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caribbeangirlreading's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Some books are to be read with your mind. This is a book that has to be read with the heart. Emma Straub has written a quiet yet deeply emotional book that was completely devoid of manipulation, or over-the-top drama, or forced humor. Some readers will love the 90s pop culture references. Some readers will love the time travel story line. What I loved the most was that this was basically a love story between a daughter and her father.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Medical content and Abandonment
Minor: Alcohol, Cancer, Drug use, and Sexual content
kelsea's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Drug use and Alcohol
kat_impossible's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.5
First, I feel like I need to apologize for being so late with my review for Emma Straub's This Time Tomorrow. I always try to review ARCs I receive in a timely manner to make sure I can help create some buzz around the release date, but I really had to take my time with this one. This has very little to do with it not being good - on the contrary, it was gobsmackingly fantastic and I forced myself to not start another chapter several times - but rather with the fact that this currently hits way too close to home.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's work our way through this from the start to my emotional destruction.
A TIME TRAVEL LOVE STORY?
I'm sure when you hear "time travel love story" the likes of The Time Traveler's Wife, 13 Going on 30 or the Lake House come to mind. This Time Tomorrow is no such tale. Instead it is the love story between a single parent and his daughter. It's about the relationships we forge and neglect over time, the questions that remain unanswered and the very human urge to play with the very fabric of time if it meant to get a couple seconds more.
Told from Alice Stern's perspective, we follow her from her 40s to her 16th birthday and back again. We get to see the consequences of her actions, but also the underlying motivation for everything - more time with her dying father. She's a very chaotic, but relatable lead to follow and I could understand many of her choices, even if I didn't agree with the selfishness of it all at times. I don't know if I could live with fundamentally altering other people's lives to gain something in mine, but as I said, I understood her motivations perfectly. A grieving heart can be capable of a lot.
THE SCI-FI ASPECT?
While I love time travel and science fiction (my Doctor Who phase is proof enough), this wasn't really like anything I had read or seen before. To me, the take on how the time travel worked, what and how it affected things and people, felt very unique. And yet, This Time Tomorrow also felt very grounded. The present day New York City setting, the heavy focus on relationships and nostalgia rather than gimmicky machines or quantum physics and the almost meta approach of Alice's father Leonard Stern being a renowned author of a time travel book series, made it approachable and charming, rather than confusing.
VERDICT
The author, Emma Straub, has mentioned in many interviews that this is a very personal, almost autobiographical story and I think that very much comes through when you read it. I wept early on in the book, several times throughout and then just plain through the entirety of the final part. As I said early on, it could have had something to do with it just being a little bit too close for comfort right now, but I strongly believe in books finding you at the right time. This one was another one that went straight for the heart.
Fazit: 4.5/5 stars! I silently cried through large chunks of it, what other rating did you expect?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Drug use
izwit's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, and Grief
atamano's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, and Grief
Minor: Sexual content
ncoletti's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Grief
deedireads's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
This Time Tomorrow is a heartwarming, tear-jerking super-readable novel about nostalgia and a daughter’s fierce love for (and from) a single parent. I really, really enjoyed it.
For you if: You’re a litfic reader looking for something a bit on the lighter side, but still excellent.
FULL REVIEW:
Emma Straub does it again, y’all. (Did we have any doubts?) Compulsively readable (without being fluffy), This Time Tomorrow is a fresh and fun approach to the time-travel story — sort of a reverse 13 Going on 30, and at once heartwarming and tear-jerking. I read the last two-thirds in a single sitting and just loved the whole experience so much.
The story is about a woman named Alice, who grew up on the Upper West Side with a single father (whose livelihood happened to be secured when his only published novel was turned into a beloved TV show). We start at her 40th birthday — she’s doing OK, but struggling with a meh career, a busy best friend, and the terminal illness of her father. But then she wakes up the next morning, and … she’s 16 again!
I won’t give anything else away, because part of the beauty of this book was discovering how Alice reacted, what she ultimately wanted, and everything that came next. But here’s what you can expect from this one: laughter, tears, nostalgia, deep friendship, regrets (or not), what it means to lead a life well-lived, what matters most and what matters least and how we only know the difference in hindsight — oh, and a possibly magical cat.
If you’re a contemporary reader looking for something a little deeper, or a literary fiction reader looking for something a little lighter, this is the perfect in-between. The perfectly timed beach read for litfic lovers. Fun and heart and time travel.
TL;DR REVIEW:
This Time Tomorrow is a heartwarming, tear-jerking super-readable novel about nostalgia and a daughter’s fierce love for (and from) a single parent. I really, really enjoyed it.
For you if: You’re a litfic reader looking for something a bit on the lighter side, but still excellent.
FULL REVIEW:
Emma Straub does it again, y’all. (Did we have any doubts?) Compulsively readable (without being fluffy), This Time Tomorrow is a fresh and fun approach to the time-travel story — sort of a reverse 13 Going on 30, and at once heartwarming and tear-jerking. I read the last two-thirds in a single sitting and just loved the whole experience so much.
The story is about a woman named Alice, who grew up on the Upper West Side with a single father (whose livelihood happened to be secured when his only published novel was turned into a beloved TV show). We start at her 40th birthday — she’s doing OK, but struggling with a meh career, a busy best friend, and the terminal illness of her father. But then she wakes up the next morning, and … she’s 16 again!
I won’t give anything else away, because part of the beauty of this book was discovering how Alice reacted, what she ultimately wanted, and everything that came next. But here’s what you can expect from this one: laughter, tears, nostalgia, deep friendship, regrets (or not), what it means to lead a life well-lived, what matters most and what matters least and how we only know the difference in hindsight — oh, and a possibly magical cat.
If you’re a contemporary reader looking for something a little deeper, or a literary fiction reader looking for something a little lighter, this is the perfect in-between. The perfectly timed beach read for litfic lovers. Fun and heart and time travel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Alcohol and Drug use
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