Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

26 reviews

amalyndb's review against another edition

5.0

Wow. This is powerful. 

Basic premise is an alternate history, where reproductive rights are threatened from the far future via time travel. There's a whole lot more than that.

There is some potentially triggering subject matter. That may be an understatement.

Heed the warnings: I had a visceral reaction to some of this. I've read other stuff written in more explicit ways that didn't impact me as much. An observation, rather than a complaint. Will reread again in future when I feel able to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Abortion, Murder, and Misogyny

Moderate: Mental illness and Child abuse

Minor: Suicide

Brief within text overall, but there is

sexual molestation experienced as a minor recounted to another character, a young teacher who was preying on teenage girls, and the same teacher had created sexually exploitive images of teenage girls

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elle_g's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

The plot of this book was interesting, but executed poorly. There were too many ideas that weren't properly fleshed out so they fell flat. A lot of the characters lacked any nuance (I.e. the Scooby-Doo like villains) and some felt like they were only there to be token diversity characters since they didnt end up contributing to the plot at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Child abuse

Moderate: Abortion

Minor: Suicide

pandact's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful informative medium-paced

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

4.0

From the start, I imagined each chapter as a music video, specifically K. Flay's videos around "Sister" where they escape from men and travel back in time. It makes a lot more sense after all the punk bands in the acknowledgements, and the Grape Ape music video they mentioned in the post-audiobook interview! Honestly, the acknowledgements and historical notes were pretty good about avoiding spoilers, and it would've been cool to know that they were composing the Arabian riff!

It's like a music video with cameos for historical nerds, and plenty of suggestive dancing and smoking that would piss off Comstock... Newitz juggles a lot of twisty timelines at the expense of character development, imo. Nonetheless, it's a powerful work that evokes feminist punk and might teach you something just like Robot and Crow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, and Sexism

Moderate: Drug use, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Torture, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Sexual content, Antisemitism, and Cultural appropriation

Some nitpicks... Reverting the erased character so early kind of "nuked the fridge" for me and it wasn't suspenseful unless there was a threat to prevent time travel, but the edit war never really had any big moments where someone was "burned out" or had a permanent loss. There wasn't a lot of tension in the middle, and I kept getting distracted by inconsistent, handwavy causality. It's not as much science of time travel as historical drama... The narrator had a perfect speed (at 1.5) and good acting, but did not match the songs. I really wanted Lucy Parsons or some feminist to come back and undermine the Great Man diverting the timeline thing, but I get that even Sanger and Helen Keller also liked gilded age eugenics... All that said, I'm so glad I finished it because the ending stuck the landing in a fun way!

hamstringy's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

This is really another book for the pile of books that should have been something I enjoyed. I was left soooo disappointed and really annoyed at the end of the book. Parts of the book are incredibly cool to me, like the science of time travel, the concept of political struggle over a timeline instead of just over linear moments.

I also did really enjoy one scene where the MC gouges a man's eyeballs out and calls his eye sockets "another hole to penetrate";

I think that was both really baller and genuinely an example of an idea I wish Newitz had committed to more.

Let's sort my criticisms into petty and conceptual:

Petty Nitpicks: 

• Women in the 1890s wearing "lacy bras"
• A character predicting she'd graduate from UCLA in the 90s with $50k in debt (which there is no way to do in 4-5 years)
• People using modern slang while time traveling while having people of the times understand them (okay sure, we're ignoring historical linguistics, that is a valid choice), but they catch enemy time travelers because they use modern slang??

Actual Beef: 

• I find this book to be quite bioessentialist--a lot of it is focused on an expanded Comstock act and the legality of abortion, which does most obviously affect people with uteruses (often women). This is fine, but the narrative keeps harping on the fact that the Sisters of Harriet are for women and nonbinary people. What about trans men? Are they not central to the underlying themes of autonomy, particularly with people obsessed with "female" fertility? What does the Comstock act do to affect nonbinary people and trans women? Why are all but one of the main characters women if there is gender diversity? It takes a lot of wind out of this book's sails, and, honestly, part of me wished the author just chose to make the Sisters of Harriet focused on abortion for women, because that's all they seemed equipped to handle. 
• I find the constant pacifism of the Sisters to be incredibly annoying. I think this is in large part because I'm not a staunch interpersonal pacifist myself, but it also doesn't really make sense in-book: what is one man versus the global health of all women? No one ever seems to express a very "sanctity of all life" sentiment, so it feels really disappointing a choice to shy away from the conflict between violence and autonomy. 
• I wish the Comstockers weren't made out to be these cartoonish villains. People who are anti-abortion can seem that way, but I think it's a generally more interesting and more compelling struggle if the Comstockers have complexity and nuance--this is hinted at in the very first scene, where a Comstocker is anti-college because of its establishment roots, but their politics quickly devolve into calling all women sluts and wanting them dead. 
• A riot grrl band never exists because the main character and her friend succeed and legalize abortion in the 21st century, but the riot grrl movement (and in particular this Latina-fronted band) was never just focused on abortion. Did men suddenly stop raping, harrassing, and objectifying musicians?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Transphobia, Cursing, Abortion, and Rape

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Deadnaming, Murder, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Drug use, and Pregnancy

Minor: Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Forced institutionalization, and Toxic friendship

alsoapples's review

adventurous inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Homophobia, Incest, Murder, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Hate crime, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Blood, Misogyny, Death, Forced institutionalization, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Abortion

emilliampere's review

adventurous hopeful informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Abortion, and Misogyny

Minor: Sexual assault, Rape, Suicide, Blood, Transphobia, Cultural appropriation, Deadnaming, Vomit, Slavery, and Sexual content

fenny_42's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

This book was insanely good. Collective action makes me want to cry, in the best way. How wonderfully Newitz captures the beauty and pain of life as a woman or nonbinary person. I finished this in two days and simply had to keep reading until I got to the end. I’ll be buying Newitz’s other book, Autonomous, immediately. I can’t recall the last time an author so enraptured me with such complex and deep topics. 

Read this if you’re interested in intersectional history—anarchism, suffrage, reproductive rights, slavery, music and dance. There is SO MUCH going on in this book, and it is all painfully excellent. 

LOTS of trigger warnings. I tagged as many as I could think of. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Transphobia, Antisemitism, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Creating a believable time travel story is bound to be difficult because it never makes sense once you start to analyze it. This story is so good that it was believable throughout - I wasn’t even tempted to try to analyze it because the plot fit together so perfectly. 

This book is topical, having been published in 2019, three years before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. It describes a 1993 and a 2022 where abortion has never been legalized, and time travelers work to edit the timeline in favor of women’s rights. Of course, the people who deny rights to women are just as busy trying to edit the timeline to crush women and turn them into breeders. (It feels all too real in that sense.)

Engaging story, valiant characters, salient topic - an excellent book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Child abuse, Police brutality, Abortion, Alcohol, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Violence

rafaelsampaio's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful informative reflective 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Murder, Pedophilia, Slavery, Violence, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic friendship, and Transphobia

Moderate: Rape, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Child abuse

Minor: Deadnaming, Hate crime, Racial slurs, and Racism

thesawyerbean's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

4.25

This was a very enjoyable read. The research done for this novel was insane: the character, setting and plot writing were incredible. I loved the alternating points of view and the interweaving timelines, and the stakes were real, tangible and exhilarating. The effortless inclusion of diverse ethnicities and queer identities was fantastic to read too.

However, where this book falls short is I’m not sure the vision of the fundamental aspect, the time travel and its mechanics, were as defined and clear as they should have been. I did have to suspend belief and go along with it at certain points because it did seem like they flouted their own predefined rules in order for the plot to continue. By the end, although it was satisfying and a satisfactory end, there were still so many questions left unanswered - the characters and I were both left asking ‘who knows?’. In certain ways it made it more convoluted than it already was trying to justify some of the plot points.

Overall this book was good and definitely worth a read. A powerful feminist sci-fi novel, full of historical context and loveable characters, with an overarching plot-line we can all feel impassioned about.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Vomit, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Suicide, Death of parent, and Drug use