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kelly_e's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Title: The Other Valley
Author: Scott Alexander Howard
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: 3.25
Pub Date: February 27, 2024
T H R E E • W O R D S
Speculative • Thoughtful • Bittersweet
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Sixteen-year-old Odile is an awkward, quiet girl vying for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she’ll decide who may cross her town’s heavily guarded borders. On the other side, it’s the same valley, the same town. Except to the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it’s twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness.
When Odile recognizes two visitors she wasn’t supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her friend Edme have been escorted across the border from the future, on a mourning tour, to view their son while he’s still alive in Odile’s present.
Edme—who is brilliant, funny, and the only person to truly see Odile—is about to die. Sworn to secrecy in order to preserve the timeline, Odile now becomes the Conseil’s top candidate. Yet she finds herself drawing closer to the doomed boy, imperiling her entire future.
💭 T H O U G H T S
Next up on my quest to complete the 2025 Canada Reads longlist before the debates occur in March: The Other Valley. by Scott Alexander Howard. I was drawn to the concept of parallel lives, and the fact this is his debut novel. It is is one of the 15 books, I thought for sure would ended up on the shortlist - but I was wrong.
Told is two distinct parts, I found them vastly different from one another in both tone and pacing. In Part I, the reader is introduced to 16-year-old Odile, the various valleys, and an incident that will set the stage for the second part. I found this part to be much more engaging with a steady, albeit slow, pacing. I was invested in the developing relationships, particularly Odile's growing friendship with Edme and her journey in the vetting program. Part II begins with a 20 year time jump and the reader seeing what Odile's current life looks like - a complete 180 from what I'd expected. The tone shifts to something more somber and it seems to contain a lot of useless scenes given the readers knows there the story is heading.
Howard's writing is so strong and deliberate, so I was not surprised he has a PhD in philosophy with post doctoral work focusing on the relationship between memory, emotion, and literature. This book explores those topics in various ways. However, he has chosen not to use quotation marks and I was curious as to why. No reasoning is provided on him choosing to forego them and it made for more confusion than was necessary. Or maybe it was just me who was a little lost at times.
The Other Valley is one of those books where there were individual elements I loved, yet there were other aspects I could have easily done without (or done with in the case of quotation marks) or changed. It certainly offers a unique set-up when it comes to the time travelling trope and made me reflect on the intersection of free will and destiny. It is not a book I would have picked up outside of the 2025 Canada Reads longlist, yet I am glad I picked it up. Scott Alexander Howard is a Canadian author to watch, although maybe not one for my tastes.
📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• contemplating fate versus free will
• discovering new Canadian authors
⚠️ CW: death, death of parent, child death, grief, gun violence, murder, classism, alcohol, alcoholism, misogyny, sexism, bullying, classism, cursing, sexual harassment, blood, domestic abuse, police brutality
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Sometimes what was necessary was also what was natural."
Author: Scott Alexander Howard
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: 3.25
Pub Date: February 27, 2024
T H R E E • W O R D S
Speculative • Thoughtful • Bittersweet
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Sixteen-year-old Odile is an awkward, quiet girl vying for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she’ll decide who may cross her town’s heavily guarded borders. On the other side, it’s the same valley, the same town. Except to the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it’s twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness.
When Odile recognizes two visitors she wasn’t supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her friend Edme have been escorted across the border from the future, on a mourning tour, to view their son while he’s still alive in Odile’s present.
Edme—who is brilliant, funny, and the only person to truly see Odile—is about to die. Sworn to secrecy in order to preserve the timeline, Odile now becomes the Conseil’s top candidate. Yet she finds herself drawing closer to the doomed boy, imperiling her entire future.
💭 T H O U G H T S
Next up on my quest to complete the 2025 Canada Reads longlist before the debates occur in March: The Other Valley. by Scott Alexander Howard. I was drawn to the concept of parallel lives, and the fact this is his debut novel. It is is one of the 15 books, I thought for sure would ended up on the shortlist - but I was wrong.
Told is two distinct parts, I found them vastly different from one another in both tone and pacing. In Part I, the reader is introduced to 16-year-old Odile, the various valleys, and an incident that will set the stage for the second part. I found this part to be much more engaging with a steady, albeit slow, pacing. I was invested in the developing relationships, particularly Odile's growing friendship with Edme and her journey in the vetting program. Part II begins with a 20 year time jump and the reader seeing what Odile's current life looks like - a complete 180 from what I'd expected. The tone shifts to something more somber and it seems to contain a lot of useless scenes given the readers knows there the story is heading.
Howard's writing is so strong and deliberate, so I was not surprised he has a PhD in philosophy with post doctoral work focusing on the relationship between memory, emotion, and literature. This book explores those topics in various ways. However, he has chosen not to use quotation marks and I was curious as to why. No reasoning is provided on him choosing to forego them and it made for more confusion than was necessary. Or maybe it was just me who was a little lost at times.
The Other Valley is one of those books where there were individual elements I loved, yet there were other aspects I could have easily done without (or done with in the case of quotation marks) or changed. It certainly offers a unique set-up when it comes to the time travelling trope and made me reflect on the intersection of free will and destiny. It is not a book I would have picked up outside of the 2025 Canada Reads longlist, yet I am glad I picked it up. Scott Alexander Howard is a Canadian author to watch, although maybe not one for my tastes.
📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• contemplating fate versus free will
• discovering new Canadian authors
⚠️ CW: death, death of parent, child death, grief, gun violence, murder, classism, alcohol, alcoholism, misogyny, sexism, bullying, classism, cursing, sexual harassment, blood, domestic abuse, police brutality
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Sometimes what was necessary was also what was natural."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, and Death
Moderate: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism
Minor: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
samkcs's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Child death, Death, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Rape
samanthaleeshea's review
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
kalaser's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, and Gun violence
Minor: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Vomit, and Sexual harassment
caseythereader's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
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? Yes
4.75
Thanks to Simon and Schuster for the free copy of this book.
- Fans of literary sci-fi, gather round, because THE OTHER VALLEY is made for you.
- The quiet, spare prose calls to mind NEVER LET ME GO, which is then layered with multifaceted, unanswerable questions about morality, grief, and the road not taken.
- This book takes several unexpected turns and kept me guessing, and also trying to sort out what I would do in Odile’s place.
- The logistics of this society and how the Conseil structure came to be are never really explained, but I kind of enjoyed how the details were waved away and this book was just allowed to be a character study and extended thought experiment.
- Fans of literary sci-fi, gather round, because THE OTHER VALLEY is made for you.
- The quiet, spare prose calls to mind NEVER LET ME GO, which is then layered with multifaceted, unanswerable questions about morality, grief, and the road not taken.
- This book takes several unexpected turns and kept me guessing, and also trying to sort out what I would do in Odile’s place.
- The logistics of this society and how the Conseil structure came to be are never really explained, but I kind of enjoyed how the details were waved away and this book was just allowed to be a character study and extended thought experiment.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
meganpbell's review
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
An isolated town is neighbored by its past to the West and its future to the East. The Conseil regulates travel between towns, giving few the chance to see lost loved ones. Odile’s life changes forever when she glimpses a friend’s parents, visiting from the future. While the premise is fascinating and the ideas about fate, free will, and time interesting, and I can see readers of Ishiguro's understated speculative masterpieces enjoying this book, I was ultimately disappointed that grief felt utterly misunderstood in this story to me--and I happen to have experienced losses similar to the main character--and I was frustrated at the lost opportunity.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Sexism, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Ableism, Suicide, Kidnapping, Murder, and Alcohol