Reviews with content warning for Miscarriage - Just One Damned Thing After Another

I enjoyed the book and would probably read another, but the jocular titles and cute references to other sci-fi classics was a little jarring with the amount of death, violence, and deep sadness throughout. A little uneven.

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dogearedbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous funny sad 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? No

4.25

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palindromereads's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-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

4.0

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styxx's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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elodiethefangirl's review against another edition

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adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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jodar's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious fast-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? No

3.5

4.25/5 stars in the silly-superficial-but-fun scale.

I enjoyed the setting of English university boffinage alongside time travel and secret conspiracies. A nice touch of light humour throughout; it’s hard not to smile, for instance, at tactical preparations that include, as essential, facilities for making tea! Several hints foreshadow that there’s more going on in the wider scheme of things than the MC can fathom, though she has suspicions. Clearly more to be revealed in later novels in the series.

The MC fits the boffin model in being incredibly smart, curious about the unexpected and a bit dim where it comes to navigating the physical environment. A bit of a “loose canon”, which adds to her appeal as well as sometimes moving the plot along. She’s also very good-looking, but this doesn’t impinge overly much, except for one pretty excruciating, drawn-out extramarital sex scene. I do like her sense of humour, all the same, for example:

He was calm and soothing and had a reasonable explanation for everything. No woman should have to put up with that. (Chapter 18)

Quibbles:

Most significant: I’m not sure I buy into the solution to History’s preventing time travellers from affecting the timeline. It seems to me the solution (1) must include a lower limit to the alteration of events, for example no pine cone in past to rot would have (very small) ecological effects and (2) still alters the timeline further down the track.
391 AD (in Chapter 16) historians would write as AD 391, or more likely these days as 391 CE; likewise BCE rather than BC.
In the same chapter, Dr Dowson states that camel dung would be plentiful in Egypt at the time. This is unlikely, as camels only became common several centuries later, after the Islamic conquest, when better adapted camels were introduced to the country.

At this point I’m not quite sure how I feel about this, but there is a surprising amount of violence, mayhem and vicious nastiness for an apparently lighter sort of novel.

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annagrimmyy's review against another edition

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2.0

Don't normally add reviews, but I haven't seen any trigger warnings about this book but it really needs them, as these things come out of nowhere and were completely unexpected. So, trigger warnings of sexual assault, miscarriage, and sex that is supposedly enjoyable but all the description of it could convince you otherwise.

This book has a really cool concept and was at times kind of fun to read, which is why I managed to finish it, but oh boy was it poorly executed. Such a disappointment as it could have been incredible.

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lettucemendham's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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