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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-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:
Complicated
I need to confess that at first I thought it was going to be a cheesy novel, but it got me in the reflections about building and nurturing relations along the life. There are a few facts that don't make sense, like when she is having trouble remembering things, and someone says how much she shares stuff on Instagram and she does not check her account. But overall, it is a good novel to spend time with and have some fun.
Main character follows in her dad’s footsteps, time traveling back to the same moment in time. She tries to change the sequence of events that lead to her present day life, motivated by the desire to extend her dad’s life.
funny
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:
N/A
This is my first Emma Straub book. I read it solely because it was a time travel story. I found Part 1 to be extremely boring. I fell asleep twice while the author explained things around her that were completely irrelevant to the story and never mentioned again. It became a little more interesting to me when the time travel began, but it felt like it took so long for me to get there, but that’s probably because I was sleeping part of that time.
There are some spoilers beyond this point.
I really began to enjoy the story more once Alice told her Dad about the time travel, and he revealed that he had done it, too. I liked the twist that it took each of them to a different day that was significant or special to them. That was something unique that makes you stop and think about what you might do differently if given the chance.
When she went quickly through multiple iterations of her visits (like they do in Groundhog Day), I expected her to be farther along than just two weeks once that was revealed. It seemed like she listed a lot of things for only two weeks to have passed. It also made it a little harder to think about just those two weeks affecting her physical health already when her Dad had clearly been doing it for years before it severely affected him.
It made it a sad revelation that it was the time travel making him sick, not all the other things she was trying to fix, but it also made a nice little twist for the storyline. I appreciated the ending that she just let it happen as it was supposed to because he was clearly happy going back to that day, but at the same time, it might have been nice if she had told him to stop and they both stopped on the same day so that he wouldn’t have been sick. I was hoping for that ending.
I only partially agree about hope endings being better than happy endings. I suppose we are to imagine that she and Kenji fall in love, and she gets to live close to her friend Sam, but I kind of would have preferred the happy ending on both counts (her Dad and her finally finding true love). It was still a nice story. Had it not been for the sleep-inducing, unnecessary rambling of useless information at the beginning, this book would be four stars for me, just because I love a good time travel story.
There are some spoilers beyond this point.
I really began to enjoy the story more once Alice told her Dad about the time travel, and he revealed that he had done it, too. I liked the twist that it took each of them to a different day that was significant or special to them. That was something unique that makes you stop and think about what you might do differently if given the chance.
When she went quickly through multiple iterations of her visits (like they do in Groundhog Day), I expected her to be farther along than just two weeks once that was revealed. It seemed like she listed a lot of things for only two weeks to have passed. It also made it a little harder to think about just those two weeks affecting her physical health already when her Dad had clearly been doing it for years before it severely affected him.
It made it a sad revelation that it was the time travel making him sick, not all the other things she was trying to fix, but it also made a nice little twist for the storyline. I appreciated the ending that she just let it happen as it was supposed to because he was clearly happy going back to that day, but at the same time, it might have been nice if she had told him to stop and they both stopped on the same day so that he wouldn’t have been sick. I was hoping for that ending.
I only partially agree about hope endings being better than happy endings. I suppose we are to imagine that she and Kenji fall in love, and she gets to live close to her friend Sam, but I kind of would have preferred the happy ending on both counts (her Dad and her finally finding true love). It was still a nice story. Had it not been for the sleep-inducing, unnecessary rambling of useless information at the beginning, this book would be four stars for me, just because I love a good time travel story.
i enjoyed it, but it did get a little confusing when the time traveling started happening. definitely makes you think about how decisions you make could change your entire life course.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced