Twenty-Four Seconds From Now: A Regular Love Story, from a #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
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By Jason Reynolds
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A tender teen love story from the Carnegie-winning author of Look Both Ways.
‘Jason Reynolds has done it again!’ Judy Blume
Seventeen-year-old Neon is about to have sex with his girlfriend, Aria, for the first time. In 24 seconds to be precise. He’s hiding in the bathroom, nervous, wanting to do everything right . . .
Rewind. To 24 minutes earlier where Neon rushes from work, taking the gift of fried chicken to Aria’s house.
Rewind again. To 24 hours earlier when Neon’s big sister has advice about sex which makes him think he probably shouldn’t be listening to his friends.
To 24 days earlier. To 24 weeks earlier. To 24 months earlier, when he and Aria first met.
This tender, sweet, wholesome piece of fiction discusses how to approach first sex, how to respect women, how to be gentle, how to make it about love. It shows us a refreshingly different side to male sexuality.
‘Twenty-Four Seconds From Now will stay with readers for years to come. A gem of a book!’ Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give
Jason Reynolds won the Carnegie Medal for his book, Look Both Ways, in 2019 and was a New York Times #1 bestseller on 3rd November of the same year.
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I didn’t expect this to feel this gentle.
Not soft in a forgettable way. Soft in a steady way. Like something that actually knows what it’s doing and doesn’t need to shout about it.
I picked up Twenty-Four Seconds from Now for the Carnegies, ready for something worthy, maybe a bit heavy-handed. Instead—this. A boy in a bathroom. Spiralling. Thinking too much. Twenty-four seconds away from a moment that feels enormous. And everything inside his head unravelling at once.
Memories. Advice. Fear. Want. Love.
It’s such a simple premise. But it works.
Because what Jason Reynolds does here is very deliberate. He strips everything back. No chaos for the sake of it. No forced trauma. No messy, dysfunctional relationship thrown in to make it “real.” And honestly?
That absence is what makes this feel so powerful.
Neon is just… a good boy. Not perfect. Not polished. Just thoughtful. Nervous. Trying to do the right thing.
And Aria? Warm. Present. Real. Someone you understand immediately without needing dramatic backstory. Their relationship isn’t built on tension or games. It’s built on care. Actual care. Which feels almost radical when you’ve read enough YA to know how often we default to dysfunction.
And then there are the conversations.
His mum. His dad. His sister. They talk to him. Properly. About intimacy, about respect, about what it means to be with someone - not just physically, but emotionally. No shame. No weird moral panic. No awkward dodging. Just… honesty. I kept thinking how rare that is. How necessary that is. This book doesn’t lecture. It doesn’t position itself as “educational.” But quietly, almost without you noticing, it models something better.
Be kind. Pay attention. Don’t treat someone like a body.
Simple. But not simplistic.
The structure could have been a mess.
This looping, stream-of-consciousness movement through time - twenty-four months, weeks, days, minutes… It should feel chaotic. But instead it feels like being inside a very specific kind of teenage panic.
Fast. Overloaded. A bit funny. A bit overwhelming. Completely believable. And the tone - this is what really got me. It’s clean. Not sanitised. Just… free of cynicism. No edge for the sake of edge. No darkness shoved in to prove a point. Just a story that trusts itself. So wholesome.
I loved that. Genuinely.
This is exactly the kind of book I want 14+ readers to have access to. Not because it’s “safe.” But because it shows something quietly right. Something thoughtful. Kind. Grounded. And honestly? That feels rarer than it should.
