Counting The Seconds

by I. Ogunbase

If a person is in grave danger, time will slow down around them to give them a chance to survive. The bigger the danger, the slower the time. This phenomenon may only occur once in a person’s life. Except this time, Time has stopped. Completely.

121 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 4, 2019

About the author

I. Ogunbase is an up and coming author starting with his first book, 'Counting The Seconds', and the recently released ‘Alpha’, which is the first book of ‘The Hierarchy Trilogy’.

He's an avid reader with some of his favourite books including the ‘Wheel of Time’ series, the ‘Malazan’ series, the ‘Harry Potter’ series, the ‘Old Kingdom’ series and alike. As his influences, he enjoys writing and musing about fantastical and supernatural stories.

He also likes to dabble in answering random writing prompts around the internet, across different genres as it ‘gives him a chance to exercise his literary muscles whenever he can’.

When not writing, or working, he spends his time either playing video games, coding, reading comics and novels or enjoying movies with his fiancee and friends.

Reviews

[Anna Zheng · Rating 2 out of 5]

*I received a free copy of this book from the author via Voracious Readers Only in exchange for an honest review*

The premise of the story was interesting, and I was quite into the journal format of the book. That being said, there's no point in the story. In the first half of the story, there were a couple of episodes that kept the story going. Plus, when Anna killed the Jaguar, it was all very gasp gasp.
However, after that point, the story just dragged on and on, especially when Zane got his journal stolen and we had to deal with all these pointless characters (I understand that this was probably to humanize these characters and show how the time stop was affecting them, but I could not care for it)
The ending was so underwhelming, and I could not wrap my head around how that was how the story truly ended. They theorized that the time stop was due to the meteorite and some of the characters were working on a way to stop it from destroying Earth. However, in the end, all the characters either were killed off or committed suicide, and the story just jumps from that to the epilogue where it's been years since time went back to normal. There's no explanation for how the time stop ended.
I expected the story to be about the characters working to figure out and end their predicament, but the story was just mostly about the MC writing in a journal. Overall, I was disappointed.

[Graham · Rating 1 out of 5]

This story was reasonably interesting at the highest level. Unfortunately, it hadn't been well-edited, had lots of parts that felt rather pointless, and didn't need a whole section devoted to how a group of villains repeatedly raped women.

[Luna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started reading this because I had read the preview on Reddit. The concept hooked me immediately. But the problem with writers on Reddit is that they are quite good at short stories (a few pages,) but when they get to novella length, their skill tends to falter and the work suffers for it.

Disregarding the spelling mistakes, which I can live with but aren't great, here were my main complaints about this book:

The characters took turns writing in the journal. Why?? This really took me out of the story. It seems like such a little thing and maybe it's just me, but I could not suspend my disbelief enough to imagine all these people just passing around a journal, writing secrets in it, but refusing to talk about those secrets with each other.

The casual racism and dismissal of the effects of rape. Rape was called "lovemaking," discussed very lightly... it just grossed me out. Characters named Pico and Ricardo (I think... there were too many characters to remember everyone's names) were "almost indistinguishable" and went out to steal drugs all the time. AAVE was misused and used without respect to imitate one of the Black character's writing. "Errthang" was used unironically.

The ending, of course. It wasn't just Deus Ex Machina, it was Deus Ex Machina *behind the scenes and without explanation.*

It just felt like it dragged on. The beginning was interesting. I stopped about 50% of the way through due to disinterest, and then started again because I wanted to get it off of my "currently reading" list.

I wish this idea had been experimented with by a better writer. Or maybe even revisited by this author when they have more experience under their belt.

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got a free copy of this book via Voracious Readers Only in exchange for an honest review.
Wow, it's been a while since a book got me this hooked.

What I liked:
-The narration was really creative. The journal entries alone were really interesting since you got to know all the characters and their thoughts, but the interviews to frame the whole thing - it just felt like an actual paper on the events
-The pacing was obviously perfect since there wouldn't have been a point in writing a journal entry if nothing on nothing
-I really cared for most of the characters which doesn't happen in too many books
-That it's not over yet. The story's finished but it's not over. It's hard to say without spoiling anything but if you read it, you know what I mean

What I didn't like:
-There were a few typos which didn't bother me too much but I really couldn't think of anything else I could say here

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

*I received a free copy of this book from the author via voracious readers only in exchange for an honest review*
I’m not keen on the journal format in books it can come across as quite distant and disjointed and it can affect your bond with the characters. However, this one was done quite well and seemed to flow really well without having too many big jumps in story between journal entries. It was fast paced and there was quite a lot going on, it was quite emotional in places as well, taking a few turns I didn’t expect. The only thing that bothered me about this book was that I’d liked to have known what the rest of the world do after and how/ if they fix things.

[Gabrielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first read the book sypnosis, it sounded like something new and inventive. A concept I hadn't seen much of. I began to read the book and I enjoyed the characters, the little twist and the method of writing it. However, not even half way through the book, all the other characters from the camp were writing and it felt like the story began to drag on. My interest picked up more when Zane finally got the journal back, but then the ending threw me off. It was good, but I felt like there could have been more to it.

I received a free copy of this book from Voracious Readers Only.

[Michael Steele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fleshed our of a Reddit writing prompt, Counting the Seconds builds out the dismal, almost-dystopian world following a time-stop that leaves a small population trapped in a frozen instant. I enjoyed the structure of multiple individuals journaling collectively and I appreciated the search for answers and safety, but I always wanted a little bit more than what was on the page. The edition of the short novel wasn’t fully proofread which is what drops my rating down to three stars, but I’d definitely read future works by this author.

[Janet Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Science Fiction
I love this story. This has all of the makings of a Twilight Zone movie. The speculative fiction portion is possible. The ending leaves much to the imagination. And in between lie all of the 'what if's' found in the works of great story-tellers. I can't wait to read more of this author's work. I received this ARC book for free from Booksprouts and this is my honest review.

[Ricardo Labra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable Evening

This story is one that I don't believe that I have hear before or even thought of. Even though the story is completely made up, it has its foot planted in reality as if it could be possible and that is the beauty of it. While it is not perfect it is an enjoyable read for the evening.

[Pat Eroh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an original story that is well-written and compelling. I did not want to put it down until the end. I read it in one sitting. It was engaging and the characters are well-developed and believable. I am looking forward to reading more by this author.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Ifyy Adejumo · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a read!

I’m not a generally a fan of diary style writing but this just blew me away. It has a good progression and the end wasn’t one I could see even up until a page away. Great work and looking forward to more from I Ogunbase.

[Rachael · Rating 5 out of 5]

A single blink and then over.

Grabbed me and held on, nice portrayal of the struggle within. A bit on the tragic side, but believably so.