172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad

172 Hours on the Moon

by Johan Harstad

Three teenagers are going on the trip of a lifetime. Only one is coming back.

It's been more than forty years since NASA sent the first men to the moon, and to grab some much-needed funding and attention, they decide to launch an historic international lottery in which three lucky teenagers can win a week-long trip to moon base DARLAH 2-a place that no one but top government officials even knew existed until now. The three winners, Antoine, Midori, and Mia, come from all over the world.

But just before the scheduled launch, the teenagers each experience strange, inexplicable events. Little do they know that there was a reason NASA never sent anyone back there until now-a sinister reason. But the countdown has already begun. . .

Reviewed by nannah on

4 of 5 stars

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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.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 9 February, 2015: Finished reading
  • 9 February, 2015: Reviewed