100 Hours

January 15, 2017
Two Latina cousins are trapped in a web of violence that exposes hard truths about their family.Genesis is beautiful and rich--the center of every crowd, thanks to her assertive personality. Her cousin Maddie isn't like that, and she hates how she lets herself get swept up by Genesis. Instead of going to the Bahamas for spring break, Genesis takes Maddie and Maddie's brother, Ryan, along with several other friends, including white boyfriend Holden, to the cousins' fathers' native Colombia, searching for authenticity, away from tourists. They find it on a hike into a national park when the group is taken hostage. Amid her romantic drama, Genesis searches for the reason why the mustache-twirling kidnappers want to use Genesis and her cousins as leverage with Genesis' wealthy father, compelling him to help their cause. When Genesis and Maddie discover they're not kidnappers but terrorists, they want to stop them--but how can two teenage girls stop terrorists? This first novel in a planned trilogy arbitrarily covers the titular 100 hours, but it spends far too much time establishing the characters before they are kidnapped. Although she mentions the real terrorist group FARC in passing, Vincent's terrorists aren't identified as belonging to a particular group; their anti-American plot effectively and unfortunately obscures Colombia's actual experiences with violence. While there is plenty of action, switching between Genesis and Maddie undercuts the tension--yet somehow doesn't really create much feeling in readers for either character. A paint-by-numbers thriller and superfluous romantic complications create high stakes without any real emotional engagement. (Thriller. 14-18)

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January 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 A rebellious spring-break trip turns deadly in this new trilogy starter. Rich-girl Genesis is used to getting her way, so when she suggests traveling to Colombia for school vacation, her friends and cousin follow. Cousin Maddie isn't impressed with Genesis' sense of entitlement and would prefer to explore Colombia for their family history, but Genesis has other ideas. When a hiking trip turns into a hostage situation, Genesis knows their kidnappers are there for her and her family's money. As tension grows between the hostages and the kidnappers, and true terrorist goals come to light, no one is safe. Vincent (The Stars Never Rise, 2015) builds the story's tension by using a clever countdown to drive the stakes higher and narrating from alternating points of view. Genesis and her cohort are rather petty at times, especially when faced with a truly dangerous situation. The cliffhanger ending means everyone is still in trouble by the novel's end, but teens looking for light suspense will find this an enjoyable new series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2018
Six privileged Miami teens visit Cartagena, Colombia, for spring break. Female cousins Genesis and Maddie alternately narrate the one hundred hours of their trip, which includes the group being kidnapped and held for ransom in the jungle. Despite the fact that they're hostages, the characters seem more focused on hooking up and being cool than getting away, which both stunts character development and stretches credulity.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)