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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
More soon but I really liked this intriguing blend of historical fiction, family drama, and very cool science theory filled science fiction. It wasn't a smash it for me--I found the tone too detached for me to meaningfully root for many of the characters--but the plot was so well crafted and I loved the weaving of genres and I have a feeling I'll be thinking about this one and how time, fate, and relationships are tethered together. So well done.
Fun premise, but the execution lost me.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse
Moderate: Antisemitism, Abandonment
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I liked this book more than I expected to. I was captivated from the start. There was also lowkey a good amount of Jewish rep, which was unexpected for me and I really enjoyed reading about it.
Anna Berkova is a Soviet Jew, which for her meant she would never be accepted for either of her identities. Anna is a world renowned nuclear scientist. She's created a time machine and at the exact moment she uses it to jump through time, Chernobyl's reactor melts. Where she ends up in the time jump is 1992, discovering her estranged daughter Molly shot in the chest. Molly tells Anna to go back in time and stop the disaster. So Anna is convinced the disaster at Chernobyl is her fault for jumping through time and goes on a mission to go back in time and stop the disaster and save her daughter.
This book spans across three generations: Anna, Molly, and Molly's daughter Raisa. Through the power of time machines, the three generations work together to stop the nuclear disaster.
While time travel is not usually something I enjoy reading about, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story grapples with a lot of big life questions. If you can change the past, should you? Is stopping a disaster worth rewriting history, erasing everything that has happened since? It's definitely a book that makes you stop and think about some psychological questions.
Most of the characters are very unlikeable, but as you learn more about their past, you start to understand why they are the way that they are. The character development and realizations of what they should have done is really remarkable. I especially loved the ending.
While the description of the book is about Chernobyl, the core of this story is about family and one's commitment to family. More than anything, each generation learns that family is the most important thing.
I liked this book more than I expected to. I was captivated from the start. There was also lowkey a good amount of Jewish rep, which was unexpected for me and I really enjoyed reading about it.
Anna Berkova is a Soviet Jew, which for her meant she would never be accepted for either of her identities. Anna is a world renowned nuclear scientist. She's created a time machine and at the exact moment she uses it to jump through time, Chernobyl's reactor melts. Where she ends up in the time jump is 1992, discovering her estranged daughter Molly shot in the chest. Molly tells Anna to go back in time and stop the disaster. So Anna is convinced the disaster at Chernobyl is her fault for jumping through time and goes on a mission to go back in time and stop the disaster and save her daughter.
This book spans across three generations: Anna, Molly, and Molly's daughter Raisa. Through the power of time machines, the three generations work together to stop the nuclear disaster.
While time travel is not usually something I enjoy reading about, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story grapples with a lot of big life questions. If you can change the past, should you? Is stopping a disaster worth rewriting history, erasing everything that has happened since? It's definitely a book that makes you stop and think about some psychological questions.
Most of the characters are very unlikeable, but as you learn more about their past, you start to understand why they are the way that they are. The character development and realizations of what they should have done is really remarkable. I especially loved the ending.
While the description of the book is about Chernobyl, the core of this story is about family and one's commitment to family. More than anything, each generation learns that family is the most important thing.
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I consider this to be one of wasted potential. The general outlines of the story make for a good idea-- why not use time travel as a way to explore generational trauma? But the execution is weak and rushed. The writing is workman-like-- it's good enough to get you from point A to point B, but hardly high quality prose. Characters and their relationships are weakly drawn or merely gestured at-- we experience three different women falling in love with three different men (I'm leaving out Yulia and Lazar, since about three sentences are thrown at that relationship), and the primary personality trait of 2/3 men is "Russian", with the third having an extra twist of "Russian mobster". The book contains one of the most paint-by-numbers depictions of addiction I've encountered recently. And a certain amount of foreshadowing never comes to anything-- the dynamic of Anna and Yasha's relationship seemed not at all in keeping with Yulia's intimation that he'd been a bad man who'd thrown Anna off track. And I can't get over the lazy depiction of Raisa's traumatized timeline in which her troubled nature is represented by the fact that she's (gasp!) kinda gothy. My only explanation for this book comes from the author bio saying she is a "prolific writer", which generally means "writes very fast". Well, in my opinion this one could have cooked a little longer before declaring it done.
Oh, also, the portions in the US in the '60s and '70s felt riddled with anachronism. They did not scratch the historical fiction itch at all, in that it felt like no research had been done into thise time periods whatsover. Bleh.
Oh, also, the portions in the US in the '60s and '70s felt riddled with anachronism. They did not scratch the historical fiction itch at all, in that it felt like no research had been done into thise time periods whatsover. Bleh.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
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