One

What if space shifted and time bent and we could meet ourselves as we’ll be twenty years from now? What if we could talk face-to-face with the people we are in parallel lifetimes, in alternate worlds? What would we tell them, and what would we ask? How would we change if we knew what ways beyond space and time? …

Here is his journey with this wife, Leslie, to a realm where survival depends on discovering what other aspects of themselves have learned on roads they never took; where imagination and fear are tools for saving worlds and destroying them; where dying is one stop to overcoming death…

-book jacket

This book was given to me by my Dad who claimed it was great. After letting it age on my shelf for months, I finally picked it up and read. To Dad: I’m kind of disappointed?? Then again, you did say I might not like it but here’s my review:

At first, it was real fun. Our protagonist is traveling with his wife to different versions of themselves in alternate times. Who doesn’t love that? But then it happened again. And again. And again. I found it extremely repeated and by about a third of the book through, absolutely boring.

Perhaps it’s from reading way too many YA novels filled with action and things happening quickly but the pacing in this book is REALLY slow. There was no buildup to the final ending, if you can even call that an ending.

Let me take it back a bit. From the start, I didn’t know what the conflict was. What happened in the book felt nothing but a series of random events and no plot. It’s not like they were struggling to go back home. Trying to find something within themselves? Let’s assume that was the conflict. How did it effect them? Did the protagonist’s relationships or views of life changed? I really found nothing in the end.

Then again, I was dying to finish this book so I could FINALLY get it over with. But that is just another bad thing. If your book has the reader just wanting to shut the book and give up, you didn’t write a good book. If your book doesn’t give a CLEAR explanation as to how the protagonist changed or went throughout the book…yeah maybe want to rethink a bit. There was a little something in the end but by that time, I was just racing to finish.

Along with no plot, there are “no characters”. They were very…stale (I type awkwardly). It is hard to describe them. They seemed to have some sort of personality, but it wasn’t very strong. I can’t even give a word to characterize them. They’re not funny, or memorable, or anything really. They are just black and white characters.

I’m all about thinking about life and destiny and fate or whatever but this book really didn’t get to me from the get go. Could it be because of my younger age or maybe cause I’m simply misunderstanding? I was really looking forward to reading this and now I’m just dissatisfied.

2/5 cause I’m nice