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A review by feliciarene
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
4.0
When I first read the synopsis for In Five Years, I was hooked. It wasn't just an interesting plot - it was something that completely and utterly resonated with me.
In Five Years follows Dannie, a woman in her mid-twenties who is living her life on a schedule of her own making. She arranged her life into a series of calculated steps - find a boyfriend, move-in, get the perfect job, get engaged, get married - all on a specific timeline. And everything's going according to plan - she's dating a sensible man with ambitions as great as her own who's set to propose, and she's about to score the job of her dreams. Everything appears to be falling into place, until she wakes up five years in the future.... And she's with a different man. Suddenly, things aren't as straightforward as they once were and she begins to question her life plans.
For me, this book was perfectly timed. Living life on a schedule was a toxic idea I struggled with as I entered my twenties. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking you need to get on with your life straight away after leaving high school. And it's even harder to grasp when you're not doing things the way others are. Maybe someone gets engaged before you, or gets a job right out of school, or maybe it takes you a little longer to complete your degree. In the past I've completely planned out every aspect of my life - but this book totally changed my perspective.
I didn't anticipate this book to be anything more than a story about letting go and living your life naturally. However, in actuality, it was a love letter to female friendship. The real storyline here revolved around Dannie and her childhood best friend, Bella. As the story approaches the 2025 'vision' date, the focus of the story shifts to their friendship almost entirely. Although they are polar opposites, Dannie and Bella's friendship is one for the ages. And Bella's free-spirited attitude towards life is exactly the mental shift that Dannie needs. In fact, although the vision contributes to Dannie's decision-making throughout the novel, I believe that it's her relationship with Bella that actually motivates her to reevaluate her life choices.
All this good stuff aside, there was one qualm I had with this novel. I thought the time jump at the beginning of the novel was a tad awkward. We started in 2020 with the proposal, then flashed forward to 2025 in the vision... And then took a half-step backwards to early 2025. It was quite jarring. I understand why it was done, because going through five years of plot would have made the book a thousand pages long. But it kind of made the book a bit difficult to get into. Eventually, the pacing of the book became a lot more fluid but this first impression to me was odd.
The moral of this story is that you can't plan life. Even when you think you know how things are going to turn out, even if you have a vision that shows you exactly what will happen in five years time, you still are as blind to the future as anyone else. I wanted to finish off with a quote from Rebecca Serle's acknowledgements; a quote that really resonated with me. I hope it resonates with you, too:
CW: cancer -- there is heavy mention of cancer (both of diagnosis and graphic depictions of treatment) in this novel. For me, it was one of the drawbacks. I won't get into it, as it is a crucial plot point, but I will say that it's hard to read the story without experiencing the cancer mentions. So if this is really upsetting to you, you should be cautious about reading this novel!
I received this ARC for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
In Five Years follows Dannie, a woman in her mid-twenties who is living her life on a schedule of her own making. She arranged her life into a series of calculated steps - find a boyfriend, move-in, get the perfect job, get engaged, get married - all on a specific timeline. And everything's going according to plan - she's dating a sensible man with ambitions as great as her own who's set to propose, and she's about to score the job of her dreams. Everything appears to be falling into place, until she wakes up five years in the future.... And she's with a different man. Suddenly, things aren't as straightforward as they once were and she begins to question her life plans.
For me, this book was perfectly timed. Living life on a schedule was a toxic idea I struggled with as I entered my twenties. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking you need to get on with your life straight away after leaving high school. And it's even harder to grasp when you're not doing things the way others are. Maybe someone gets engaged before you, or gets a job right out of school, or maybe it takes you a little longer to complete your degree. In the past I've completely planned out every aspect of my life - but this book totally changed my perspective.
I didn't anticipate this book to be anything more than a story about letting go and living your life naturally. However, in actuality, it was a love letter to female friendship. The real storyline here revolved around Dannie and her childhood best friend, Bella. As the story approaches the 2025 'vision' date, the focus of the story shifts to their friendship almost entirely. Although they are polar opposites, Dannie and Bella's friendship is one for the ages. And Bella's free-spirited attitude towards life is exactly the mental shift that Dannie needs. In fact, although the vision contributes to Dannie's decision-making throughout the novel, I believe that it's her relationship with Bella that actually motivates her to reevaluate her life choices.
All this good stuff aside, there was one qualm I had with this novel. I thought the time jump at the beginning of the novel was a tad awkward. We started in 2020 with the proposal, then flashed forward to 2025 in the vision... And then took a half-step backwards to early 2025. It was quite jarring. I understand why it was done, because going through five years of plot would have made the book a thousand pages long. But it kind of made the book a bit difficult to get into. Eventually, the pacing of the book became a lot more fluid but this first impression to me was odd.
The moral of this story is that you can't plan life. Even when you think you know how things are going to turn out, even if you have a vision that shows you exactly what will happen in five years time, you still are as blind to the future as anyone else. I wanted to finish off with a quote from Rebecca Serle's acknowledgements; a quote that really resonated with me. I hope it resonates with you, too:
"Even after midnight, especially after midnight. Continue moving toward that which is moving toward you."
CW: cancer -- there is heavy mention of cancer (both of diagnosis and graphic depictions of treatment) in this novel. For me, it was one of the drawbacks. I won't get into it, as it is a crucial plot point, but I will say that it's hard to read the story without experiencing the cancer mentions. So if this is really upsetting to you, you should be cautious about reading this novel!
I received this ARC for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.