Split Second By Sophie McKenzie

I checked Goodreads for the rating on Split Second by Sophie McKenzie before I bought the book. It has a high rating of 4.02 but I forgot to check what genre of book it was.  The book got off to a good start but after reading for some time, I began to feel that the two protagonists Nat and Charlie are rather naive. I struggled to take the book seriously as I felt one must be young and gullible to be able to truly enjoy the book. I am not saying it is a lousy book. In fact, it is quite an interesting book with its fair share of twists but it is targeted at young adults. What is a senior citizen like me doing reading a young adult book?  

The book is told from the point of views of Nat and Charlie in alternate chapters.  Each chapter is quite short and I just breezed through the book as it is an easy read.

As the book opens, Nat is desperately searching for his brother Lucas in Canal Street Market in London. Nat knows a bomb is about to go off and he knows his brother has something to do with it. At the same time and in the same area, Charlie is having an argument with her mother about getting a tattoo, an argument that will haunt her for the rest of her life.

When the bomb goes off, Charlie’s mother is killed and Nat’s brother is left fighting for his life in a coma. This is London in the not-too-distant future. Times are tough: more and more austerity measures being implemented, people are queuing for free food handout, corruption among politicians and police seems rampant, racial unrest is rising and racist groups are getting more extreme.  

Six months after the bombing,  Nat and Charlie are looking for answers and also revenge. They find they are classmates at the fancy private school that Charlie has been moved to when she goes to live with her wealthy uncle. Charlie becomes a close friend of Jas, Nat’s twin sister. Nat gives Charlie the cold shoulder from day one, worried that she’ll learn the true nature of his brother’s involvement in her mother’s death.

Charlie and Nat find themselves caught in the middle of a dangerous web of political lies and terrorist groups. Radical idealists recruit the teenagers but Nat and Charlie need to work out how they feel about each other and which side they’re really on. The novel is a fast-paced plot with so many twists.

Sophie McKenzie’s fast-paced thriller is just the first installment of Nat and Charlie’s story. Their story will continue in the sequel Every Second Counts.