172 Hours on the Moon

by Johan Harstad

A terrifying thriller for young adult fans of The Martian and paranormal space adventure that will be devoured in one heart-pounding sitting.

It's been decades since anyone set foot on the moon. Now three ordinary teenagers, the winners of NASA's unprecedented, worldwide lottery, are about to become the first young people in space--and change their lives forever. It's the opportunity of a lifetime, but little do the teenagers know that something sinister is waiting for them on the desolate surface of the moon. And in the black vacuum of space...no one is coming to save them.

In this chilling adventure set in the most brutal landscape known to man, highly acclaimed Norwegian novelist Johan Harstad creates a vivid and frightening world of possibilities we can only hope never come true.

• ISBN10: 0316182885
• ISBN13: 9780316182881
• Publish Date: 17 April 2012 (first published 1 January 2012)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown & Company
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[nannah]

SPACE.

I feel like this book probably deserves only three stars because of some faults with the writing, pacing, and buildup, but I enjoyed it so much (and the setting), that I'm going to give it four anyway.

NASA decides to return to the moon, and for funding and publicity, holds a contest that will send three teenagers on a "vacation" up along with the astronauts.

I say "vacation" in quotation marks because apparently NASA found something beyond terrifying up on the moon back in the 70s that they covered up--but of course, isn't gone.

This book is chilling and engrossing. I could not put it down, even if it was somewhat predictable. I'm a little ashamed at how fast I went through this novel, but it was just one of those books. I didn't want to stop.

There were some problems with pacing, though. There was a ton of focus on the characters before they went to the moon, and it would have been great if it was to be used a slow descent into terror, but when everyone got to the moon (about halfway through the book), things just happened so fast, I felt I didn't get to really feel the terror as I should've. I might be a minority in that opinion, though.

All in all, though, this book is an eerie, fast, and easy read.

[Amber]

O_O

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The beginning of the novel is very slow paced, as a lot of time was spent showing the main characters and their lives before going to the moon. I think less time could have been spent with these teenagers, and more time should have been spent with the teens as they trained with NASA in preparation for their flight. I wasn't really that interested in their lives beforehand, and they all had a similar backstory anyway. I also would have liked to have spent time at NASA because some friendships and relationships formed there, and while these weren't major plot points, they were thrown in my face once we joined the teens again afterwards.

Once they actually got to the moon, however, the plot really picked up and everything went crazy. I absolutely loved it. I loved the mystery of this threat that was on or to do with the moon, and I loved that the characters had no idea how to deal with this. It was chaotic and it was brilliant.

I didn't feel connected to any of the main characters, probably because we spent more time with their backstory than we did with them as people, if that makes any sense whatsoever. I really liked the secondary characters, however. They were (mostly) all very interesting, a lot more so than the mains.

My favourite part of the book was definitely the last fifty or so pages. It was soooooo creepy! That's all I can say without spoiling the novel, but EEEEEP, it was scaring! It gave me major chills as I was reading it.

[Ace]

Words cannot begin to describe how much I loved this book. I don't think I've enjoyed a book so much in such a long time. Absolutely amazing!