A review by twocents
The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard

slow-paced

2.0

The first part of the book is relatively interesting, where we come to understand this world through the perspective of 16-year-old Odile and her pursuit of being on the Conseil, which manages the delicate balance of the valley with the identical ones to the east and west (each 20 years apart from each other). The world is very like The Giver, and it's starting to introduce interesting questions about obedience, community, and what we owe each other.

Then the book does a 20-year timeskip and grounds to a halt. Odile has ruined her life over her teenage crush. It takes another 45% of the book before 36-year-old Odile does what you know she's going to do all along:

take advantage of the valleys being 20 years apart to save her teenage crush

. By the time this happens, it's not that interesting anymore, and it's hard to relate to the decisions she's made over time. She feels like less a character and more like a plot device. 

If the first half had been built up a bit more and left at that, the book would have been much more interesting.

Also, I listened to this, but from other reviews, the physical version provides no indication of dialogue (no quotation marks, dashes, italicized text), so if you feel inclined to read this, do it via audio.