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A review by cdale8
The Lost Track of Time by Paige Britt
3.0
Another book that I'd give another half star to if I could...
I really enjoyed the word play, and the interesting way all of the euphemisms and allegorical references to time were integrated into the story. I knocked a star (half star) for the oddly extended battle with Chronos that dragged at times, and another star for my feeling that the story didn't quite close the circle between Penelope's real life and the fantasy world she entered to escape her real-life complaints.
I would have liked to have seen closure with Mom, the complicit and ineffectual father, and the Almanac's rule over Mom's realm. As it was, closure within the fantasy realm was cinched up tight, but back in the real world we had only a sense of who the Great Moodler might represent and how each portion of the fantasy was reflected in "the real world". So a battle was won, but nothing of how that affected the next day where no hole existed in Penelope's schedule... What about returning to the mushroom camp -- how did her moodling experience assist her with that? Did she develop a better appreciation for the study of mushrooms? There was more that could have been done at the end, perhaps trimming off some of the laborious parts around working in Chronos-land to accommodate the closure.
I really enjoyed the word play, and the interesting way all of the euphemisms and allegorical references to time were integrated into the story. I knocked a star (half star) for the oddly extended battle with Chronos that dragged at times, and another star for my feeling that the story didn't quite close the circle between Penelope's real life and the fantasy world she entered to escape her real-life complaints.
I would have liked to have seen closure with Mom, the complicit and ineffectual father, and the Almanac's rule over Mom's realm. As it was, closure within the fantasy realm was cinched up tight, but back in the real world we had only a sense of who the Great Moodler might represent and how each portion of the fantasy was reflected in "the real world". So a battle was won, but nothing of how that affected the next day where no hole existed in Penelope's schedule... What about returning to the mushroom camp -- how did her moodling experience assist her with that? Did she develop a better appreciation for the study of mushrooms? There was more that could have been done at the end, perhaps trimming off some of the laborious parts around working in Chronos-land to accommodate the closure.