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A review by beckermanex
Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum
3.0
I really wanted to like Atomic Anna and, in the beginning, you're literally dropped into the action of the story as Chernobyl's Reactor Four melts down and triggers a device that Anna has created. She happens into a situation that she has the power to stop, six years in the future with her estranged (kind of) daughter and instructions on how to save her granddaughter.
You get all three's perspective during the story, and you see how their lives spiral out of control, but you also see how those "spaghetti moments" (see: The Flash) come together, critical events for each person that will happen no matter what. The meeting of a specific person, the death of a loved one, the creation of a parallel timeline where some things are different, but most things are the same. In the end, Atomic Anna is not a story about time travel, it's the story about inevitability and how the choices we make (mostly bad ones) affect those around us. How a decision made with good faith can come back to be the worst thing for a person, or how the resilience of another individual can never be detoured, even in the face of extreme adversity. You could say this book is about the human condition, how it takes a lot to take us down, and, even in the worst situations our first instinct is to help each other out.
The problem is that that "helping" is rarely something that is good for everyone. Those expecting to see something akin to The Butterfly Effect or Back to the Future, were a very small change ("My Pine!") can have a big effect on the future will be disappointed. The theory of time travel here and how it can be accomplished leaves out the standard questions that we've all chosen to ignore (the galaxy is moving so time travel will not put you into the same spot) and adds in new wrinkles like a two-hour time limit.
The characters are fleshed out, but you end up hating them for various reasons. Secrets are the name of the game, and maybe it's because each of the characters is coming from the USSR with Jewish beliefs and persecuted after the Revolution in that country and during World War II, but you grow to hate each of them equally. You're fed tidbits about the past via recollections from Anna, but when it seems like a simple question being answered could stop outright chaos you're left with that character withholding, causing harm to themselves, other characters and the readers patience.
Great premise, good ideas, characters you can't stand and at least and ending that leaves you satisfied, even if it all wraps up a bit too neat. Recommend but not love.
You get all three's perspective during the story, and you see how their lives spiral out of control, but you also see how those "spaghetti moments" (see: The Flash) come together, critical events for each person that will happen no matter what. The meeting of a specific person, the death of a loved one, the creation of a parallel timeline where some things are different, but most things are the same. In the end, Atomic Anna is not a story about time travel, it's the story about inevitability and how the choices we make (mostly bad ones) affect those around us. How a decision made with good faith can come back to be the worst thing for a person, or how the resilience of another individual can never be detoured, even in the face of extreme adversity. You could say this book is about the human condition, how it takes a lot to take us down, and, even in the worst situations our first instinct is to help each other out.
The problem is that that "helping" is rarely something that is good for everyone. Those expecting to see something akin to The Butterfly Effect or Back to the Future, were a very small change ("My Pine!") can have a big effect on the future will be disappointed. The theory of time travel here and how it can be accomplished leaves out the standard questions that we've all chosen to ignore (the galaxy is moving so time travel will not put you into the same spot) and adds in new wrinkles like a two-hour time limit.
The characters are fleshed out, but you end up hating them for various reasons. Secrets are the name of the game, and maybe it's because each of the characters is coming from the USSR with Jewish beliefs and persecuted after the Revolution in that country and during World War II, but you grow to hate each of them equally. You're fed tidbits about the past via recollections from Anna, but when it seems like a simple question being answered could stop outright chaos you're left with that character withholding, causing harm to themselves, other characters and the readers patience.
Great premise, good ideas, characters you can't stand and at least and ending that leaves you satisfied, even if it all wraps up a bit too neat. Recommend but not love.