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philomath_in_phila's review against another edition
4.0
I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review.
"Any Second" by Kevin Emerson is a standalone young adult psychological thriller that holds you captive right from the beginning, yes, pun intended. Eli Martinez has been held captive for years and tortured physically, sexually, and mentally. His captor releases him in the middle of a crowded mall with a bomb strapped to him.
Maya Abrams is at the mall too. Her father wants to get an updated license picture to show the "new him" that goes along with his new girlfriend. Maya notices a boy walking toward her in the Department of Licensing. The first thing she notices is he is wearing a wolf mask. The second thing is that he looks sad and alone.
Without knowing why, Maya approaches Eli. It is then she notices the detonator. Eli believes he has to complete his "mission" and pushes the detonator but the bomb does not go off. Maya places her hand on the detonator, tells everyone to leave the area, and tells Eli "I got you".
What follows is a story about survivors, PTSD, high school and the difficulties that go with it, and Eli and Maya. The one word I would use to describe this story is intense.
"Any Second" by Kevin Emerson is a standalone young adult psychological thriller that holds you captive right from the beginning, yes, pun intended. Eli Martinez has been held captive for years and tortured physically, sexually, and mentally. His captor releases him in the middle of a crowded mall with a bomb strapped to him.
Maya Abrams is at the mall too. Her father wants to get an updated license picture to show the "new him" that goes along with his new girlfriend. Maya notices a boy walking toward her in the Department of Licensing. The first thing she notices is he is wearing a wolf mask. The second thing is that he looks sad and alone.
Without knowing why, Maya approaches Eli. It is then she notices the detonator. Eli believes he has to complete his "mission" and pushes the detonator but the bomb does not go off. Maya places her hand on the detonator, tells everyone to leave the area, and tells Eli "I got you".
What follows is a story about survivors, PTSD, high school and the difficulties that go with it, and Eli and Maya. The one word I would use to describe this story is intense.
reliymz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I loved it. It’s one of those stories that is impossible to stop reading. I read it at school whenever I had free time. I suggest it to whoever is thinking of reading this.
xokristim's review against another edition
3.0
“There’s no set amount of trauma that’s prerequisite for PTSD.”
This book focused a lot around PTSD, which is something I assumed from the very beginning. We had two main characters that were not relatable under normal circumstances that the author made very real and eventually relatable. I felt like the story was really quick to read and had one of the most unique premises of any story I’ve ever read. It was a real story of two characters who are lost trying to find themselves.
I thought that Eli’s introduction back into society was extremely unrealistic, but seemed to just work from the very beginning. I really liked Maya as a character she seemed very real. Maya was all about self medicating, doing what was unexpected, and just being herself. I wasn’t a fan of Janice or Graham from the beginning of the story, they both seem troubled and like bad influences to Eli and Maya. Because of Eli‘s early abduction he had a very hard time understanding healthy relationships, and I think that’s why Graham manipulated him from the very start.
I like the fact that I talked about two conditions that I have never heard about Dermatillomania which is the official term for “when you like to flay yourself, and pick yourself apart strip by strip”, trichotillomania which was very similar. Maya suffered from both of these conditions, which seems to stem straight from the trauma she induced the day of the mall incident. I feel like the author did a really good job writing about a sensitive topic and having all the pieces fall together. I would highly recommend this book if you are looking for a unique take on a strange situation.
This book focused a lot around PTSD, which is something I assumed from the very beginning. We had two main characters that were not relatable under normal circumstances that the author made very real and eventually relatable. I felt like the story was really quick to read and had one of the most unique premises of any story I’ve ever read. It was a real story of two characters who are lost trying to find themselves.
I thought that Eli’s introduction back into society was extremely unrealistic, but seemed to just work from the very beginning. I really liked Maya as a character she seemed very real. Maya was all about self medicating, doing what was unexpected, and just being herself. I wasn’t a fan of Janice or Graham from the beginning of the story, they both seem troubled and like bad influences to Eli and Maya. Because of Eli‘s early abduction he had a very hard time understanding healthy relationships, and I think that’s why Graham manipulated him from the very start.
I like the fact that I talked about two conditions that I have never heard about Dermatillomania which is the official term for “when you like to flay yourself, and pick yourself apart strip by strip”, trichotillomania which was very similar. Maya suffered from both of these conditions, which seems to stem straight from the trauma she induced the day of the mall incident. I feel like the author did a really good job writing about a sensitive topic and having all the pieces fall together. I would highly recommend this book if you are looking for a unique take on a strange situation.
ks27's review against another edition
3.0
Intense. This is the best word I can give it. I can't say I loved this one, because I didn't. I don't think this is the kind of book you love. It was a hard read for me. I feel like there should have been trigger warnings. This material was hard. I was able to get through it but I had so much difficulty and I wasn't even triggered. Just be careful reading this one. I waver between books like this being necessary and being too much. I think the writing was done well, if a bit sloppy in places. It's not a matter of writing or technical issues. My hesitation remains with the content, and I knew that going in. Tread carefully is my best advice. It's painful and brutal but some people might absolutely need this book. Just please tread carefully.
booklovewithmelanie's review against another edition
4.0
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
Really giving this about 3.75-4 stars
The beginning and ending were amazing but the middle just lacked something. Like how old are these kids at the dance (that was the thought, I know how old they were supposed to be) so how were there no chaperones?!? I just found myself rolling my eyes at a few things in the middle.
That being said the rest was very well done and handled. My heart hurt for what Eli and Maya had both been through and are still dealing with. Bringing them together and allowing them to be friends and lean on each other was instrumental to the heart of story. Major trigger warnings for kidnapping, mental health and abuse.
Really giving this about 3.75-4 stars
The beginning and ending were amazing but the middle just lacked something. Like how old are these kids at the dance (that was the thought, I know how old they were supposed to be) so how were there no chaperones?!? I just found myself rolling my eyes at a few things in the middle.
That being said the rest was very well done and handled. My heart hurt for what Eli and Maya had both been through and are still dealing with. Bringing them together and allowing them to be friends and lean on each other was instrumental to the heart of story. Major trigger warnings for kidnapping, mental health and abuse.
skeen1934's review against another edition
4.0
No one should ever have had to deal with what they did in such a short period of time. I wanted more than once to hug Eli and Maya.. This book was so emotional and packed with so much suspense.
Elain Martinez is abducted on his way home from school and held captive for 3.5 years while being brainwashed.. His abductor spends years breaking him down and reprogramming him until the fateful day he leads him into a mall strapped with a bomb to his body..
This book deals with so many sensitive topics. It is definitely best suited for older audiences. This book explores deeper parts of life. It was a heavy reading. I couldn't stop turning the pages...
Elain Martinez is abducted on his way home from school and held captive for 3.5 years while being brainwashed.. His abductor spends years breaking him down and reprogramming him until the fateful day he leads him into a mall strapped with a bomb to his body..
This book deals with so many sensitive topics. It is definitely best suited for older audiences. This book explores deeper parts of life. It was a heavy reading. I couldn't stop turning the pages...
cewhisenant's review against another edition
4.0
That was not only incredibly well written and suspenseful but possibly one of the most emotionally straining and stressful reads of my life. I felt so much for Eli and Maya. It was hard to read at times, definitely for a more mature audience than most YA, but absolutely amazing and I would highly recommend it to all lovers of thrillers.
Wow.
Wow.
caledonia's review against another edition
4.0
It took a while for me to read this because I would get to the scenes with Graham and I just Could Not. I really appreciated the ending between Maya and Eli because normally they give the trauma survivors a romance to cure them and instead they had friendship and nightmares and they were going to be okay.
ziyuelan's review against another edition
2.0
Kind of really disappointed that it wasn’t as interesting as the synopsis but kind of also knew that it wasn’t going to be amazing after reading the first 100 pages.
I had thought of giving up on the book but I was curious to know where this was going and it didn’t live up.
I had thought of giving up on the book but I was curious to know where this was going and it didn’t live up.
thechronicknitter's review against another edition
4.0
Elián Martinez was 10 years old when he was kidnapped walking home from school. Three years later at 14 he shows up at a local Seattle mall with a bomb strapped to his abdomen.
Maya Abrams is at the mall with her dad who is getting a new photo for his driver’s license to reflect the “new him.” She notices a boy in a wolf mask standing in the middle of the waiting room for the Department of Licensing. The boy seems lost, alone, sad so she goes up to him, and that is when she notices the detonator in his hand with a wire snaking into the arm of his sweatshirt, the bulges around his abdomen. She grabs his hand, putting her thumb over his so he cannot release the detonator and set off the bomb. Maya warns the people around them that he has a bomb. They go through the trauma together and then never see each other for over a year. Both suffering from PTSD getting therapy, and trying to put their lives back together. After that year, they both end up at Elliot High School, Maya as an 18 year old senior and now, and Eli Rivera as a 15 year old freshman. It is key for Eli’s true identity to remain a secret. Eli has difficulty doing regular tasks, like ordering lunch and eating the food off of a tray, nevermind socializing. One day he gets a note from his locker asking if he wants to hang out and saying that they know who he really is. A part of him feels like he should tell someone but the note seems friendly and it would be nice to have a friend that he doesn’t have to lie to about the last 5 years. It turns out to be the only other kid at his lunch table, named Graham who is a nerd and who gets bullied by some of the more popular kids. Graham seems unstable, always talking about being lonely, about not being understood, and more frighteningly killing everyone else in the world except him and Eli because that would make everything better. Near the end of the book Eli starts to realize that Graham is serious and he has to decide whether to remain silent or let someone know so they can stop and help Graham. While Maya and Eli are not supposed to speak to one another so as to not to blow Eli’s cover, they find that they are drawn together. They seem to understand one another and can help each other through their trauma better than anyone else. Even though Maya’s trauma started on that day and Eli’s began years before. As the anniversary of the thwarted bombing looms closer both Maya and Eli live in fear of Gabriel’s return and his vengeance, but perhaps he is no longer their biggest problem? Eli is of Latin American heritage, one biracial Asian/white minor character, and everyone else is assumed white. Emerson has obviously done tons of research for this novel. His PTSD and anxiety depictions ring true allowing the reader to really get a feeling for what is going on in Maya and Eli’s heads. It is a thriller that keeps the reader interested and reading late into the night. Emerson does an amazing job of reminding readers that a house or person can look normal from the outside, but you never know what’s going on beneath the surface unless you explore. As readers, we see what is off about Graham and the various warning signs that something isn’t quite right which will hopefully help kids speak out when there is someone in their school who desperately needs help before they do something that cannot be taken back.
This is a challenging book where readers see the moment(s) that “broke” the main characters and then have as watch as they struggle over and over, but succeed, in slowly building themselves back up again. A powerful read that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Maya Abrams is at the mall with her dad who is getting a new photo for his driver’s license to reflect the “new him.” She notices a boy in a wolf mask standing in the middle of the waiting room for the Department of Licensing. The boy seems lost, alone, sad so she goes up to him, and that is when she notices the detonator in his hand with a wire snaking into the arm of his sweatshirt, the bulges around his abdomen. She grabs his hand, putting her thumb over his so he cannot release the detonator and set off the bomb. Maya warns the people around them that he has a bomb. They go through the trauma together and then never see each other for over a year. Both suffering from PTSD getting therapy, and trying to put their lives back together. After that year, they both end up at Elliot High School, Maya as an 18 year old senior and now, and Eli Rivera as a 15 year old freshman. It is key for Eli’s true identity to remain a secret. Eli has difficulty doing regular tasks, like ordering lunch and eating the food off of a tray, nevermind socializing. One day he gets a note from his locker asking if he wants to hang out and saying that they know who he really is. A part of him feels like he should tell someone but the note seems friendly and it would be nice to have a friend that he doesn’t have to lie to about the last 5 years. It turns out to be the only other kid at his lunch table, named Graham who is a nerd and who gets bullied by some of the more popular kids. Graham seems unstable, always talking about being lonely, about not being understood, and more frighteningly killing everyone else in the world except him and Eli because that would make everything better. Near the end of the book Eli starts to realize that Graham is serious and he has to decide whether to remain silent or let someone know so they can stop and help Graham. While Maya and Eli are not supposed to speak to one another so as to not to blow Eli’s cover, they find that they are drawn together. They seem to understand one another and can help each other through their trauma better than anyone else. Even though Maya’s trauma started on that day and Eli’s began years before. As the anniversary of the thwarted bombing looms closer both Maya and Eli live in fear of Gabriel’s return and his vengeance, but perhaps he is no longer their biggest problem? Eli is of Latin American heritage, one biracial Asian/white minor character, and everyone else is assumed white. Emerson has obviously done tons of research for this novel. His PTSD and anxiety depictions ring true allowing the reader to really get a feeling for what is going on in Maya and Eli’s heads. It is a thriller that keeps the reader interested and reading late into the night. Emerson does an amazing job of reminding readers that a house or person can look normal from the outside, but you never know what’s going on beneath the surface unless you explore. As readers, we see what is off about Graham and the various warning signs that something isn’t quite right which will hopefully help kids speak out when there is someone in their school who desperately needs help before they do something that cannot be taken back.
This is a challenging book where readers see the moment(s) that “broke” the main characters and then have as watch as they struggle over and over, but succeed, in slowly building themselves back up again. A powerful read that keeps you on the edge of your seat.