Reviews

The time travel conceit, however it’s managed, is that to move back and forth through time to initiate change, you’re inadvertently changing myriad other things as well. That to meet in a different location, watch a film instead of getting coffee, eat at one restaurant instead of another - the flap of the butterfly wings change so much else, so much unintended.

This is Cassandra in Reverse in a nutshell: given the chance to travel back in time to fix something, Cassandra puts in motion thousands of butterflies, ultimately making her undoing useless.

At 30, Cassandra finds herself both jilted by a man, Will, who she thought she might love and fired from a job she barely tolerates in her personal version of hell.

She also finds on the same day that she can travel through time for countless do overs simply by closing her eyes.

And so, in the audiobook version’s frantic, anxious narration, Cassandra, who is neurodivergent and has synesthesia, tries again and again - over and over and over - to create perfect scenarios with Will. To nudge him toward falling for her, loving her, or, at the very least, not breaking up with her in four months time.

It becomes page after page of tweaking and tweaking sometimes the tiniest details to…ultimately change herself. To change what fundamentally makes Cassandra Cassandra.

And that left me incredibly sad.

She thinks that by shedding the traits people have told her make her unkind, weird, unlikable will make her happy, give her what she wants.

The lesson, of course being that true happiness comes from accepting yourself and surrounding yourself with people who accept and embrace you as you are.

This one was incredibly difficult for me. It wasn’t until the end of chapter 23, when Cassandra realizes that she’s not trying to fix things, but rather to “undo herself” that I felt a bit more comfortable in the narrative. Some of this is on purpose, for sure. The first person narrative - especially when listened to via the audiobook - puts you in the unique position to both understand Cassandra’s frustrations and the frustrations of those with whom she interacts.

One of my main complaints is that, because of the constant time travels and closely repeated scenes, it goes on too long.

It also feels extremely sad that Cassandra never crosses a kind person. No one is understanding or seems to have any understanding of neurodivergence, no one shows her any patience. And that, although her parents died tragically ten years earlier, how, in their 20 years of raising this woman did they never teach her strategies, help her to understand emotional response and social interaction?

Three stars because it’s provocative; no more because it felt too harsh. Though, I’m sure there is a large swath of people who will and did love it, it wasn’t for me.

intro_liz's review against another edition

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emotional funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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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