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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
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:
No
Beautiful book with relatable and interesting writing. It was so tender and deep. The deeper themes about family really struck me. If you had never read speculative fiction and want to experience this, I totally recommend!!!! Even with all of time travel and alternate lives of Alice, the story was very clear. I truly adored this story and I will think of it for a long time. I loved the narrator as well!
I love me a good time loop story. This one's not great, but definitely good.
3.5 Interesting concept....I did like it in the end.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
Read Round the USA 2023: Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania (NYC)
SF/F Clean Up 2023: Cover with Text Only, No Images
Weirdly, I have read two books back to back about a woman named Alice who becomes unmoored in time. The other book I read (What Alice Forgot) was about a woman who hits her head and can't remember the last ten years of her life. In this book, a woman named Alice discovers a way to go back in time to relive her sixteenth birthday as many times as she wants.
Both books are nostalgic. In this book, Alice sees how beautiful she was as a teenager (which she never thought when she was a teenager the first time), gets to see her home as it was in 1996, and gets to see a younger version of her father, which is what she wants most of all. At Alice's age of 40, her father has slipped into a coma and is unresponsive. To see him young, energetic, and his old affectionate self is something that Alice can't get enough of.
Alice's father is a writer who has published one book that was turned into a TV series. This continues to pay the bills for the two of them (Alice's mother is rarely in touch). The book is about time travel. When Alice slips back through time into her younger body, she has to decide what sort of time travel she is doing. Is it Back to the Future, where it's possible to erase yourself? Is it Peggy Sue Got Married, where she doesn't change too much of anything? Is it Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Doctor Who, 13 Going on 30?
And if Alice does indeed have the power to change things, what does she want to change? At 40, she is at the same job she's had since college, at the school that she went to until college. Her apartment... is functional. Her best friend and she are doing better than anyone would expect of people who have known each other since elementary school. She doesn't have much of a boyfriend or much ambition. She feels like she's spinning her wheels and is just beginning to wonder if this is all there is. She's always thought that stability is a virtue but thinks that maybe she's taken it too far.
This book is very much a love letter to New York City. Alice is a native and walks the streets for long distances as she thinks. She knows the neighborhoods and their characters and knows that the only constant in the city is that it will always change. She seeks out the places to eat that have closed down since she was a teenager when she ends up in 1996. For her birthday, she wants to do things like eat hot dogs at Gray's Papaya, go to the Natural History museum and lie under the great whale, walk Central Park.
It's also a love letter to the author's father, Peter Straub. Although Straub wrote horror instead of science fiction, you can feel the love of a daughter for her affectionate, goofy, joyful father coming through in Alice. Really, it turns out that Alice just wants more time with her father.
The book has just a bit of the edge that literary fiction can have. The author jibes gently about the wealthy parents who send their kids to private school, the upscale NYC parties, the grubby subways and bars, but it also feels loving. It also feels like the author wants you to know that she understands that literary authors who dabble in genre fiction only to take the trappings and leave what makes science fiction great are truly annoying to those of us who do love the science fiction genre. I don't think she makes that mistake. She also never really resolves what kind of time travel Alice is doing, because that ultimately doesn't matter. What does matter is the love that Alice has for her father, her city and her best friend.
SF/F Clean Up 2023: Cover with Text Only, No Images
Weirdly, I have read two books back to back about a woman named Alice who becomes unmoored in time. The other book I read (What Alice Forgot) was about a woman who hits her head and can't remember the last ten years of her life. In this book, a woman named Alice discovers a way to go back in time to relive her sixteenth birthday as many times as she wants.
Both books are nostalgic. In this book, Alice sees how beautiful she was as a teenager (which she never thought when she was a teenager the first time), gets to see her home as it was in 1996, and gets to see a younger version of her father, which is what she wants most of all. At Alice's age of 40, her father has slipped into a coma and is unresponsive. To see him young, energetic, and his old affectionate self is something that Alice can't get enough of.
Alice's father is a writer who has published one book that was turned into a TV series. This continues to pay the bills for the two of them (Alice's mother is rarely in touch). The book is about time travel. When Alice slips back through time into her younger body, she has to decide what sort of time travel she is doing. Is it Back to the Future, where it's possible to erase yourself? Is it Peggy Sue Got Married, where she doesn't change too much of anything? Is it Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Doctor Who, 13 Going on 30?
And if Alice does indeed have the power to change things, what does she want to change? At 40, she is at the same job she's had since college, at the school that she went to until college. Her apartment... is functional. Her best friend and she are doing better than anyone would expect of people who have known each other since elementary school. She doesn't have much of a boyfriend or much ambition. She feels like she's spinning her wheels and is just beginning to wonder if this is all there is. She's always thought that stability is a virtue but thinks that maybe she's taken it too far.
This book is very much a love letter to New York City. Alice is a native and walks the streets for long distances as she thinks. She knows the neighborhoods and their characters and knows that the only constant in the city is that it will always change. She seeks out the places to eat that have closed down since she was a teenager when she ends up in 1996. For her birthday, she wants to do things like eat hot dogs at Gray's Papaya, go to the Natural History museum and lie under the great whale, walk Central Park.
It's also a love letter to the author's father, Peter Straub. Although Straub wrote horror instead of science fiction, you can feel the love of a daughter for her affectionate, goofy, joyful father coming through in Alice. Really, it turns out that Alice just wants more time with her father.
The book has just a bit of the edge that literary fiction can have. The author jibes gently about the wealthy parents who send their kids to private school, the upscale NYC parties, the grubby subways and bars, but it also feels loving. It also feels like the author wants you to know that she understands that literary authors who dabble in genre fiction only to take the trappings and leave what makes science fiction great are truly annoying to those of us who do love the science fiction genre. I don't think she makes that mistake. She also never really resolves what kind of time travel Alice is doing, because that ultimately doesn't matter. What does matter is the love that Alice has for her father, her city and her best friend.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Feels like a beach read but with something new to say- easy to read, entertaining, but also comforting and complex in its exploration of the relationship between an adult child and their parent. I’m not sure I have come across another book that gives this topic such depth, weight and focus while somehow remaining a fairly light read. It felt hopeful and comforting while also validating a lot of the fear and grief that comes with watching your parent age.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent
I thought the time travel would be kind of a cheap and uninteresting angle, but it turned out to be lovely and poignant.