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specialk136 's review for:
The Other Valley
by Scott Alexander Howard
This book edges up to 3.5 stars, because I was in the mood for a book that would make me think, and The Other Valley delivers. But I rounded down because by the time I finished, I wasn't totally sure what I had just read.
Let's start with the premise: it's interesting! There is a valley to the west and an identical valley to the east, only that valley is 20 years in the future. Travel between the valleys is possible in limited circumstances, judged by a group called the Conseil. There's a section in the book where a group of Conseils-in-training discuss different scenarios of people who want to travel and why they would or wouldn't allow them to go. Ethical dilemmas are interesting!
Wrapped up in all this is Odile, an enigmatic 16-year old who sees two people crossing that she isn't supposed to see. We eventually follow her to the next valley*, and without spoiling it, she has a few other encounters that could change the course of things.
*Or maybe it's the same valley and somehow another valley 20 years behind sort of magically pops up to the west? This was not clear and it's one of the things that drove me crazy.
The last 30 pages or so are fast and riveting, to the point where I wondered how I could only have 10 pages to go, or 5, and nothing was resolved. Then the book ended and I didn't get it. Like, I get what happened, but I don't get what it means for Odile. I feel like maybe enough clues were dropped that I should get it. But mostly I think the author made the clues purposely, aggravatingly opaque. It doesn't help that there is not a quotation mark to be found in this book. You really have to work to understand who's speaking and what's going on, especially when there are multiple timelines.
I like books that make me think. I even like ambiguous endings. But I also like quotation marks. And I like feeling satisfied at the end of a book. This book delivered the first two, but not the second two. And yet somehow I'm giving it 3.5 stars!
Content note: about 10 f-words, hard to notice because (not to harp on it) there are no quotation marks.
Let's start with the premise: it's interesting! There is a valley to the west and an identical valley to the east, only that valley is 20 years in the future. Travel between the valleys is possible in limited circumstances, judged by a group called the Conseil. There's a section in the book where a group of Conseils-in-training discuss different scenarios of people who want to travel and why they would or wouldn't allow them to go. Ethical dilemmas are interesting!
Wrapped up in all this is Odile, an enigmatic 16-year old who sees two people crossing that she isn't supposed to see. We eventually follow her to the next valley*, and without spoiling it, she has a few other encounters that could change the course of things.
*Or maybe it's the same valley and somehow another valley 20 years behind sort of magically pops up to the west? This was not clear and it's one of the things that drove me crazy.
The last 30 pages or so are fast and riveting, to the point where I wondered how I could only have 10 pages to go, or 5, and nothing was resolved. Then the book ended and I didn't get it. Like, I get what happened, but I don't get what it means for Odile. I feel like maybe enough clues were dropped that I should get it. But mostly I think the author made the clues purposely, aggravatingly opaque. It doesn't help that there is not a quotation mark to be found in this book. You really have to work to understand who's speaking and what's going on, especially when there are multiple timelines.
I like books that make me think. I even like ambiguous endings. But I also like quotation marks. And I like feeling satisfied at the end of a book. This book delivered the first two, but not the second two. And yet somehow I'm giving it 3.5 stars!
Content note: about 10 f-words, hard to notice because (not to harp on it) there are no quotation marks.