Time Bomb by Joelle Charbonneau

From Goodreads,

"A congressman's daughter who has to be perfect. A star quarterback with a secret. A guy who's tired of being ignored. A clarinet player who's done trying to fit in. An orphaned rebel who wants to teach someone a lesson. A guy who wants people to see him, not his religion.

They couldn't be more different, but before the morning's over, they'll all be trapped in a school that's been rocked by a bombing. When they hear that someone inside is the bomber, they'll also be looking to one another for answers."

Goodreads - Time Bomb

Any time that I go into Books A Million I check out the teen reads section.  I glance over the covers to find one that is appealing and then I read the synopsis to decide if I want to read it.  This was a book that I picked up, read the synopsis and put down.  But after roaming the store a while longer I decided to go back and get the book.

This book is told from the perspective of six very different students who attend the same high school.  On one day before school starts they are all in the school for various reasons when a bomb goes off.  Each student has to fight to survive and get out.  Eventually the students realize that one of the bombers is among them and they need to figure out who it is quickly before another bomb goes off.

This book wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be.  One of the things that I was upset with at the beginning was sorting the characters and the character progression.  I found it hard to keep the different characters sorted and organized at the beginning.  As the book progressed I was able to connect small details to names to help me better remember them and keep them sorted.  As the book went on I was glad it was a slow progression because we got to learn about the characters through the others' eyes.  I also thought that the students would all be trapped in the same room when the bomb exploded, but that wasn't the case.  The students were all in varying locations and slowly started finding each other and working together.  At first I was kind of irritated about it, but I found that having the students progress through the burning building alone or in pairs helped me to better figure out who the bomber was and why they were doing it.  The slow progression and the placement of characters during the bombing really helped this book keep a level of excitement and mystery to it.

When I first started reading this book I immediately knew the direction the book was headed.  One of the students has a father who is a senator.  I knew immediately that the bombing would have some relation to him and his trying to pass a bill called Safety Through Education.  While the ending ended up being different than I expected there was still the agenda to gain attention for the bill.  I was disappointed because I had called it from the beginning and had hoped the entire time that it would turn out differently.

The book was a little bit predictable, but the character's being scattered in the book and slowly getting to know them helped keep a sense of mystery to the story.  I was constantly wondering who was the bomber and why, even though deep down I knew.  I give this book 4 stars and recommend it to people who like mystery or thriller books.