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medium-paced
A novel weak in science fiction and flawed in romance, which depends on unrewarding tropes and fails to fully develop an intriguing concept.
In an interview, Kaliane Bradley says that an obsession with the historical Graham Gore is the Franklin expedition inspired her debut novel, The Ministry of Time. This starting point helps to make sense of a somewhat thin time travel mechanism and the lack of concrete detail around the ministry that utilizes it to experiment with bringing people from previous centuries into present-day London. The book is framed as a romance, which goes from slow burn (ie. Victorian) to all-at-once in a single scene. Where it was loose and unconvincing up to that point, the protagonists’ development stagnates there.
Bradley uses obvious foreshadowing, with phrases like, “I didn’t know it would be the last time” and “it ended up like this because of my stupidity” (paraphrasing). This doesn’t contribute much to the plot, but does make the narrator annoying. Since Graham Gore is mainly shown from her perspective, as a handsome, charming gentleman, he reads as false and boring.
In contrast, his “expat” friends, Maggie and Arthur, are more dynamic; however, the way queerness is treated through these two characters felt off. I’m not sure whether the author is queer, but their sexuality came across as an experimental quirk to prove a point (of 21st century progress, of Gore’s winning personality) rather than a realistic unfolding identity.
Some of the expats’ learning and emotions around coming to the 21st century interested me—Arthur and Graham’s music performance, a game of finding things from their times, etc. There are hints of good fiction here, but they don’t make up a solid core.
Some of the expats’ learning and emotions around coming to the 21st century interested me—Arthur and Graham’s music performance, a game of finding things from their times, etc. There are hints of good fiction here, but they don’t make up a solid core.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual content, Murder
Minor: Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Vomit, War
funny
mysterious
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Confinement, Drug use, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War
Minor: Medical trauma
funny
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I adored the beginning of this book. I love the concept so much, I found the beginning engaging, and I really enjoyed the writing style. Consequently I will read Bradley's short stories, and an excellent sequel would make me increase this rating significantly. I love the cover. Unfortunately the book by itself was ultimately quite disappointing to me. The author described the book's take-away as "we don't need time travel to change ourselves, look to the future, and make the future more beautiful." I wish I agreed. Only the very last page addresses that, and I struggled to believe it given everything that had happened. What am I missing? The book left me feeling that the future would stay bad or worsen, change is hard, and some people are doomed to failure. Not true, but depressing.
Good: There is a lot of clever, humorous skewering of racist remarks and micro-aggressions the main character had experienced. The author uses a lot of fun vocabulary words and interesting descriptions. If the British slang, words drug from long gone historical eras, and arcane vocabulary get a little dense and sometimes ungoogle-able, or if a few descriptions didn't land--well, I want to see more of this style, so I can overlook that. I wish I hadn't googled vocab so much.
Detailed, frequently lustful descriptions of several people's bodies are rampant. That was especially frustrating given the general lack of character development. I kept wondering if the plot was building towards person x and y being in love, or x and z, or z and y, etc. ***Mood spoilers for the ending and very general allusions to plot in the rest of this review***
While one of those romances does suddenly happen , we never seem to learn the things about these characters that the book teasingly hides from us-- things that would make the romances or friendships so much sweeter. In fact the MC acknowledges her lack of insight about the other characters numerous times; nothing changes.
Worse, I felt the events in the last 25% of the book really ruined any enjoyment of the romance becausethe MC continues to treat her lover badly, never really reforms, and he understandably hates her and leaves her for it. The very end of the book is somewhat ambiguous and potentially hopeful but I struggled to feel that a few vague paragraphs really offset the second half of the book. I felt unsatisfied and disappointed. The MC spent so much time discussing racism and the way that racialized people should or shouldn't act, but it was ultimately very hard to tell what her ultimate conclusions were or if she had changed as a result of her own self-flagellations. It reminded me of Katniss Everdeen's attitude at the end of the Hunger Games, which seemed problematic given that the MC, unlike Everdeen, recognizes she's made a lot of mistakes.
Of course it's a nuanced subject, the author doesn't necessarily owe us anything, the passages probably weren't written for white people to understand!, the MC was part ofa horrible system that bears a lot of blame , and is a complex, flawed person. Perhaps I'm missing something. Ultimately it was confusing, very sad, and unsatisfying that the (at first) lovable MC is morally gray and never really reforms . That's how life is, but I just didn't want to read about that in fiction today, hence my rating.
Good: There is a lot of clever, humorous skewering of racist remarks and micro-aggressions the main character had experienced. The author uses a lot of fun vocabulary words and interesting descriptions. If the British slang, words drug from long gone historical eras, and arcane vocabulary get a little dense and sometimes ungoogle-able, or if a few descriptions didn't land--well, I want to see more of this style, so I can overlook that. I wish I hadn't googled vocab so much.
Detailed, frequently lustful descriptions of several people's bodies are rampant. That was especially frustrating given the general lack of character development. I kept wondering if the plot was building towards person x and y being in love, or x and z, or z and y, etc. ***Mood spoilers for the ending and very general allusions to plot in the rest of this review***
Worse, I felt the events in the last 25% of the book really ruined any enjoyment of the romance because
Of course it's a nuanced subject, the author doesn't necessarily owe us anything, the passages probably weren't written for white people to understand!, the MC was part of
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual content, Blood
Moderate: Addiction, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Colonisation
Minor: Mental illness, Misogyny, War
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I found there was a few times where I felt there was too much foreshadowing. I finished it with a heavy (positive) feeling in my torso. It was interesting and engaging and I love the expats so much. The main character never gets named and I love that choice.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Vomit, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Alcohol, Colonisation, Deportation
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
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:
Complicated
CW: blood, smoking, animal deaths, gore, r*pe, racism, death, genital slur, racial slur, murder, suicide mention, vomit, homophobia
Oh my goodness, twisty twisty and a sad-ish ending, but a good book nonetheless!
Oh my goodness, twisty twisty and a sad-ish ending, but a good book nonetheless!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual content, Blood, Murder
Moderate: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism
Minor: Homophobia, Xenophobia
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Terrible ending, SAD and also a little open-ended. I didn’t love the main character. I feel like there was no redemption for her behaviors until the last few pages. I hated the leading the reader on with a possible future and then it not being that at all and instead being terrible. And my favorite character died. I felt down-trodden after finishing this book.
I feel like I put it in the time - invested - in these characters and there was no payout.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Misogyny, Racism, Cannibalism
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was really excited for this novel’s premise/concept, but it honestly didn’t execute it in a satisfying way for me personally. It had lots of interesting things it was trying to do, but in the end seemed muddled. I didn’t really click with the MC, but I loved the historical expat characters- they redeemed the book for me in many ways. The author seemed to try to justify the MC at the end but it came a little too late for me, especially after the government spy plot stuff. The sci-fi aspects were very hit and miss, interesting but also didn’t make a lot of sense- maybe I just didn’t get it/understand all of it. I honestly wished I liked this book more, I love time travel stories so I am kinda disappointed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Sexual content, Grief
Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Murder, Colonisation
Minor: Genocide, Slavery, Cannibalism, War
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was sci-fi according to Goodreads, but I agree more with storygraph and classifying this as a romance. The parts of this that is sci-fi is really only the time travel and that is soo not the focus of this book. It is the tool to bring Graham to the time the story takes place, but doesn’t really come in to most of the plot aside from that. In reality this book is about our nameless narrator falling in love with Graham, though I honestly never felt the chemistry between them. Our narrator says that she finds him attractive and he does a few nice things for her, but those alone do not a romance make. And then the ending felt too rushed. Like that was the interesting part. That is where the time travel and the mystery of this novel really come in, but we’ve already spent 80% of this book on a relationship with no chemistry so I’m only given like 50-75 pages of intrigue and time travel and spy antics and then the book ends and I am left with so many questions, but not in a good way.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Racism, Slavery, Colonisation, Classism
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
sad
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:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Blood, Cannibalism
Minor: Racism, Sexism, Vomit
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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:
Complicated
"And in the heat of your obsession," he said, "did it occur to you to remember that I am a person too?"
i have a strange relationship with this book, if you can even call it a relationship. i like the premise and the writing. it’s fascinating and the treatment for the most part is quite lovely. the novelty of seeing characters who are plucked out of time and living in the present world and doing mundane things is my cup of tea. but the connection to the high stakes plot feels disjointed and at times, out of place.
the romance makes sense, but its execution is clunky. the turn it takes is something i like, but again, im not sure about it in the grand scheme of it all. the individual parts of this book are good, but put together and im not sure they mesh very well. at some point, i felt like i was slogging through it even though by all accounts, i should have been enjoying it. i felt a sense of distaste at times too, and im left feeling confused and overall dissatisfied.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Sexual content, Murder
Moderate: Racism, Violence, Cannibalism, War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Drug use, Misogyny, Vomit