Time (In Books)

One of the things I struggle with not just as a writer but as a reader, is the passing of time. Right now I'm reading Hex Hall, which I'm loving. Anything magic is for me. But in the book, there are several places (like the beginnings of chapters) that mark a passing of time. Here a few examples:

 

"Later that night..."

"Two days later..."

"A week later, things still weren't any better."

"By the beginning of October..."

Now, they are all clear about the time frame so I'm not lost in the story. And not much space is spent on setting up this lapse of time either. But as a reader, I can't help thinking, what happened during those two days, week, or month? The "Later that night" one doesn't bother me much because I can do without mundane details of the day. But I can't help being curious when a chunk of time is passed over.

I'm working on a YA novel now, and I've gone back and forth with the idea of allowing time lapses into my story like Rachel Hawkins does in Hex Hall. I'm trying to decide if it's really necessary to skip over days and allow more time to pass or if I should keep the timeframe to the one-week period it could take place in. I tend to like fast paced books that occur over a short span. (You might remember a previous blog post about that.) But when a character needs some time to deal with changes in their life and things sort of become routine while they are adjusting, time lapses can make sense.

How do you feel about the passing of time in novels? Do you find yourself wanting to know what you missed in that week or month that was skipped over? Or are you glad that a simple line can skip over routine things so the story can keep moving forward?