I honestly doubt that my review of ‘Three Hours’ will do the book justice at all, but I will try my very best. Hugest of thanks to Viking for the tour invite and ARC.
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.
What does TWG think?
For someone who talks a lot, I’m struggling to find the words to express just how much ‘Three Hours’ blew my mind.
It isnt often that I have to stop reading a book for a few minutes every now and then, just so I could digest every emotion, every situation, and every single detail about the storyline. But that was the case with this book, and what a book it was.
‘Three Hours’ tells the story of a school community who are forced in a situation no-one should ever be in. Lives are at stake. Friendships are at stake. And all because of what? Racism? Bigots? Refugees? Psychopaths?
This story raised my blood pressure and stressed me out, yet given the nature of the book and what it was centred around, I would have been shocked if that hadn’t been the case.
Despite being a fictional story, Rosamund Lupton has referred to real life situations in her book which added to the authenticity and suspense, cementing the reality that people do indeed go through similar situations in their lives. They shouldn’t, and it made me feel quite emotional to see just how evil other people can be. Regardless of religion, skin colour, place of birth etc, they’re still humans and nobody should ever be made to feel anything but.
‘Three Hours’ is such a chilling, yet hauntingly beautiful read, and is one I will not be forgetting in a hurry. I feel bad saying that I loved the book as terror and gunmen dominated the essence of the book, however it was due to the topic and the way that Rosamund Lupton delivered it, which completely blew me away.
I cannot even begin to imagine the terror that refugees feel, nor can I imagine the fear that people must feel if they find themselves in amongst a siege. Even the thought of it sends shivers up and down my spine.
This is an absolutely breathtaking, chilling, raw and poignant novel that makes you sit up and take notice. Three hours may seem like a short amount of time, yet when you’re faced with a life or death situation, three hours can be a lifetime.
I am incredibly honoured that I got the chance to read a book that has ‘film rights’ written all over it, especially one as outstanding as ‘Three Hours’. This is, without a doubt, one of my all time favourite reads, and is one that I will be shouting about for a very long time to come.
The Writing Garnet 