Before I get too far into my gushing about how much I loved this book, let me thank who made it possible for me to read an e-galley of it, Netgalley of course, and then Disney Publishing also. Obviously I've told you before about how I used to be a science teacher, and how I love science fiction because of that. I've also always been a fan of time travel. Partly because some of it intrigues me, like all the paradox things. I figure you'd always have to go ahead in time, because if you went back in time, you could mess things up, like in
A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury. That was my first book I think that clued me in to this issue. Then of course
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, was another book I'd read that I learned about this same issue. And of course, one of the best time travel movies (or just best movies) of all time,
Back to the Future. Now while I've heard some people lately talking about how they didn't like the 2nd movie in that series, I have to disagree, because I feel like it really showed all those bad things that could happen. Some clues in that movie though, that work with this book, is that seeing yourself doesn't seem to really cause a huge explosion or something terrible to happen. While the book started out and I was unsure if I would be so into it, that didn't last long. I immediately got into what was going on, and rooting for the main characters, Em and Finn. When the book starts, they are in two cells right next to each other. They can hear each other, but not see each other. Hearing each other means they can hear when the other is getting tortured, which is part of the torture of the Doctor and the Director, the two evil people they are trying to change the world because of. Then we jump to a girl named Marina, and her best friend James, who she also has a crush on, and he is also a Congressman's brother. The relationship between her and James, and even the bit of animosity between her and James's new best friend, Finn. Once things start happening, I began to realize that Finn must be Finn from the future, and Em, well, that must be Marina. I believe the cover of the book, while obviously it is a clock/time piece of some sort, it also reminded me of the drain that Em/Marina was so obsessed with at the beginning of the book that was in her cell. The drain turned out to have a clue in it. A paper her future self (or maybe that was her past self?) had left that listed all the ways they'd gone back in time to fix what was happening, and how all of them were crossed out because they'd failed. The last thing left says the only option left is "to kill him". They don't want to do it, but Em and Finn go back to the past to try to fix it, and while they're supposed to kill the Doctor before he becomes the Doctor, it is not quite so easy. You see the Doctor, is James. And he will create the time machine, that he will then use to "make the world a better place." Only the things he does don't always lead to a better future. And some of the things he does, well, while less people die because of him, there are still innocent lives lost, and it makes the future world much worse than ours with security checks, and becomes a bit of a police state.
I have to say I was on the edge of my seat with this. I could barely put it down to go do anything else, work, sleep, watch tv, etc. I will be again ordering this for the library I work in as soon as I know I have the money to get it. Now, while the ending was a bit ambiguous in knowing exactly how much had changed and whether it changed for the better or not, I still feel it ended well. I think this was the perfect type of ending for this story. I'm not sure I think there should be a sequel, although there is a part 2 listed for next year on Goodreads, and this says it is part of a series. The writing was so good, that I will definitely be reading on when/if the sequel comes out, I just hope it will be as good as this one, and not mess up the story and how good it was in this first book.
