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lee_tee_bee's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
stalxwj's review against another edition
5.0
So the year that she dies would finally be the year she syncs her age?
rosemwood's review against another edition
4.0
This was a thought provoking story. It was complex with a lot of jumping to different years. Each jump added more depth to the main character's story but it also allowed us to get to know a couple of other characters too. I was left with a couple of questions for example why was she time jumping all over the different years? Over all this is a good book to read, especially if you like time traveling. B
hlflosser's review against another edition
4.0
This was a great read. I did stay a little confused til the end on the time travel but finally worked out with a aha I loved. Definitely a page turned and makes you think not to rush but enjoy the good and the bad. I loved her writing and thought process
llcornett3's review against another edition
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Enjoyed this concept. Found this to be interesting to think about. A lot of fun.
paperback_whiplash's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
cendraclarke's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
reflective
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? Yes
4.5
codergrl's review against another edition
1.0
I can't even with this book! Maybe I read too much sci-fi but it drives me nuts that the author can't be bothered to even begin to explain the time travel. I only made it through about 1/4 of the book. There's only so much whining I can take from a main character who instead of trying to figure out what is happening to her and why just accepts everything and whines about it.
bookph1le's review against another edition
1.0
Nope.
I hate being harsh about books, because I know authors are people too, and it's hard for them to see their books slammed. But I have very strong feelings about this book. Spoilers ahead.
Bottom line: I thought it was dreadful. The concept is really intriguing, and it's a crying shame the execution is so very poor.
First off, this book commits one of the worst cardinal sins of a story: it tells far, far more than it shows. The choice to have Oona leap around means that she is essentially starting at square one each year, but it doesn't mean the author had to structure the book the way she did. She made the choice to summarize each of the seven years this book depicts, expanding on and highlighting key plot points, and then summarizing the remainder of the year. This not only stole a lot of the book's urgency, it made parts of it a chore to read because it was basically a laundry list of what Oona does when she's not dealing with each year's big event. Yawn. These bare bones vignettes gave me precious little feel for who any of the characters were.
My next biggest issue was with Oona herself. I thought she was just plain awful. I don't have to like characters to enjoy a book. In fact, I *hate* the whole "likeability" argument. But this wasn't the kind of book where Oona was an unlikable character whose story was still compelling to me. Instead, I was supposed to sympathize with this character, who, yes, is in an unfortunate situation, but who is so immature and self-centered I found it impossible to feel for her. She repeatedly makes stupid mistakes on an epic scale. I was fine with that the first go round or two, but every time she wakes up to a new year, she basically acts out like a toddler. At no point does she gain any wisdom. I get that she's young and immature, but I would think that her experiences would have led to her gaining far more wisdom than normal for a person her age. But, no. She's Oona. She's selfish, and she lacks any powers of self-reflection, and she's going to just go right ahead and rebel against herself every chance she gets because...that makes sense? If future you leaves a note for current you, shouldn't you maybe consider following its advice rather than deciding future you is a buzz kill? Oona acts like a snotty teenager from page one all the way up until the last page of the book.
As for her selfishness, it's mind-boggling. She treats her mother like crap every chance she gets, even though her mother puts up with astonishing amounts of nonsense from her. Some years Oona immediately leaps down her mother's throat, as if her time leaps are her mother's fault. I could not understand why she insisted on treating her mother like the enemy, or why her mother puts up with the abuse.
I'm about to spoil the big twist here, so read at your own peril. Of course, I saw the twist coming from miles away, so was it that big of a twist?
Her most selfish act, to me, is having a baby in the first place. She knows she jumps around in time and can't possibly raise a child, but she goes ahead and has one anyway because of her own emotional needs. This would be bad enough, but then she insists on interfering in that child's life because she's his mother and she deserves to interfere because she's sad. You see what's wrong with this? At no point does she think of him. Always, always, she is motivated by what she wants and needs.
(I also think her getting in romantic relationships is selfish, but I won't go into that. My rants about her selfishness have already overtaken this review.)
Another big issue I had with the book was Dale. Oona is straight up obsessed with the guy, even years after his death. I get that she would be dealing with grief for the first year or two, but the way she put that guy on a sky-high pedestal made me side-eye the relationship from the getgo. If you have to tell me how awesome Dale is, I'm going to think Dale is, in fact, not awesome. Yes, the book does address this to some extent, but at no point does Oona spare a moment to interrogate their relationship, despite the big warning flags. If you're with a guy who doesn't want you to play guitar in his band because he's hell-bent on playing guitar, and if you decide to ditch plans you made with your oldest friend because you're too hung up on your boyfriend, this is not a very healthy relationship--and I'm only just now realizing how terrible Oona is to her supposed best friend. I hope that poor woman went to London on her own, had the time of her life, and promptly forgot Oona existed.
Lastly, I just did not like the writing. The author shoehorns in so many lectures about music and fangirls so much over her favorite bands that I wondered why she didn't just write a novel using that as her theme. Like, why bother writing this sci-fi-esque story about a woman who experiences her life out of order if all you really want to do is talk about Kate Bush and Velvet Underground? That's not my only issue with the writing, though. The dialog is just so unbelievable pretty much all the time, and the writing itself didn't strike me as especially polished or profound. Some of the metaphors were excruciatingly awkward. I didn't find this to be straight-up bad writing, but it needed some work. I think this book has pretensions of being a profound work about life, but I just did not find it very profound. At all.
In the end, it looks like I should have listened to my bias against the twee title and skipped this book altogether, but the concept just sounded so awesome. I definitely wouldn't be opposed to seeing another, more skilled author tackle this same concept--just leave out all the preachy diatribes about music, please.
I hate being harsh about books, because I know authors are people too, and it's hard for them to see their books slammed. But I have very strong feelings about this book. Spoilers ahead.
Bottom line: I thought it was dreadful. The concept is really intriguing, and it's a crying shame the execution is so very poor.
First off, this book commits one of the worst cardinal sins of a story: it tells far, far more than it shows. The choice to have Oona leap around means that she is essentially starting at square one each year, but it doesn't mean the author had to structure the book the way she did. She made the choice to summarize each of the seven years this book depicts, expanding on and highlighting key plot points, and then summarizing the remainder of the year. This not only stole a lot of the book's urgency, it made parts of it a chore to read because it was basically a laundry list of what Oona does when she's not dealing with each year's big event. Yawn. These bare bones vignettes gave me precious little feel for who any of the characters were.
My next biggest issue was with Oona herself. I thought she was just plain awful. I don't have to like characters to enjoy a book. In fact, I *hate* the whole "likeability" argument. But this wasn't the kind of book where Oona was an unlikable character whose story was still compelling to me. Instead, I was supposed to sympathize with this character, who, yes, is in an unfortunate situation, but who is so immature and self-centered I found it impossible to feel for her. She repeatedly makes stupid mistakes on an epic scale. I was fine with that the first go round or two, but every time she wakes up to a new year, she basically acts out like a toddler. At no point does she gain any wisdom. I get that she's young and immature, but I would think that her experiences would have led to her gaining far more wisdom than normal for a person her age. But, no. She's Oona. She's selfish, and she lacks any powers of self-reflection, and she's going to just go right ahead and rebel against herself every chance she gets because...that makes sense? If future you leaves a note for current you, shouldn't you maybe consider following its advice rather than deciding future you is a buzz kill? Oona acts like a snotty teenager from page one all the way up until the last page of the book.
As for her selfishness, it's mind-boggling. She treats her mother like crap every chance she gets, even though her mother puts up with astonishing amounts of nonsense from her. Some years Oona immediately leaps down her mother's throat, as if her time leaps are her mother's fault. I could not understand why she insisted on treating her mother like the enemy, or why her mother puts up with the abuse.
I'm about to spoil the big twist here, so read at your own peril. Of course, I saw the twist coming from miles away, so was it that big of a twist?
Her most selfish act, to me, is having a baby in the first place. She knows she jumps around in time and can't possibly raise a child, but she goes ahead and has one anyway because of her own emotional needs. This would be bad enough, but then she insists on interfering in that child's life because she's his mother and she deserves to interfere because she's sad. You see what's wrong with this? At no point does she think of him. Always, always, she is motivated by what she wants and needs.
(I also think her getting in romantic relationships is selfish, but I won't go into that. My rants about her selfishness have already overtaken this review.)
Another big issue I had with the book was Dale. Oona is straight up obsessed with the guy, even years after his death. I get that she would be dealing with grief for the first year or two, but the way she put that guy on a sky-high pedestal made me side-eye the relationship from the getgo. If you have to tell me how awesome Dale is, I'm going to think Dale is, in fact, not awesome. Yes, the book does address this to some extent, but at no point does Oona spare a moment to interrogate their relationship, despite the big warning flags. If you're with a guy who doesn't want you to play guitar in his band because he's hell-bent on playing guitar, and if you decide to ditch plans you made with your oldest friend because you're too hung up on your boyfriend, this is not a very healthy relationship--and I'm only just now realizing how terrible Oona is to her supposed best friend. I hope that poor woman went to London on her own, had the time of her life, and promptly forgot Oona existed.
Lastly, I just did not like the writing. The author shoehorns in so many lectures about music and fangirls so much over her favorite bands that I wondered why she didn't just write a novel using that as her theme. Like, why bother writing this sci-fi-esque story about a woman who experiences her life out of order if all you really want to do is talk about Kate Bush and Velvet Underground? That's not my only issue with the writing, though. The dialog is just so unbelievable pretty much all the time, and the writing itself didn't strike me as especially polished or profound. Some of the metaphors were excruciatingly awkward. I didn't find this to be straight-up bad writing, but it needed some work. I think this book has pretensions of being a profound work about life, but I just did not find it very profound. At all.
In the end, it looks like I should have listened to my bias against the twee title and skipped this book altogether, but the concept just sounded so awesome. I definitely wouldn't be opposed to seeing another, more skilled author tackle this same concept--just leave out all the preachy diatribes about music, please.
margardenlady's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
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? Yes
4.0
Oona has a problem. Starting with her 19th NYE birthday, she moves to a different non-contiguous year at midnight. The time jumps are random and she often has no recollection of the previous year. It is complicated. Family drama. Coming of age. Romance. Fun.