Reviews

I loved this book! I’m not normally a a sci fi / time travel type of person but the character development and overall plot points overtook that aspect. I was so enthralled and wanted them to achieve all of their missions! I so hope someone makes this a movie. I’d love to see this on screen.

sarahgube's review

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Stuck with it longer than I normally would because it was for my book club lol. Perhaps I will have missed character development for some of my issues with it. But to me it was kind of annoying that the main characters kept blaming outside factors for their problems instead of recognizing they don’t communicate at all.
And for whatever reason the women leads just didn’t feel compelling to me. I most enjoyed moments with Lazar because he had more substance and depth dealing with disillusionment of the American Dream.
I think the story probably could’ve been shorter as well.

chyse's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

mariasimson's review

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4.0

4.5 stars

I really enjoyed this book even though I thought I was going to hate it lol. I didn't realize how much I missed sci-fi until I read this and now I need some sci-fi recs! This was well written and I really don't understand the bad reviews. I loved how Barenbaum took two topics (science and comic books) and made a story. The concept of time travel was well introduced into the story and there were moments where my heart was beating really fast. overall I really enjoyed this.

toniclark's review

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3.0

Atomic Anna is brilliant in its conception — part sci-fi and part historical fiction — and it must have required a lot of research in astro- and nuclear physics. It incorporates multidimensional characters and many other topics and themes from complex family dynamics to toxic relationships. But, to me, the pacing seemed off. The story really drags, with a lot of redundancy and beating us over the head with the same moral dilemmas. How many times must one read “Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.” Most readers will have a pretty good idea of what the ending will be, just not how it will come about, and I, for one, just wanted to get to it a little faster.

sarahrogersx17's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

smalltownbookmom's review against another edition

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4.0

This was a thoroughly entertaining historical fiction, intergenerational family story with a time travel plot. Told from the perspective of three incredibly smart women whose lives are intertwined in ways we only fully discover as the story unfolds.

Anna is one of the nuclear scientists responsible for building Chernobyl and when the reactor goes of in 1986 she feels forever guilty, becoming obsessed with finding a way to go back in time and prevent the disaster.

In the meantime Molly is growing up in 1960s America being raised by Russian immigrants. A troubled teen, Molly just wants to pursue her art and her life gets off track when she falls in love and runs away with a drug dealer. Addicted to drugs and alcohol Molly ends up pregnant, scared and afraid she won't be able to stay sober, so she returns home to her parents to give birth to the baby.

When Raisa is born things are going well for the first few years until her father shows up again, dragging Molly back into the life she fought so hard to escape. In one timeline Raisa ends up in foster care, yet with intervention from Anna, she gets another chance and is able to grow up as a teen math prodigy.

The way these three stories came together at the end kept me on the edge of my seat. This book is perfect for fans of the tv show Timeless or The time traveler's wife. Great on audio with a full cast narration, including Natalie Naudus. Highly recommended and I can 't wait to read the author's debut novel next. I couldn't put this book down, even with its substantial length, I didn't get bored for a minute!

CW: drug addition, death of loved ones, parental imprisonment, parental abandonment

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