13 Minutes: A mystery for young adults

“Ophelia.”

So begins the Young Adult (YA) murder mystery 13 Minutes, as a man walking his dog one January morning finds a young girl in a freezing river. She’s clinically dead for 13 minutes before the paramedics revive her.

The rest of the book switches between multiple points of view: Rebecca, victim Natasha Howland’s former best friend; Jamie McMahon, the man who rescued Natasha, and extracts from interviews, text messages, news clippings and Natasha’s diary from after the incident.

Natasha enlists Rebecca’s help with finding out how she ended up in the river. As they play detective, we delve into the relationship dynamics between all the characters (who end up being connected in one way or another), as well as catch a glimpse into their pasts.

As the book progresses, Pinborough makes her message abundantly clear: Trust no one. The different viewpoints add to the mystery, with a cliffhanger practically every chapter compelling the reader to keep going right up to the twist ending. I, for example, inhaled the novel in a day.

Despite Natasha being the victim, it’s difficult to like her. Frankly, it’s difficult to like any of the characters - they’re all in some way or the other narcissistic, catty, shallow, insecure, and/or whiny. This isn’t a flaw in Pinborough’s writing. It’s clearly intentional, and as such, is quite well done.

But “well done” does not equate to “original”. Pinborough uses the same tired out teenage tropes we see over and over, from the Mean Girl-esque cliques to the cattiness of Scream Queens. There’s sex, there’s parties, there’s drugs, there’s insecure social rejects and there’s “popular” Queen Bees. Yawn.

If books, shows, and movies with characters like this are to be believed, all teenagers are depraved, manipulative, narcissistic freak shows who tear into each other and their long-suffering parents without thought.

The typical high school melodrama cliché aside, however, 13 Minutes does an amazing job of immersing you in the story. My heart rate went up with every page and I suspected everyone, even Biscuit the dog, of being somehow involved and ready to kill again.

Pinborough’s gift lies in building the atmosphere until you’re ready to erupt with anticipation, and then finally, finally, everything is clear and the roller-coaster ride is over.

You’ll end up closing the book feeling equal parts stunned and satisfied.

Fast-paced, gripping, adrenaline-pumping... 13 Minutes has set the bar pretty high for any other upcoming YA novels in the genre.

— The writer is a student at the American University of Sharjah. Read student work at 360 Newsbeat.