Your Time Is Up

By Author / Illustrator

Sarah Naughton

Genre

Suspense & Thrillers

Age range(s)

14+

Publisher

Scholastic

ISBN

9780702329760

Format

Paperback / softback

Expected

09-05-2024

Synopsis

One has a secret, one of them saw, there's blood on the papers, who'll take the fall? Zaina never meant to get involved. The plan was always to focus on her exams, make her dad proud. But none of this is what she'd planned for. Chanelle never made it to the exam; Nero's convinced he saw something last night and Ysla can't stop crying. As Zaina starts to scratch the surface of secrets which desperately want to stay hidden she begins to wonder ... how far will they go to keep her from the truth?

A new real-time thriller set over the course of a maths A-Level exam. Sarah Naughton was shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book Award with her YA novel The Hanged Man Rises. Perfect for fans of Cynthia Murphy's Win Lose Kill Die and Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.

Praise for Your Time is Up: "The perfect blend of extreme tension, intrigue and characters with a lot to lose. Once you start, the clock starts ticking and nothing else will matter until you reach the end." - Sue Wallman, author of I Know You Did It.

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Reviews

This slick, sparky read from Sarah Naughton is full of recognisable characters and familiar teen angst scenarios. Flitting between a real-time exam and the preceding weeks, the tension steadily builds as falling outs, secrets and exam anxiety threaten to overwhelm the cohort of Franklin Academy.

Studious Zaina is feeling the pressure. Still reeling from the loss of her Dad, she feels bound by a death bed promise to fulfil her potential and achieve sky-high grades. Laid back Nero is twitchy and distracted, Ysla's in floods of tears and Chanelle hasn't turned up at all. With a mounting sense of dread, the atmosphere in the exam hall reaches claustrophobic heights and one person's carefully constructed veneer is about to crumble.

Your Time Is Up is the story of the exam from hell and it's a genuinely page-turning read. The disparate group of students is steadily fraying as the final weeks of exams and the expectations about future lives weigh heavily upon them. It's easy to read in one sitting and you will race to the end, but sixth form students might be best advised to avoid it until exam season is over!

336 pages / Reviewed by Clare Wilkins, school librarian