must work together to break the time loop and prevent the crash in this gripping YA mystery.