Genre 📚: YA Contemporary Fantasy, Romance
Tropes 💁♀️: Death countdown, Foreknowledge, Carpe Diem
Rep ✔️: Jewish American main character, queer side character
CW ⚠️: Loss of a loved one, grief, stalking/harassment, gun violence, cancer and other terminal illnesses
Rating ⭐️: 4/5
There are some fictional superpowers I wish I had and some I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. This? Yeah, this power falls into the latter. In Darianne Schramm’s debut novel, the MC Sydney knows when people have less than 72 hours left to live. She’ll see a neon pink countdown timer above the person’s head, essentially mocking her. Because even with this ability, there’s nothing she can do about it. She can’t save them.
For years, Syd has lived in a deep depression, keeping her ability a secret and holding in all that grief and anger. Then, there’s the new boy in town. Peter takes notice of Syd, and he immediately clocks her suppressed pain. He eventually gets the secret out of her, and as scary as it is, it’s also an incredible relief. He inspires her to team up and go out to the city, find more “Clockers” and do small gestures to make their last day a little better. It’s not saving them, but it’s doing something. And… well… This was fucking sad. I don’t know how else to say it.
There’s a lot of dark humor for the characters to cope, and probably for us readers to cope, but my god. It couldn’t prepare me for the total heartbreak that unraveled. Sydney’s rage was so big and loud that I felt that rage in me. Like, why IS she seeing these clocks? Why CAN’T she stop these deaths? Just, WHY? On the flip side, Peter’s kindness and patience was soothing. He was definitely the “manic pixie dream boy” type (the characters acknowledge this themselves), but he was still delightful. His and Syd’s whole love story was delightful, as painful as it was.
**Much thanks to NetGalley and Disney Hyperion for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 72 Hours of You will be released on September 1, 2026.
Sara Bechtol 