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lunabean's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
murchison's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-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
5.0
sapphicme's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Crazy how hard love can hit you, this is a love and sacrifice story about a time traveling lesbian. While I found some of the writing lacking in the beginning, later on I got more into it. It got me engaged enough to stress out as the character was going through some hard times. The concept is refreshing and new and I loved the representation, a queer sci-fi / time traveler story.
emmelinek's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
coyirr's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Historia entretenida, ágil y con final feliz (a veces, creo que este tipo de historias suelen tener finales más agridulces). Me gustó el desarrollo de la historia, aunque el manejo de uno de los personajes me pareció fuera de lo que esperaba, pero quizá eso sea sólo una percepción personal. También me quedan ciertas dudas en cuestión de costumbres de la época de la década de los 60, en cuestión de independencia femenina, por decirlo así; tendré que informarme al respecto.
fr23ip's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
dhrvtika's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
2.0
The premise is definitely interesting but it is honestly just not written well enough to pull it off. The start of the book especially is so hard to get into with the writing style focusing so much on Karen's inner thoughts and her monologues are dry and tedious at best. She is just not a likeable character and it only gets worse. The book has such a strange relationship with its setting and it doesn't seem well grounded for different reasons on both settings - I had a bigger problem with the 60s because of how overly romanticised it was an how sanctimonious mc comes across with how much "better" things are then, with no overly obsessed smartphone users and simple choices at grocery shops. Its preachy and annoying and especially bad when things like racism are thrown in with little afterthought. It's a frustrating book that is tedious to read for the most part.
charmaine_kambabazi's review
lighthearted
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
3.0
caralevi8's review
2.0
This is a 2.5-3 stars for me. And where do I begin, except that I am perplexed at how many outstanding ratings and reviews there are for this book. I did find one that I agreed with, that this was a mid-star book, and they expressed this same wondering about not seeing much of their point of view on this book, so I felt a little seen by that.
I had a real problem with the pacing of this book. The beginning was slow, and difficult to get through. I enjoyed a total of 30 pages of this book (that’s generous) and what made me enjoy those 30 pages? Actual action. The rest of the book is almost maddening, near stream of consciousness monologue from a main character who is really quite annoying. She is inconsistent in her motivations, her opinions, and her attitudes. And though the first 100 pages (!) were slow, tedious, and mostly Karen sitting in front of her computer for a day or two, the last 150 pages spanned six years (and change, including the 2010 stuff) with zero action, almost no dialogue, or dialogue that was rushed because it had no breaks for action, feeling, imagery.
The most beautiful parts of this book were the moments where we actually got to experience—in real time!—the love story between Evelyn and Judith. Or the moments of human connection and world making that Evelyn goes through in her (new?) world, rife with imagery and feeling. That those moments were so limited is incredibly disappointing. I had no way to connect with Karen/Evelyn, or even Judith. We know that Karen is emotionless and cynical (but is cynical about being cynical) and that’s about it, we know that Evelyn is… Karen sort of, with a little more appreciation for her surroundings and more heart. We know that Judith can sing. However, these things do not make for well-rounded, interesting characters.
I was mostly excited to discover that Fran was the senator from the second chapter, because I do like a through-line and I enjoyed Fran’s character a lot.
There were also certain moments that made me feel very odd, like when Karen/Evelyn first arrives in the 60s and is weirdly more concerned about Charles Manson than racism? (Page 101-102). In fact, racism and segregation do not even come up until a later plot moment to further Fran’s character, and only mentioned in passing until the part with her mother and her mother’s young love. I understand that Karen supposedly isn’t into history (which, her complete disregard for history and lack of knowledge of it is both a shifting character trait, sometimes there sometimes not, and is so baffling. That, and how she describes finding the 1960s an old and “grandmotherly” time and then suddenly finds it endearing and “the good old days”), but it seems absolutely unbelievable to not notice certain things like that—or I guess it doesn’t, because Karen/Evelyn fit into the hegemony—and made this whole thing way less believable to me. Additionally, Karen acknowledged how “hard it must have been” for Judy to be a queer woman in the 1960s, but when living in that time is mad because an old woman—Judith’s mother—won’t accept them? This still happens today? And she should know that since she acknowledged already how worse it was in the 60s? Again, inconsistency.
Love is love (no pun intended) and thus reading a true love story is evocative, no matter how flat the characters feel. Even though the time travel, space time fabric whatever plot could have used some work, this story had so much potential, and upon reflection, it provided the bones for something that could be really good, with much less monologuing from an ill-adjusted person and more actual feeling from that person.
I had a real problem with the pacing of this book. The beginning was slow, and difficult to get through. I enjoyed a total of 30 pages of this book (that’s generous) and what made me enjoy those 30 pages? Actual action. The rest of the book is almost maddening, near stream of consciousness monologue from a main character who is really quite annoying. She is inconsistent in her motivations, her opinions, and her attitudes. And though the first 100 pages (!) were slow, tedious, and mostly Karen sitting in front of her computer for a day or two, the last 150 pages spanned six years (and change, including the 2010 stuff) with zero action, almost no dialogue, or dialogue that was rushed because it had no breaks for action, feeling, imagery.
The most beautiful parts of this book were the moments where we actually got to experience—in real time!—the love story between Evelyn and Judith. Or the moments of human connection and world making that Evelyn goes through in her (new?) world, rife with imagery and feeling. That those moments were so limited is incredibly disappointing. I had no way to connect with Karen/Evelyn, or even Judith. We know that Karen is emotionless and cynical (but is cynical about being cynical) and that’s about it, we know that Evelyn is… Karen sort of, with a little more appreciation for her surroundings and more heart. We know that Judith can sing. However, these things do not make for well-rounded, interesting characters.
I was mostly excited to discover that Fran was the senator from the second chapter, because I do like a through-line and I enjoyed Fran’s character a lot.
There were also certain moments that made me feel very odd, like when Karen/Evelyn first arrives in the 60s and is weirdly more concerned about Charles Manson than racism? (Page 101-102). In fact, racism and segregation do not even come up until a later plot moment to further Fran’s character, and only mentioned in passing until the part with her mother and her mother’s young love. I understand that Karen supposedly isn’t into history (which, her complete disregard for history and lack of knowledge of it is both a shifting character trait, sometimes there sometimes not, and is so baffling. That, and how she describes finding the 1960s an old and “grandmotherly” time and then suddenly finds it endearing and “the good old days”), but it seems absolutely unbelievable to not notice certain things like that—or I guess it doesn’t, because Karen/Evelyn fit into the hegemony—and made this whole thing way less believable to me. Additionally, Karen acknowledged how “hard it must have been” for Judy to be a queer woman in the 1960s, but when living in that time is mad because an old woman—Judith’s mother—won’t accept them? This still happens today? And she should know that since she acknowledged already how worse it was in the 60s? Again, inconsistency.
Love is love (no pun intended) and thus reading a true love story is evocative, no matter how flat the characters feel. Even though the time travel, space time fabric whatever plot could have used some work, this story had so much potential, and upon reflection, it provided the bones for something that could be really good, with much less monologuing from an ill-adjusted person and more actual feeling from that person.
jancee's review
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.25