Hello,
A different type of book recommendation this week: a thriller. I couldn’t put it down once I started it.
Happy reading!
mariana
Why did I read this book?
My mentor and colleague Beth also loves reading. Lately, we’ve started sharing book recommendations. She told me about how she couldn’t stop listening to Three Hours, and something about the excitement in her voice made me really want to read it too.
What is the book about?
Three hours of suspense: A school in Somerset is under siege and nobody knows why. The situation gets darker and scarier by the minute. The story is narrated from the point of view of several characters, some inside the school and some outside. What’s going on and why are these children being held captive? Who could possibly be behind such a thing?
Bravery vs. hatred: While this book is a thriller and a bit stressful by nature, it’s also an inspiring story. Through the storyline, we are able to appreciate the contrast between the best and worst human traits. I liked how the author portrays how stressful situations can also bring out our most courageous selves, especially when it comes down to protecting those we love.
“Do you have to be sixteen to be so idiotically, wonderfully courageous like that?”
― Rosamund Lupton, Three Hours
Why should you read it?
If you’re looking for a page turner: I don’t usually read many thrillers, but I really liked this one. I found it realistic, relatable and reflective of the time we live in. If you tend to go for crime novels and suspense, I think you might enjoy this book.
Confront your own biases: When you’re reading a mystery novel or a thriller, it’s impossible not to try and solve it yourself while you’re turning the pages. In this particular story, you’ll be forced to face some of your biases while playing detective.
“‘Do you think we wake up every day the same old self?’ she said. ‘Or do we have a choice but we don’t realize that? It might be just habit that makes us the same self as yesterday even if that’s not who we want to be at all?’”
― Rosamund Lupton, Three Hours
Links to buy the book
Always try to support your local bookshop instead of using Amazon :-) If you’d like me to add any bookshops to the list, let me know.
UK
Spain
Mexico
Italy
US
Amazon US (Hardcover)
//As an Amazon Associate I earn a commission from qualifying purchases via the above links.//
Favourite quotes
//The purpose of this section is to share some of my favourite book bits, so you can come back to them when you finish a book, if you wish to do so. I’ve put in bold my favourite ones, in case you want to read a few (or all) ahead of the book.//
“She thinks that consciousness is made up of silent, invisible words forming unseen sentences and paragraphs; an unwritten, unspoken book that makes us who we are.”
“A few are clearly embarrassed and she’s heartened because they can’t be that afraid if they’re able to be self-conscious; though teenagers can probably be self-conscious in any situation.”
“Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent...”
“...perhaps it was because he didn’t have children and his paternal love needed an outlet. But whatever the reason, love makes you biased, makes you behave illogically.”
“‘Love is the most powerful thing there is,’ he said. ‘The only thing that really matters.’”
“She remembers how when he was born he simply took up a different place inside her, everyone and everything else making room for him, shifting around him, so that he is always with her, even when he’s physically not here.”
“‘Do you think we wake up every day the same old self?’ she said. ‘Or do we have a choice but we don’t realize that? It might be just habit that makes us the same self as yesterday even if that’s not who we want to be at all?’”
“‘I think that’s what mental illness is,’ he said. ‘I think it takes away the choice. You’re stuck being someone who isn’t even really you. And you should know that the not-really-me has PTSD and I’m genuinely weird in a psychotic way.’”
“Was the man who shot Matthew a good man once? If so, how was he corrupted?”
“She’s using their first names to create intimacy because in this high-pressure situation they need to feel a personal relationship with one another to function best as a team.”
“But the terrible thing about your teenager being unhappy was that he doesn’t want your help and however much you love him, show him you love him, it just doesn’t make that much difference.”
“Before his father and brother were murdered he didn’t think someone he loved could die, as if him loving them meant that couldn’t happen, even in Syria with bombs exploding and evil let loose, even there. After it happens, you know there’s a price tag attached that’s unpayable so you don’t love anyone new. But he’d thought in England it was safe to fall in love.”
“Do people who are going to be heroic have a kind of radar for one another before they actually prove it, because what are the chances of the two of them being like this?”
“‘Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood – all English people are scared of woods.’”
“Do you have to be sixteen to be so idiotically, wonderfully courageous like that?”
“He’s growing up, growing away, and she’s been trying to hold on to him, holding him back, she realizes, trying to make him her little boy again.”
“Think of a kind face, that’s what Rafi tells him to do when he’s really frightened.”
“She isn’t even interested in the criminal mind, she’s interested in people who work a nine-hour day and then volunteer in the evening, by the serious way children play, by teenagers’ restless newness and inventiveness. But understanding criminals’ minds, their cruelty, selfishness, viciousness, is necessary to help the people who do interest her, who matter to her.”
“Dad thinks words are like watches, you hand them down to the next generation and use them on special occasions – Stupendous! Balderdash! – and words for monster men too – unholy scoundrel, diabolical. Great-Grandpa was in the war, when they had to coin words with bigger meanings.”
“The wind blows snow at his face, making his eyes smart, and he feels tears and he thinks of Mama, as if the tears came first, before he thought of her, but that’s not true because she’s always there, and he thinks love lives inside his face, behind his eyes.”
“...guilt cuts you off from other people.”
“We’re not a ‘sins of our fathers’ century, she thinks, but ‘sins of our children’. Sometimes she has a terror of motherhood. She thinks of her scan earlier this morning, watching the second heart beating inside her body; the realization that from now on she’ll always have two heartbeats.”
“…because another person’s touch is comforting,”
“…and she admires whoever fought for it because you don’t get this thoughtless tolerance without people taking risks, putting themselves on the line.”
“I love you. Just three words that are the spoken soul of you, that make the unseen spine of who you are in the world. I hate you is only three words too but isn’t enough; you can’t say I hate you and leave it at that, you have to say why, but I love you are three words complete in themselves.”