Three hours is 180 minutes or 10,800 seconds.
It is a morning's lessons, a dress rehearsal of Macbeth, a snowy trek through the woods.
It is an eternity waiting for news. Or a countdown to something terrible.
It is 180 minutes to discover who you will die for and what men will kill for.
In rural Somerset in the middle of a blizzard, the unthinkable happens: a school is under siege. Told from the point of view of the people at the heart of it, from the wounded headmaster in the library, unable to help his trapped pupils and staff, to teenage Hannah in love for the first time, to the parents gathering desperate for news, to the 16 year old Syrian refugee trying to rescue his little brother, to the police psychologist who must identify the gunmen, to the students taking refuge in the school theatre, all experience the most intense hours of their lives, where evil and terror are met by courage, love and redemption.
Many thanks to Penguin Books UK for my copy of Three Hours to review via NetGalley and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Less than a week into 2020 and I can safely say Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton will be my book of the year come the end of December. I can't see anything coming close to beating it. Lots of people are talking about this book and deservedly so and I haven't see one negative thing said about it, simply because there aren't any negatives. In fact it's the opposite any words you try and write to justify how good this story is aren't good enough. There aren't enough adjectives to explain just how tense and gripping this book is and how utterly brilliant every word is. I literally couldn't put it down once I started reading it. You just have to know what is going to happen next and can't leave it for any length of time, you just have to keep reading.
It's full of plot twists, some you will guess at, others you are left open mouthed in shock when they reveal themselves. The courageous actions and sacrifices of numerous characters leave you stunned but of course you admire their bravery in the most dangerous and tense of times. What really gets under your skin is that the themes and plot of the book are not beyond the realms of possibility and the fact that I am a teacher made what occurs all the more scarier. This is realistic, chilling and edge of your seat stuff that you readily loose yourself in and become so gripped in what is unfolding.
A lot can happen in three hours as is demonstrated over the course of the book. What starts out as a normal school day soon turns into everyone's worst nightmare. There is a gunman on the loose and the school campus which has a junior and senior school is soon under lock down. The school emergency plan has been put in place but due to the isolation of the school and the various sections of it one wonders is it all just too late and at the end of three hours will things ever be the same again?
We flit back and forth between various characters and where they are located. As we change scenes the time is noted at the top of each page and as the minutes tick down the tension, suspicion, danger and fear increase page by page. You are literally holding your breath the entire time you are reading as the terror unfolds. The teachers and adults do their best to keep everything calm and under control but how can you when you are locked in a library tending to someone who has been injured and all you can hear are the menacing footsteps continuously pounding up and down the corridor never knowing if the door you are hiding behind will be knocked down and chaos might therefore ensue.
Rosamund Lupton captures so perfectly the sheer terror and hell each and every character is experiencing. From the students locked away with their teacher in the schools theatre who continue to rehearse MacBeth as a way of not giving into the situation they find themselves in, to the teacher in the pottery room in the woods with a group of younger children who hide under their desks continuing to make figurines oblivious as to what stalks the woods right outside the window. Rafi, a 16 year old refugee gets his younger brother and classmates to safety in a secluded cove but Rafi also has someone else at the forefront of his mind. He puts himself in the face of danger time and time again as the readers anxiety levels only ever increase. Of course, you are keen to see who is behind all this and what their motivations are and yes this is all revealed with time and I may have guessed at one aspect of it and was quite smug about this.
But this story is more about the impact and subsequent fall out of a bomb exploding in the woods before school starts. This sets the wheels in motion for a chain of events that takes us deep into the heart of what it means to be human and all must find the courage to stand up to evil and try and save the people they love. The sheer bravery and selflessness shown by so many makes the reader stop and think just what they would do in that situation and being a teacher it really puts everything into perspective that if the worst was to happen you would put your students first and foremost.
Told alongside the story of the students under siege and fearing for their lives and afraid to make any movement in order to get to safety is that of the parents who are waiting for news. But also the police as Detective Inspector Rose Polstein arrives on scene and is tasked with discovering who is behind such hatred, abhorrence and loathing. She must piece the puzzle together and find the answers before it is too late. Can she get inside the mind of someone who is hell bent on destruction and eradication?
Of course, panic, worry and fear are all words that spring to mind as you read through the story but yet there are moments of calm and contemplation. Of stillness too as the snow falls and the forest is silent. It becomes very eerie but you know spread across the campus there are pockets of dread, distress, revulsion and foreboding as so many thoughts as to why, who and what run through people's minds. A reign of tyranny and sinister violence is unfolding but can it be stopped before the ultimate tragedy occurs.
Another important thing to note is the importance of social media and how it is used throughout as a form of communication and to get news but also as a way of uncovering dark secrets, manipulation and motives. It's all so cleverly written and expertly paced. It really is a thriller of a very high calibre and normally I am not a fan of this genre and am very selective as to what I read when it comes to crime/mystery or thrillers but in this case within a few chapters I knew I had chosen wisely and that all the talk surrounding this book is entirely justified. Every ounce of gushing praise heaped upon Three Hours is so richly deserved as the different perspectives and emotions portrayed in the book are so expertly crafted leaving both the characters and the reader profoundly changed from what they were before.
Rosamund Lupton may leave her readers waiting quite some time between books but the wait is more than worth it as you are richly rewarded for your patience. She is a brilliant writer who has written an extraordinary book which will long live on in your heart and mind. It provides plenty of fuel for thought and discussion. As soon as I finished it I just wanted to find someone and make them read it so I could talk about it with them. Three Hours is a book I could see on the big screen and I do so hope this will come to fruition in the future. It's an absorbing, haunting, thrilling and powerful read which you'll want to read in one sitting where an accomplished author takes you on one hell of a journey that you won't easily forget. Do yourself a favour and buy Three Hours as soon as possible. It's a stunner of a read.
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