Two teenagers are stuck in a time loop, reliving the last few minutes before a plane crash, in Rachel Reiss's clever and arresting YA locked-door mystery, Seconds to Spare.
Eighteen-year-old Evelyn Werth is trapped on a mostly empty flight from Hawaii to California, repeating the same 28 minutes before the plane plummets in a "one-person endless time loop of epically shitty proportions." No matter what dark-eyed, brunette Evelyn does, the same four things happen: 1.) "The pilot announces the internet has gone out and warns of upcoming turbulence." 2.) "The plane begins to shake for five and a half minutes." 3.) A woman "in the last row, collapses." 4.) The plane "begins to nose-dive." Evelyn's vision "flashes white for a split second" and the time loop restarts. Evelyn has no idea "what the hell is happening, why it's happening, or how to stop it." Orion James, a boy Evelyn had briefly met and formed a connection with at the airport, has "been asleep the entirety of every loop." On loop 395, blue-eyed, dark-haired Orion wakes up, and the loop is "growing less than a second longer each time." Evelyn worries that the next crash will be permanent.
Characterization is sometimes thin but kinetic pacing and unexpected plot twists make Seconds to Spare a gripping narrative. The time loop element, reminiscent of movies like Groundhog Day and Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall, adds an intriguing speculative angle to the mystery, and the clock ticking toward a permanent plane crash raises the stakes. Reiss (Out of Air) develops visceral action scenes, and the plane cabin setting creates an atmosphere of claustrophobic suspense. --Alanna Felton, freelance reviewer