Krista Reviews: Johan Harsted's - "172 Hours On The Moon"

by Johan Harstad, Tara F. Chace (Translator)

It’s been decades since anyone set foot on the moon. Now three ordinary teenagers, the winners of NASA’s unprecedented, worldwide lottery, are about to become the first young people in space–and change their lives forever. Mia, from Norway, hopes this will be her punk band’s ticket to fame and fortune. Midori believes it’s her way out of her restrained life in Japan. Antoine, from France, just wants to get as far away from his ex-girlfriend as possible.

It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, but little do the teenagers know that something sinister is waiting for them on the desolate surface of the moon. And in the black vacuum of space… no one is coming to save them.

In this chilling adventure set in the most brutal landscape known to man, highly acclaimed Norwegian novelist Johan Harstad creates a vivid and frightening world of possibilities we can only hope never come true.

Hardcover, 355 pages  Published April 17th 2012 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

To help promote interest in NASA, a lottery is held in which 3 teenagers from around the world will be chosen to make a trip to the moon. The complete trip only takes about 3 weeks. To my knowledge, training, traveling and returning would have taken much longer in real life but this book really shortens it to speed up the plot.

Each winner has a different reason they want to go. The story is told from several different perspectives. In my opinion the book is really divided up into two sections; before the flight, and the time on the moon. For me the story didn’t really begin until they took off. I enjoyed the suspense and the interactions while they were on the moon, much more than the time they spent preparing. During the last half, the reader gets more emotion and connection with the characters and the suspense of the story really starts building once they land on the moon. The mystery and fear really push the story forward and it finishes with some great twists. However, by the time I was really getting sucked into the story the events felt a little rushed.

I do have to say that this book got me interested in finding similar stories. I have always been a fan of films where space ships go to far off planets, get caught up in a deadly situation and have to overcome obstacles to get home. For the most part I enjoyed the novel and will most likely pick up something by this author again.