172 Hours on the Moon | Johan Harstad | Review

172 Hours on the Moon | Johan Harstad | Review

• Wednesday, 29 January 2014

NASA decides to do the first expedition to the moon in many decades and to get people interested in the moon and space again they host a competition. Three teenagers are going to get the opportunity to join the rest of the expedition and visit the moon. The three lucky winners are Mia from Norway, Midori from Japan and Antoine from France. But the expedition doesn't turn out to go as planned because something really frightening is waiting for them on the moon.

This book wasn't what I expected at all! I was expecting a young adult science fiction novel about some teenagers traveling to the moon, but this is a pretty creepy horror story set in space. I also have something to admit, this book did actually creep me out (a lot). So yes, I guess Johan Harstad succeeded with hiss goal to write a scary book.

So, what did I think about the other aspects of the book? Let's just start with my favorite subject, the characters. I have to say that I wasn't too impressed with them or how Harstad portrayed them. They were so stereotypical and pretty un-original. Stereotypical characters are never interesting or engaging so I never started caring or being interested in them. It's a shame because the characters are usually the main part of a reading experience for me. That's a bit sad because this novel has some other good things going for it. Because let's be fair, it has a really original and interesting story-line with quite a few unexpected twists. I mean, how can you not like the idea of a ghost story set on the moon? That's pretty brilliant (and creepy). And I'm pretty impressed about the fact that I was a bit scared while reading this because I'm not easily scared (hello, my favorite genre is zombie novels, I'm used to creepy).

Over all I did think this book was worth reading. I enjoyed the original story-line and Harstad kept me interested in how it all would end through the entire book. But oh how I wish that the characters were as original as the story. It especially shines through in the first third of the book were we mostly just get to know the characters. That part was a bit boring and hard to get through. But after a while the story gets interesting and it ended up being an entertaining and interesting read. So, I give 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad 3/5 stars.

This post was written by regular reviewer Niina, get to know her here