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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Apparently I'm really into time travel books lately. This one was not without its issues but, on the whole, I found it really interesting.
mysterious
reflective
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:
Yes
This book edges up to 3.5 stars, because I was in the mood for a book that would make me think, and The Other Valley delivers. But I rounded down because by the time I finished, I wasn't totally sure what I had just read.
Let's start with the premise: it's interesting! There is a valley to the west and an identical valley to the east, only that valley is 20 years in the future. Travel between the valleys is possible in limited circumstances, judged by a group called the Conseil. There's a section in the book where a group of Conseils-in-training discuss different scenarios of people who want to travel and why they would or wouldn't allow them to go. Ethical dilemmas are interesting!
Wrapped up in all this is Odile, an enigmatic 16-year old who sees two people crossing that she isn't supposed to see. We eventually follow her to the next valley*, and without spoiling it, she has a few other encounters that could change the course of things.
*Or maybe it's the same valley and somehow another valley 20 years behind sort of magically pops up to the west? This was not clear and it's one of the things that drove me crazy.
The last 30 pages or so are fast and riveting, to the point where I wondered how I could only have 10 pages to go, or 5, and nothing was resolved. Then the book ended and I didn't get it. Like, I get what happened, but I don't get what it means for Odile. I feel like maybe enough clues were dropped that I should get it. But mostly I think the author made the clues purposely, aggravatingly opaque. It doesn't help that there is not a quotation mark to be found in this book. You really have to work to understand who's speaking and what's going on, especially when there are multiple timelines.
I like books that make me think. I even like ambiguous endings. But I also like quotation marks. And I like feeling satisfied at the end of a book. This book delivered the first two, but not the second two. And yet somehow I'm giving it 3.5 stars!
Content note: about 10 f-words, hard to notice because (not to harp on it) there are no quotation marks.
Let's start with the premise: it's interesting! There is a valley to the west and an identical valley to the east, only that valley is 20 years in the future. Travel between the valleys is possible in limited circumstances, judged by a group called the Conseil. There's a section in the book where a group of Conseils-in-training discuss different scenarios of people who want to travel and why they would or wouldn't allow them to go. Ethical dilemmas are interesting!
Wrapped up in all this is Odile, an enigmatic 16-year old who sees two people crossing that she isn't supposed to see. We eventually follow her to the next valley*, and without spoiling it, she has a few other encounters that could change the course of things.
*Or maybe it's the same valley and somehow another valley 20 years behind sort of magically pops up to the west? This was not clear and it's one of the things that drove me crazy.
The last 30 pages or so are fast and riveting, to the point where I wondered how I could only have 10 pages to go, or 5, and nothing was resolved. Then the book ended and I didn't get it. Like, I get what happened, but I don't get what it means for Odile. I feel like maybe enough clues were dropped that I should get it. But mostly I think the author made the clues purposely, aggravatingly opaque. It doesn't help that there is not a quotation mark to be found in this book. You really have to work to understand who's speaking and what's going on, especially when there are multiple timelines.
I like books that make me think. I even like ambiguous endings. But I also like quotation marks. And I like feeling satisfied at the end of a book. This book delivered the first two, but not the second two. And yet somehow I'm giving it 3.5 stars!
Content note: about 10 f-words, hard to notice because (not to harp on it) there are no quotation marks.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
tense
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:
No
Really enjoyed this book, but I wish it had indulged in a few more time travel entanglements. It had/has SUCH potential. I always enjoy reading Canadian, too!
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A beautifully crafted literary science fiction debut with a premise that hooked me instantly: Odile’s valley borders two others — one 20 years in the past, the other 20 years in the future. Crossing the border is forbidden except under strict council oversight, and Odile, at sixteen, hopes to join that council. When she faces a moral dilemma, the novel becomes less about time travel and more about the weight of choice, grief, and the consequences of interfering with fate.
Howard’s prose is elegant, weaving French into English seamlessly, and the landscape feels as alive as the characters. Thoughtful, haunting, and quietly profound — I know I'll be mulling this one over for weeks to come.
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I wasn’t planning to read this book. I was looking at upcoming events at a local bookstore, and saw that there was a book club meeting for this title the same day. It was about 4 hours away. I decided to try the preview of the ebook on Libby.
It sucked me in immediately, and I borrowed the copy. I did not make it to the discussion, but I wound up finishing The Other Valley in 2 days.
I think you also deserve to go into this story without knowing anything, so I won’t go into plot specifics.
One of the first things I noticed was the absence of quotation marks for dialogue. But once you’re in the flow, this falls away, and it’s relatively easy to follow who’s speaking with whom. Howard’s prose is so observational and poetic on a micro level, I stopped caring that the dialogue didn’t have quotation marks.
“I concluded my essay by vowing that, as a future conseiller, I would advise petitioners to seek whatever closure they needed here in their own valley, which is to say, in the safer pastures of ordinary grief.”
“Instead of waiting for my mother outside the Hôtel de Ville, I walked several times around the whole square, sloshing my feet restlessly through the dry maple leaves that were growing into piles at the edges.”
This story is grounded in magical realism, and the magic creates a dystopian effect on the society.
The ending felt a tad rushed to me…
There’s a feeling of unease that grows during this story, and even the final chapters were tense. I think I was hoping for more release at the end of the book, to see just a little more stabilizing plot on the other side of the resolution as reassurance.
It sucked me in immediately, and I borrowed the copy. I did not make it to the discussion, but I wound up finishing The Other Valley in 2 days.
I think you also deserve to go into this story without knowing anything, so I won’t go into plot specifics.
One of the first things I noticed was the absence of quotation marks for dialogue. But once you’re in the flow, this falls away, and it’s relatively easy to follow who’s speaking with whom. Howard’s prose is so observational and poetic on a micro level, I stopped caring that the dialogue didn’t have quotation marks.
“I concluded my essay by vowing that, as a future conseiller, I would advise petitioners to seek whatever closure they needed here in their own valley, which is to say, in the safer pastures of ordinary grief.”
“Instead of waiting for my mother outside the Hôtel de Ville, I walked several times around the whole square, sloshing my feet restlessly through the dry maple leaves that were growing into piles at the edges.”
This story is grounded in magical realism, and the magic creates a dystopian effect on the society.
The ending felt a tad rushed to me…
There’s a feeling of unease that grows during this story, and even the final chapters were tense. I think I was hoping for more release at the end of the book, to see just a little more stabilizing plot on the other side of the resolution as reassurance.
adventurous
mysterious