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osbormad's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism and Abortion
Moderate: Toxic friendship
Minor: Sexual assault
beanjoles's review against another edition
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
**SPOILERS ABOUND, reader beware!**
There was a lot to love about this story: a unique spin on time-travel; an interesting and personal exploration of the relationship between past and present selves; teenagers serial murdering unsavoury men who clearly get off on abusing women. As I am learning is typical for Newitz's writing, the prose is clear and evocative, and their facts are well-researched and presented.
But... I can't help but feel they tried to take on too much with this book, and ultimately it failed to come together in a way that I found satisfying.
The serial murder subplot feels like it should have taken place in another book entirely. For being such a keystone in the Tess/Beth relationship, it's given surprisingly little emotional weight outside of Beth feeling conflicted about their actions. It's not until too far into the book that we learn Tess actually Loves To Murder and that it's a key element of her personality (???), which seems like something important to give a taste of sooner than was done.
The concept of Comstockers vs Daughters of Harriet was actually the least compelling part of the book to me. If this had been fleshed out better, I might have been able to look past other flaws. The Comstockers' motive is essentially to ensure women are relegated to a life of servitude and subservience to men forever—genuinely frightening!—but the book can't quite decide if they're a well-organized pseudo-militia or a bunch of bumbling MRAs whose sole purpose in life is to make women stop being "sl*ts". I almost think the story would have been stronger without adding an opposition group of mustache-twirling but ultimately toothless megavillains. Like, what if it were just the Daughters fighting against the tide of history in their alternate universe? That's a story worth telling. And I think it would have helped Newitz clarify and explore some of their philosophical thoughts about Great Man Theory vs Collective Action. We got a lot of Telling about that but not as much Showing as I think should have been done.
No regrets on reading this, but I wish it had come together better in the end.
A note on the audiobook: I found the narrator's style to be a bit amateurish, overall, but there were some stand-out moments too and I felt she did particularly well reading Beth. It was cool to have a musical interlude partway through the story! I haven't experienced that in an audiobook before. Unique and fun!
There was a lot to love about this story: a unique spin on time-travel; an interesting and personal exploration of the relationship between past and present selves; teenagers serial murdering unsavoury men who clearly get off on abusing women. As I am learning is typical for Newitz's writing, the prose is clear and evocative, and their facts are well-researched and presented.
But... I can't help but feel they tried to take on too much with this book, and ultimately it failed to come together in a way that I found satisfying.
The serial murder subplot feels like it should have taken place in another book entirely. For being such a keystone in the Tess/Beth relationship, it's given surprisingly little emotional weight outside of Beth feeling conflicted about their actions. It's not until too far into the book that we learn Tess actually Loves To Murder and that it's a key element of her personality (???), which seems like something important to give a taste of sooner than was done.
The concept of Comstockers vs Daughters of Harriet was actually the least compelling part of the book to me. If this had been fleshed out better, I might have been able to look past other flaws. The Comstockers' motive is essentially to ensure women are relegated to a life of servitude and subservience to men forever—genuinely frightening!—but the book can't quite decide if they're a well-organized pseudo-militia or a bunch of bumbling MRAs whose sole purpose in life is to make women stop being "sl*ts". I almost think the story would have been stronger without adding an opposition group of mustache-twirling but ultimately toothless megavillains. Like, what if it were just the Daughters fighting against the tide of history in their alternate universe? That's a story worth telling. And I think it would have helped Newitz clarify and explore some of their philosophical thoughts about Great Man Theory vs Collective Action. We got a lot of Telling about that but not as much Showing as I think should have been done.
No regrets on reading this, but I wish it had come together better in the end.
A note on the audiobook: I found the narrator's style to be a bit amateurish, overall, but there were some stand-out moments too and I felt she did particularly well reading Beth. It was cool to have a musical interlude partway through the story! I haven't experienced that in an audiobook before. Unique and fun!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Abortion, Child abuse, and Sexual violence
krhysling's review against another edition
Very disturbing graphic violence depictions
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Abortion, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Body horror, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
hwaldooo's review
adventurous
hopeful
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? No
2.5
the premise of this book ticked a ton of boxes for me, but i could NOT get into it at all. no investment in the plot, no affection for the characters, some interest in the central ideas (time/history, collective action) but underwhelmed with how they were handled. bummer!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abortion, Child abuse, and Murder
Minor: Incest, Sexual assault, and Transphobia
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Abortion, Murder, and Misogyny
Moderate: Mental illness and Child abuse
Minor: Suicide
Brief within text overall, but there iselle_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.
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.
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
patlo's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
Fun and progressive, if heavy handed, alternate history based on time travel edits. The audiobook is voiced by a wonderful young actor with a good punk energy.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Abortion, Suicide attempt, and Rape
kelseymn18's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-paced
4.0
A Handmaid's Tale meets time travel. A group of feminist time travelers study and visit social movements from throughout history, until they end up in an "edit war" against men who are going back in time and editing history in order to prevent women's rights and LGBTQ+ rights from progressing. I loved the fresh concept, and the time travel aspect was done well. The two main POVs and their timelines were also integrated really well. The story definitely hits differently now in a post-Roe world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Abortion, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse and Transphobia
bookwormbi's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I wanted like an intensely homoerotic tale about friends driven apart by murder, sort of a Jennifer’s Body with time travel type deal, but unfortunately this was more Handmaid’s Tale with a lot of physics thrown in. Also as a nonbinary person this book is so “cis woman learned about trans people yesterday and is trying to be inclusive so props for that but…yikes” and nowhere does it show more than in the phrase “women and new genders”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Abortion