One Minute to Midnight

by Aina M. Rosdi

One last moment.
A second chance.
And the clock is ticking...

The fortuitous events of meeting her future husband, and eventually, becoming a young mother herself, has unexpectedly shed some light on Sasha's mixed and confused emotional well-being - she knows it has something to do with her past. A grainy truth that had nearly costs her life. But she is determined to put it behind her and move on, until the unexpected happened.

Her son is diagnosed with a terminal illness and suddenly Sasha is whirl back to where she started; to the memories she’d rather forget. Bombarding with the excruciating, long list of unmatched donors and the inevitability that her only child has little time left, she is forced to track her way back to the family she no longer wish to be associated with.

Growing up as a shadow child, can Sasha fit the pieces of jigsaw back together and will she be able to make amend with the woman of her past? Can she do it in time, before everything becomes too late?

One Minute to Midnight is a piercing, heart-breaking portrayal of how one, sinful mistake between two persons would lead to a life-threatening situation of a third.

437 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2015

About the author

Welcome to my Goodreads page. Thank you for dropping by.

I previously wrote under the pen name (Diyar Harraz) with Jemari Seni.

My debut novel, After the Storm was nominated for the Popular’s Readers Choice Award in 2015. My second novel, One Minute to Midnight was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award 2017. Consecutively, in November 2017, my latest novel: Like the Starlings was also longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award 2018.

Reviews

[Mirahakimah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book will messed up with your emotions but through out the ending it will give you a warm feeling. This book focused more on flashback about the main character (Sasha) when she was a teenager. How she lives a dark life and it affected her when she became a young adult. This book makes you want to believe that miracle can happen at the right time. One of the lesson in the novel is don't make hatred get the best of you and you don't tell strangers I mean journalist about your secret because things will get worst. The character in the novel has their own strength. I personally like Rania. Yeah she's a problematic, likes to yell at her daughter but deep down she really loves Sasha and want the best for her. She just lost and don't know how to make things better. Then come Zaheed. Her savior. I think I just end my review here because I don't want to give spoiler. Overall I enjoyed and have a great adventure while I'm reading this book.

[Fatini Zulkifli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review will be provided later. InshaAllah.

[Farhana Zukri · Rating 4 out of 5]

If not due to the fact that I was at work when completing this book, I was so sure I'd bawl my eyes out. I was mad at Sasha, Rania, Haiqal, Zayd and.... yeah, the list was a long one. For Sasha, her mother hated her entire existence and she was blinded by the hatred till she couldn't see that she wouldn't exist if Rania truly hated her. For Rania, she only knew how to run away from her past instead of confronting it. And Haiqal? Well, he did bring Sasha out of the living hell, yet he created another hell for her. What a coward.

Sasha's world became grey when her beloved son being diagnosed with terminal illness. She was an awkward character, no wonder her husband, Zayd couldn't understand whether she needed him or not. Parenthood wasn't easy for both of them, especially for Sasha who ran away from her haunting past.

Zaheed became my favourite character even though he was just a supporting one. He dealt with his demons and even though he longed to reconcile with his family, especially his father, he stood firm in what he saw right. You deserve a standing ovation for what you did to Sasha and Rania.

I couldn't say I was a fan of the author's writing. There were minor typos and grammatical errors but what disturbed me the most was there were more tells instead of shows. Please show, don't tell. All the tellings bored me. I hope the author's writing would improve for her next book :) I'm your new fan!

[Nana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Realiti mentaliti masyarakat yang lebih suka. Menghukum dan menghakimi berbanding membimbing dan memberi kasih sayang. Namun apa2 pun, tidak semestinya orang yang punya masa lampau dulu tidak berpeluang membina masa depan yang baik.

[Yazlina Saduri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sebuah novel dalam Bahasa Inggeris karya penulis Melayu yang dapat saya baca tahun ini. Tak begitu breezy pembacaan saya, masih ada rasa seperti some kind of translation, atau saya yang tidak dapat menghayati. Seorang gadis bust silap besar selepas tak mahu dengar nasihat orang tuanya. Ayah dia larang, lagi dia buat, bila sudah terlanjur, dia harap ayahnya dapat terima and live with her mistake. Mungkin dia juga blame ayahnya kerana kongkong kehidupannya sangat. Ayahnya pula, tetap tak mahu mengalah. Anak dara tu dah buat silap, terimalah balasannya. Siapa yang salah?

So Rania yang terlalu muda dan tidak pula berjaya meraih simpati lelaki yang membuntingkannya, hidup nya tentulah tidak "all rosy". Dia bawa kepedihannya kepada anak ya Sasya. Sasya pun jenis memberontak, retaliate dan sama dengan perangai ibunya, suka cari pasal dan buat masaalah. Lalu berpanjangan lah episode "tough life".

Saya rasa terlalu terlebih bila Sasya sengaja put the blame of what happened to her in the woods, on her Mom and left her to go to jail. Yang Si gila publisiti materialistic Farhana, sangat jahat.
LAST last, okay lah. But nope, I don't feel the love much

[Ayda Razak · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is divided into three parts. Part 1 talked about the present, part 2 talked about the past and the last part, talked about how the people in this story confronted their pasts.

I don’t like most of the characters in this book especially the stubborn and entitled Sasha. The only character that I come to like is the selfless Zaheed.