
We don't know how high the death toll was. The best we get is that, since the epilogue takes place in 2081 with a manned space mission, the doppelgangers that made it to Earth were eventually stopped. The fake Mia kills Murray, the friendly homeless man that Mia encountered before leaving for the Moon, along with Mia's family, and the Distant Finale implies that a horde of the Mia doppelgangers went on a rampage on Earth afterwards.
Downer Ending: It's not Mia, but her doppelganger who made it back to Earth. Death of a Child: A few major characters who die are teenagers or younger including Mia's little brother at the end. Evil Twin: Everyone who travels to the moon will encounter a doppelganger hell-bent on killing the original and using them to create more doppelgangers. Distant Finale: The epilogue takes place in 2081, in the form of a report by a manned space mission on its way to Europa, concerning the evidence of the book's events that they found on the Moon. Developing Doomed Characters: Most of the named characters who appear get at least a few scenes developing their personality and background, and most of them don't make it to the end of the book. Only it's not the real Mia but her doppelganger, and she's about to go on an Axe-Crazy rampage in one of the most populated cities in the world. Cruel Twist Ending: Mia makes it back to Earth safely and is reunited with her family. Cruel and Unusual Death: Lots of people are left to suffocate or die of exposure on the Moon's surface, and those are just the ones we get to read about in detail. Mia's little brother noticing that the Mia who returned to Earth has messed-up eyes is one of the clues that it's not the real Mia at all. Black Eyes of Evil: All of the doppelgangers possess these. Apocalyptic Log: Mia's last note in the epilogue.
It's a hint that there's something waiting for the protagonists up on the Moon. Arc Number: The sequence 6EQUJ5, also known as the famous "Wow!" signal, appears repeatedly throughout the book.The novel follows the winners, Mia, Midori, and Antoine, as they slowly begin to realize that something isn't quite right with this trip, and that there might be something waiting for them on the Moon that nobody was ever supposed to know about.
The prize: three lucky winners will get to spend one week on a lunar base alongside the team of astronauts picked for the mission. In 2019, NASA needs to jumpstart a renewed interest in space travel in order to bolster funding, so they hold a worldwide contest for teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18. DARLAH (released in English as 172 Hours on the Moon) is a 2008 sci-fi/horror novel by Norwegian author Johan Harstad.