59 Minutes by Holly Seddon ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

 

Nuclear missile threat to South England. 59 minutes until impact. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a test.

If you knew you had fifty-nine minutes until everything and everyone you love would be lost forever, what would you do with that time?

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site.  A free book was provided for an honest review.

November 2025; Atria/Emily Bestler Books; 978-1668087718
audio, ebook, print (320 pages); dystopian

Imagine having a normal day and suddenly everything changes.  Your cell phone and all of the phones around you, plus the television and radio, suddenly emit a warning that there are incoming nuclear missiles that will end life as you know it in just 59 minutes.  What would you do during that time?  This page turner follows the lives of three very ordinary women as they handle their last hour.

Carrie is a young mother who is trying to get home to her partner and their daughter.  She's in the underground station when the alarm goes off and all trains are stopped.  Before she can get out the door to run home, all the doors are locked.  She is desperate to get home and puts herself in danger to find a way out.

Frankie and her boyfriend are having a weekend getaway.   Right before the alarm sounds, she tells him that she's pregnant, and they are both excited and begin to make plans for their futures. They get separated from each other when they rush out to find supplies.

Mrs. Dabb is worried because her 13-year-old daughter didn't get off the bus, and no one seems to know where she is. She is determined to find her daughter before the missile strike and will do whatever she has to do to find her.

All three of these women had to make difficult decisions to make sure that they are with their loved ones, and they only have 59 minutes to be reunited.  They all face major obstacles - other people, desperate to find food or shelter, have become angry mobs worried only about themselves.  Will they succeed in their quests, or are they destined to be alone when the missiles strike in 59 minutes?

This book pulled me in from the first page and kept me rapidly turning pages until the end.  The author set the chapters up for maximum suspense.  The minutes were counted down, and each of the three main characters had a chapter about what was going on with them during the countdown.  To explain it better -- there was a section titled 58 minutes until impact at the beginning, and it went all the way to 6 minutes and then Attack!  I was very invested in all three of the characters and got more tense as the time passed.  This was a book that kept me up way past bedtime because I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep without knowing the ending.

This is a book about humanity at its best and its worst.  It's about how people handle fear in the wake of a major disaster.  Most importantly, it's about love and the human need to be with the ones we love during a major crisis.    This book was totally out of my genre comfort zone, but I won a copy and thought I'd check it out.  It's a suspenseful and thought-provoking book, and I highly recommend it.

Buy 59 Minutes at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.   

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