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A review by montigneyrules
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
4.0
#readingchallenge2017 (AUDIO BOOK> my book that made me cry)
Enjoyed as an audio book, the author really added to the story by reading his own novel. The passion for his story came out, as the inflections were all on the right points, the pauses were perfect, and the side thoughts of the characters felt as if he added them in. He created this break-taking, gripping experience of sci-fi beauty.
Admittedly, I felt the beginning was a bit repetitive, with overdone added explanations, however when it ties together later in the novel it was a bit genius. Granted I could have done without the overly descriptive strange sexual scenes. While important to storyline, the descriptions were a bit intense and didn’t fit with the rest of the style. It could have been glossed over and gotten at the same time.
The time travel goes beyond the normal, ‘poof we went back’, and instead details paradoxes and theoretical concepts that captivated me. I felt it was part fiction novel, part science lesson with moral and ethical struggles that portrayed intriguing, complex questions. For example, the basic stay or go? Who do you owe what to: yourself? humanity? The individual people you love? All added to the development of the character. Sure he was whiny and lazy in the beginning, but it takes the journey for him to develop into a version of himself he needs to be.
Lastly, I have to nod to the last portion of John/Tom’s time travel. The moment he takes the long journey back painful moment by painful moment, self-realizations, struggles, and epiphanies was breath-taking. The moment I too, as the reader, realized with him what the journey would take, I felt my heart break. I felt as if I had to pause the novel, take a moment to internally struggle with the idea of a slow life moment like that, and push on. It was this pure emotion, listening as Elan so perfectly slowly read though this moment. It was one of the few times I can recall a book causing a reaction like this.
Enjoyed as an audio book, the author really added to the story by reading his own novel. The passion for his story came out, as the inflections were all on the right points, the pauses were perfect, and the side thoughts of the characters felt as if he added them in. He created this break-taking, gripping experience of sci-fi beauty.
Admittedly, I felt the beginning was a bit repetitive, with overdone added explanations, however when it ties together later in the novel it was a bit genius. Granted I could have done without the overly descriptive strange sexual scenes. While important to storyline, the descriptions were a bit intense and didn’t fit with the rest of the style. It could have been glossed over and gotten at the same time.
The time travel goes beyond the normal, ‘poof we went back’, and instead details paradoxes and theoretical concepts that captivated me. I felt it was part fiction novel, part science lesson with moral and ethical struggles that portrayed intriguing, complex questions. For example, the basic stay or go? Who do you owe what to: yourself? humanity? The individual people you love? All added to the development of the character. Sure he was whiny and lazy in the beginning, but it takes the journey for him to develop into a version of himself he needs to be.
Lastly, I have to nod to the last portion of John/Tom’s time travel. The moment he takes the long journey back painful moment by painful moment, self-realizations, struggles, and epiphanies was breath-taking. The moment I too, as the reader, realized with him what the journey would take, I felt my heart break. I felt as if I had to pause the novel, take a moment to internally struggle with the idea of a slow life moment like that, and push on. It was this pure emotion, listening as Elan so perfectly slowly read though this moment. It was one of the few times I can recall a book causing a reaction like this.