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A Shortcut in Time
A Shortcut in Time
Euclid Heights, Illinois, is a town of many shortcuts, between houses, through orchards, and across fields. Josh Winkler, a local artist and longtime resident, knows these irregular pathways well, but he is flabbergasted when a hasty dash down a familiar walk deposits him fifteen minutes in the past. At first, Josh is more intrigued than alarmed by this accidental time travel. Then a disoriented young woman appears, claiming to be from 1908....
As his life, his family, his town, and even history itself begin to unravel, Josh gradually realizes that his only salvation may lie in a shortcut in time.
Charles Dickinson has written a moving and unforgettable book about the way the past can affect the present, as well as, sometimes, the other way around.
As his life, his family, his town, and even history itself begin to unravel, Josh gradually realizes that his only salvation may lie in a shortcut in time.
Charles Dickinson has written a moving and unforgettable book about the way the past can affect the present, as well as, sometimes, the other way around.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
12 people are currently reading
693 people want to read
About the author
Charles Dickinson
25 books16 followersCharles Dickinson is an American writer known for his literary novels that mix heartbreak and humor with action and well-developed characters. His books include, in the order of their publication: Waltz in Marathon, Crows, With or Without (a short story collection), The Widows' Adventures, Rumor Has It, A Shortcut in Time, and its sequel, A Family in Time. His short stories have appeared in Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, and The New Yorker.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
June 26, 2023
I suppose I would normally class a time-travel novel as “science fiction”, but for me this 2003 book didn’t feel like science fiction. Perhaps it’s because all the time travel takes place within a small town in Illinois and within a century or so.
In the novel the time travel initially occurs unexpectedly to people. Later the characters learn something of how it works, but even then can control it only imperfectly.
The edition I read is just under 300 pages, and I’d have to say that for the first 50% or so I wasn’t feeling much love for it. The lead character, Josh Winkler, has an experience of travelling back 15 minutes in time. Later he meets a 15-year-old girl, Constance, who says she has arrived from the year 1908, and unsurprisingly Josh is the only person who believes her story. This is all just a build-up to the main event, in which Josh travels back to 1918. This part really got my attention. I spent about a fortnight reading the first 150 pages of the book, but finished the rest in a single afternoon and evening, and it was this that lifted the book to a 3-star rating.
One earlier part of the book that did impress me was the description of Josh’s life at the outset. He is a mediocre artist who never makes any money and who survives on the salary of his wife, a paediatrician. The couple have a 15-year old daughter. Josh believes himself to be happily married, but it’s obvious to the reader that both wife and daughter view him with a lack of respect. The character of Constance also develops in a way I didn’t expect.
The theme of the story is altered timescales, and how travelling back into the past alters the future. There were little hints about destiny. For me though, the story contained some inconsistencies, in that some aspects of the characters' timelines were altered whilst others weren’t, when I felt they should have been according to the novel’s own logic. Perhaps I’m getting too hung up on the details when the novel is about something as fundamentally wacky as time travel.
There is apparently a sequel, but I'm not really motivated to pursue it.
In the novel the time travel initially occurs unexpectedly to people. Later the characters learn something of how it works, but even then can control it only imperfectly.
The edition I read is just under 300 pages, and I’d have to say that for the first 50% or so I wasn’t feeling much love for it. The lead character, Josh Winkler, has an experience of travelling back 15 minutes in time. Later he meets a 15-year-old girl, Constance, who says she has arrived from the year 1908, and unsurprisingly Josh is the only person who believes her story. This is all just a build-up to the main event, in which Josh travels back to 1918. This part really got my attention. I spent about a fortnight reading the first 150 pages of the book, but finished the rest in a single afternoon and evening, and it was this that lifted the book to a 3-star rating.
One earlier part of the book that did impress me was the description of Josh’s life at the outset. He is a mediocre artist who never makes any money and who survives on the salary of his wife, a paediatrician. The couple have a 15-year old daughter. Josh believes himself to be happily married, but it’s obvious to the reader that both wife and daughter view him with a lack of respect. The character of Constance also develops in a way I didn’t expect.
The theme of the story is altered timescales, and how travelling back into the past alters the future. There were little hints about destiny. For me though, the story contained some inconsistencies, in that some aspects of the characters' timelines were altered whilst others weren’t, when I felt they should have been according to the novel’s own logic. Perhaps I’m getting too hung up on the details when the novel is about something as fundamentally wacky as time travel.
There is apparently a sequel, but I'm not really motivated to pursue it.
February 12, 2008
This book held my interest literally around the clock. However, I was quite disappointed with the ending -- not, perhaps (although it is true) because the story didn't end the way I though it should but because the end where you're wondering what is going to happen now is just flat. Flat as a pancake. As I read the last page I said to myself "huh?" and wondered if the author was like sitting on a deadline & couldn't think of an ending or what. Or perhaps it's just me and I'm not imaginative to make up something along the lines of where the author was going.
Anyway, up to that point, this book was excellent. This is definitely the only book I've ever read on time travel that was actually somewhat believable even though the subject is so out there and even though the story caused me to slow through the paradoxes brought on by the travel to and from the future and the past. I'll try to summarize the plot here.
The main character of this story, Josh Winkler (from whose vantage point the story is told), lived with mom, dad & brother Kurt in the small town of Euclid Heights, living a seemingly normal life until one day after he arrived at the local community pool where his brother was going to teach mentally disabled children how to swim and found his brother & a friend locked in a container at the bottom of the pool. The boys were the victims of the local bully (Jack Ketch, who is also called "jock itch") who was pulling a usual prank which got out of hand. Josh's brother's friend dies; Josh's brother is revived but has permanent brain damage the rest of his life. That all happened back in the 60s; now Josh is married to Flo, the sister of Kurt's friend Vaughan who drowned, and has a daughter, Penelope (Penny). Josh is a struggling artist who hates working, really, and Flo is a doctor. They have a very good home life together and Josh is very close to both of the women in his life.
One day, Josh is coming back from buying groceries for dinner, and he gets a "warm, liquid feeling" in the middle of a storm. He discovers that he has actually moved back in time about 15 minutes. He tells his family; Flo thinks he's nuts and schedules him for an MRI to detect early brain tumor activity. Penelope (Penny) thinks it's cool but you can tell she's not really sure about her father after this. But the weirdest is yet to be. Out of the storm comes a wet girl wearing a long dress with an apron on top of it and the story she tells is that she, Constance Morceau, had been with her boyfriend in her parents' apple orchard, and that the next thing she knew, a storm came, she was running to get out of it, and she ended up in this present time. Now she just wants to go home and needs help getting there. Josh, who is so taken with his own time travel experience, becomes somewhat obsessed with finding out if this girl is telling any semblance of the truth, while Flo figures she has some kind of angle & it involves cash. Eventually, Josh will help Constance, but it will cost him everything he loves.
A Shortcut in Time is a definite "not misser." It is very well written (except for the end). You end up caring about each character, with the exception of Jock Itch maybe, but I had strong negative feelings about him throughout the story. Thus, the characterization is very very good. The pace of the novel is quick and doesn't drag and the author doesn't get bogged down in the hows of time travel, just the fact that it happens. After all, if the main character doesn't know how this happens, then who's going to explain what's happening? The writing is SO good,in fact, that the author almost makes this book believable.
If you like Sci-fi, you will love this one. Keep in mind that this is not great literature; it is a book you can have fun with and ponder the inevitable paradoxes of time & existence that result. I was sad when the book was over...as far as I'm concerned, he could have kept going.
Anyway, up to that point, this book was excellent. This is definitely the only book I've ever read on time travel that was actually somewhat believable even though the subject is so out there and even though the story caused me to slow through the paradoxes brought on by the travel to and from the future and the past. I'll try to summarize the plot here.
The main character of this story, Josh Winkler (from whose vantage point the story is told), lived with mom, dad & brother Kurt in the small town of Euclid Heights, living a seemingly normal life until one day after he arrived at the local community pool where his brother was going to teach mentally disabled children how to swim and found his brother & a friend locked in a container at the bottom of the pool. The boys were the victims of the local bully (Jack Ketch, who is also called "jock itch") who was pulling a usual prank which got out of hand. Josh's brother's friend dies; Josh's brother is revived but has permanent brain damage the rest of his life. That all happened back in the 60s; now Josh is married to Flo, the sister of Kurt's friend Vaughan who drowned, and has a daughter, Penelope (Penny). Josh is a struggling artist who hates working, really, and Flo is a doctor. They have a very good home life together and Josh is very close to both of the women in his life.
One day, Josh is coming back from buying groceries for dinner, and he gets a "warm, liquid feeling" in the middle of a storm. He discovers that he has actually moved back in time about 15 minutes. He tells his family; Flo thinks he's nuts and schedules him for an MRI to detect early brain tumor activity. Penelope (Penny) thinks it's cool but you can tell she's not really sure about her father after this. But the weirdest is yet to be. Out of the storm comes a wet girl wearing a long dress with an apron on top of it and the story she tells is that she, Constance Morceau, had been with her boyfriend in her parents' apple orchard, and that the next thing she knew, a storm came, she was running to get out of it, and she ended up in this present time. Now she just wants to go home and needs help getting there. Josh, who is so taken with his own time travel experience, becomes somewhat obsessed with finding out if this girl is telling any semblance of the truth, while Flo figures she has some kind of angle & it involves cash. Eventually, Josh will help Constance, but it will cost him everything he loves.
A Shortcut in Time is a definite "not misser." It is very well written (except for the end). You end up caring about each character, with the exception of Jock Itch maybe, but I had strong negative feelings about him throughout the story. Thus, the characterization is very very good. The pace of the novel is quick and doesn't drag and the author doesn't get bogged down in the hows of time travel, just the fact that it happens. After all, if the main character doesn't know how this happens, then who's going to explain what's happening? The writing is SO good,in fact, that the author almost makes this book believable.
If you like Sci-fi, you will love this one. Keep in mind that this is not great literature; it is a book you can have fun with and ponder the inevitable paradoxes of time & existence that result. I was sad when the book was over...as far as I'm concerned, he could have kept going.
January 12, 2014
As children in Euclid Heights, Illinois, Josh and Flo were brought together when a local thug, the sheriff's son, killed Flo's brother and caused Josh's brother profound mental damage. Now they're married, still in Euclid Heights, and with a daughter of their own; Josh is an unsuccessful artist while Flo, a moderately successful pediatrician, keeps the family's economic boat afloat.
One day Josh, out cycling, has an encounter with time travel: a vicious dog that was chasing him suddenly disappears and is soon after re-encountered, seemingly having been slipped a few minutes into the future. A while later, Josh himself experiences minor time travel. He attributes these dislocations of the timeline to the curious layout of Euclid Heights; as well as the ordinary grid of streets, the town has so-called perp walks cutting across, and it's while traveling along these perp walks that temporal hiccups seem to occur. And not necessarily just hiccups: into the town comes an adolescent girl, Constance, who seems to have inadvertently made the trip to the present from the early 19th century. Since Josh is now notorious throughout town for his claims about time travel, it's inevitable these two will drift together -- not in any romantic sense, but simply in that Josh feels a solution to Constance's problem will give him some kind of answer to his own.
And in a way that's what happens; she returns to her own time, where she carves out a short and not very happy existence for herself. However, Josh's daughter Penny is likewise sucked back into the past; he succeeds in following her but, on his return to the present he discovers that much has changed: now he isn't married to Flo but instead to a woman called Lee, and they live in happy poverty as tenants of Josh's brother, who in this timeline was not brain-damaged by the bully. After a certain amount of mental conniption, Josh seems to accept this new order.
I loved all but the last few pages of this book. The writing is often very lovely. Not only are the characters fully three-dimensional, so are the relationships between them; particularly impressive was the depiction of the relationship between Josh and Flo, which he thinks is a perfectly happy and healthy one all the while we, the readers, can see this is far from the case -- his fairly ready acclimatization to marriage to a different woman is not as implausible as the bald data might make it seem. Also pleasing is that Josh is by no means the excellent fellow he believes himself to be; one of the contributory reasons for his poor relationship with Flo is that he actually is a bit of a wastrel, a would-be artist who would rather keep on tinkering than face the fact that his talent is slight and he should think about doing something more productive.
So what of those last few pages? Well, it's as if the book had a final chapter that was accidentally left out. We're told that even in this world Josh's brother has some kind of recurring problem, but never do we find out what that problem is. When Penny returns from the past to find herself living in a different Now from the one she left, there's a clumsy attempt to tie everything off in a sentence or two and then the book suddenly ends. Will Penny accept the new status quo and settle down with her father and Lee, or will she try to get back to her original family in the parallel timeline? Who knows? -- any explanation is in that hypothetical missing chapter. When I got to the book's final page, my jaw dropped; I went back a few pages and reread them, in case I'd been stupid and missed something; but seemingly not. Very strange -- especially since all the rest of the book is so very, very good.
One day Josh, out cycling, has an encounter with time travel: a vicious dog that was chasing him suddenly disappears and is soon after re-encountered, seemingly having been slipped a few minutes into the future. A while later, Josh himself experiences minor time travel. He attributes these dislocations of the timeline to the curious layout of Euclid Heights; as well as the ordinary grid of streets, the town has so-called perp walks cutting across, and it's while traveling along these perp walks that temporal hiccups seem to occur. And not necessarily just hiccups: into the town comes an adolescent girl, Constance, who seems to have inadvertently made the trip to the present from the early 19th century. Since Josh is now notorious throughout town for his claims about time travel, it's inevitable these two will drift together -- not in any romantic sense, but simply in that Josh feels a solution to Constance's problem will give him some kind of answer to his own.
And in a way that's what happens; she returns to her own time, where she carves out a short and not very happy existence for herself. However, Josh's daughter Penny is likewise sucked back into the past; he succeeds in following her but, on his return to the present he discovers that much has changed: now he isn't married to Flo but instead to a woman called Lee, and they live in happy poverty as tenants of Josh's brother, who in this timeline was not brain-damaged by the bully. After a certain amount of mental conniption, Josh seems to accept this new order.
I loved all but the last few pages of this book. The writing is often very lovely. Not only are the characters fully three-dimensional, so are the relationships between them; particularly impressive was the depiction of the relationship between Josh and Flo, which he thinks is a perfectly happy and healthy one all the while we, the readers, can see this is far from the case -- his fairly ready acclimatization to marriage to a different woman is not as implausible as the bald data might make it seem. Also pleasing is that Josh is by no means the excellent fellow he believes himself to be; one of the contributory reasons for his poor relationship with Flo is that he actually is a bit of a wastrel, a would-be artist who would rather keep on tinkering than face the fact that his talent is slight and he should think about doing something more productive.
So what of those last few pages? Well, it's as if the book had a final chapter that was accidentally left out. We're told that even in this world Josh's brother has some kind of recurring problem, but never do we find out what that problem is. When Penny returns from the past to find herself living in a different Now from the one she left, there's a clumsy attempt to tie everything off in a sentence or two and then the book suddenly ends. Will Penny accept the new status quo and settle down with her father and Lee, or will she try to get back to her original family in the parallel timeline? Who knows? -- any explanation is in that hypothetical missing chapter. When I got to the book's final page, my jaw dropped; I went back a few pages and reread them, in case I'd been stupid and missed something; but seemingly not. Very strange -- especially since all the rest of the book is so very, very good.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 22, 2011
I really loved this book...until the last page! It was a very quick read, had I had the time, I could've finished it in one sitting.
The novel is about a man named Josh who discovers one day that he can travel back in time, 15 minutes. From there, the story takes some turns about various aspects of time travel. I am not a huge sci-fi person, and I didn't mind that the author doesn't go into detail about the how and why of the time travel.
*SPOILERS*
The thing I didn't like about this book was the end. It was way too abrupt. It could've easily gone on for another 100 pages. The author just stopped and it didn't seem to make much sense. It left me saying "that's it?" Another thing I didn't like was the main character's actions. Earlier on in the book, he is lecturing others about changing events in the past and how it'll change the future. But when he travels back himself, he completely ignores his own advice. He'll tell practically anyone who will listen results of future sporting events. He goes back to get his daughter Penny, but once he's there, he could care less about getting her, just leaving her at the orphanage. It just didn't make sense. I really wish the author had done more with this book. It was such an interesting idea and it really could've been a much better book. That said, I did enjoy the book.
The novel is about a man named Josh who discovers one day that he can travel back in time, 15 minutes. From there, the story takes some turns about various aspects of time travel. I am not a huge sci-fi person, and I didn't mind that the author doesn't go into detail about the how and why of the time travel.
*SPOILERS*
The thing I didn't like about this book was the end. It was way too abrupt. It could've easily gone on for another 100 pages. The author just stopped and it didn't seem to make much sense. It left me saying "that's it?" Another thing I didn't like was the main character's actions. Earlier on in the book, he is lecturing others about changing events in the past and how it'll change the future. But when he travels back himself, he completely ignores his own advice. He'll tell practically anyone who will listen results of future sporting events. He goes back to get his daughter Penny, but once he's there, he could care less about getting her, just leaving her at the orphanage. It just didn't make sense. I really wish the author had done more with this book. It was such an interesting idea and it really could've been a much better book. That said, I did enjoy the book.
February 24, 2009
My friend Nancy once offered me this book saying it hooked her like a bass, though the end disappointed her. Hooked like a bass? You think I'm gonna turn that down?
Well...for all the forewarning, I forgot that the end of this book was abrupt. Huh? Did the last chapter go missing in the publishing process? Are there plans for a sequel?
I feel a little dissatisfied, after having been carried so well through the rest of the book.
There was only one other jarring factor for me- when Josh meets the folks skeet shooting, and learns the name of one of the ladies, it nags at him that he should know that name. But the mystery of why he shoul dknow her is never made clear, at least not to me.
Though I'm grumbling, I really did like the book.
Well...for all the forewarning, I forgot that the end of this book was abrupt. Huh? Did the last chapter go missing in the publishing process? Are there plans for a sequel?
I feel a little dissatisfied, after having been carried so well through the rest of the book.
There was only one other jarring factor for me- when Josh meets the folks skeet shooting, and learns the name of one of the ladies, it nags at him that he should know that name. But the mystery of why he shoul dknow her is never made clear, at least not to me.
Though I'm grumbling, I really did like the book.
March 27, 2017
Not the best book I've ever read but an interesting concept. I think the ending could have been better but enjoyed it all the same.
February 3, 2012
I SO wanted to give this book five stars. It's an amazingly well written time travel novel that feels like a comforting mix of Bradbury, Steven Millhauser and Connie Willis, and yet it completely falls apart in the last 15 pages. It's as if the book was cancelled rather than concluded. I'm totally fine with ambiguous ending, but this just felt like a frustrating cop out. With so many interesting ideas and characters on the table, this ending ignored all of them. Yet, I still recommend this book, if only for the quality and skill that is so apparent in 95% if this book...
July 5, 2020
When Josh discovers that he has somehow gone back 15 minutes in time he is definitely perplexed but not too alarmed until Charlotte shows up claiming to be from 1908. In his quest to understand his own experience and to help return Charlotte to her own time, Josh discovers proof that Charlotte is who she claims to be, however even his wife, Flo does not believe him until a young girl disappears, claiming to have visited a future in which Josh and Flo's daughter will disappear. The story is fleshed out with details about Josh and Flo's brothers and their rather unconventional marriage as well as the history of the town in which they have both lived their entire lives which added a lot ot the book.
This was a great setup for a science fiction story but the end, (which in my opinion violated one of the major principles of the consequences of time travel) was disappointing.
This was a great setup for a science fiction story but the end, (which in my opinion violated one of the major principles of the consequences of time travel) was disappointing.
January 11, 2016
Oh, this novel's potential.... The plot is original, as is the character's mode of time travel, but the structure and cliff-hanger ending really made this novel more annoying than entertaining. First of all, If I had time-traveled fifteen minutes into the past, like the novel's protagonist Josh Winkler did, I would not be so freaking calm about it. (I would be just as obsessed, though.) This calmness irked me so much that I'm still thinking about it. Apparently there's a sequel, titled
A Family in Time
, but you wouldn't know it from the incredibly frustrating and blunt ending. Penelope and Josh successfully time-traveled back to whenever this novel takes place and their lives are irrevocably changed. Flo never married Josh - yet Penelope still exists and hasn't yet ripped a hole into the space-time continuum. Josh is now married to Lee. Jock Itch never existed, which means he never killed Vaughn or caused brain damage to Kurt, which means the Winkler family never went bankrupt to pay for Kurt's hospital bills - WHICH MEANS THE VERY FABRIC OF TIME AND SPACE HAVE CHANGED.
I actually looked up this novel online to confirm that, no, my copy wasn't missing any pages. Penelope comes back from 1908 and then nothing. Not even some blank pages - literally just the back cover.
Please tell me that my crazed reaction is not an anomaly because ugh, this book!
I actually looked up this novel online to confirm that, no, my copy wasn't missing any pages. Penelope comes back from 1908 and then nothing. Not even some blank pages - literally just the back cover.
Please tell me that my crazed reaction is not an anomaly because ugh, this book!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 17, 2008
What an unusual book. I felt nothing for the main character, only read the book as I was captured by the blurb and have always liked stories that deal with time travel.
Only the last third of the book had anything that was redeeming. And only that portion of the book had characters that I liked.
The ending was different from what I had anticipated, far better than the book itself. And in the last 15 pages the character that I most liked appeared, Lee.
Had it not been for the ending, I would have given this book only two stars. I don't anticipate reading anything else by this author.
Only the last third of the book had anything that was redeeming. And only that portion of the book had characters that I liked.
The ending was different from what I had anticipated, far better than the book itself. And in the last 15 pages the character that I most liked appeared, Lee.
Had it not been for the ending, I would have given this book only two stars. I don't anticipate reading anything else by this author.
February 1, 2013
A fine addition to the time travel genre, with the trope in this case generated primarily by human desire (a la Time and Again), with a little help from quirks of small town Midwestern cartography and natural electromagnetic activity... The narrator/protagonist makes a sympathetic guide into this multilayered exploration of a town with two different names and at least as many destinies. Some of the characters are wonderfully memorable, particularly Penny and the little-seen Doug Vug, but I do wish that Flo had been a little less vindictively drawn. Abrupt ending might not please some readers, but it's exactly the kind of unexpected full-stop I enjoy.
May 31, 2021
A Shortcut in Time had an intriguing premise and a very promising story. However I felt that most of the characters were not very well fleshed out. Constance in particular, who should have been one of the most intriguing characters, felt very flat to me. Mostly the book just seemed to skate the surface and not really explore any of the myriad issues involved with time travel that it could have. Which was odd because the main character seems very philosophical and pensive about the whole thing, but no one else really is. And the final twist – ugh! Something like what Asimov would have tried to pull off with his worst humorous punchlines.
July 10, 2020
Mixed reviews about this book. I enjoyed some of the story line, however, there is one thing I want in a Time-Travel book---Time traveling! There was some, just not enough for me. A couple other things: 1. I found it disturbing and hard to believe that “Jock Itch” could get away with murdering another child and almost killing another without even an investigation or questioning? (I know his Dad was the Sherriff but come on) 2. The ending was so abrupt and dissatisfying. Overall, I give it 3 stars, but it had the potential for 5.
May 15, 2009
Not a bad book, intriguing small town time-travel story right from the start. However, the ending was a little "HUH??" and it really made you think "HUH??" and it required some deeper thought once the book was done. Usually the last page of a book like this would be a bit more explanitory, but the explaination has to come from your own brain ( and I think I actually "got it" on my own. Maybe not a "multiple-read" book but good to read a least once.
February 15, 2008
This is all about character development. It was just so well done, I would have given it 5 stars except that the book needed better editing. Top notch writing that got second tier editing and marketing. Because of the time travel aspects it ended up in the science fiction selves, but it belongs there about as much as Jane Austin.
August 30, 2020
a bit of a lackluster story, with neither any scientific basis or repeatable pattern to the time travel and a fair disconnect between the actions and feelings of the characters. I'd read a sequel, but only if I dind't have a decent to-read pile.
July 9, 2024
What the hell kind of ending is that?!
The premise is great. Love the idea of a mysterious way to travel back and forth in time. It was a very slow start. One might say boring.
The main character’s brother and friend are found locked in a container at the bottom of a pool. MC saves his brother and the friend dies. (Not a spoiler. It happens right at the beginning. And, yes, even that was boring.) He knows who did it and just doesn’t say anything. Why?! Why would you let the killer/attempted murderer get away with it? Fast forward to present day and he’s just interacting with the killer like nbd. No anger. No bitterness. Bizarre!
After the time travel starts, everyone is really blasé about it. Except the MC’s wife, Flo. Flo gets definitive proof multiple times and refuses to consider it. Everyone else in the town is just kinda like “oh yeah? That’s cool.” Now that I’m thinking of it, the whole book is full of blasé characters acting unrealistically.
And the ending. Just no.
The premise is great. Love the idea of a mysterious way to travel back and forth in time. It was a very slow start. One might say boring.
The main character’s brother and friend are found locked in a container at the bottom of a pool. MC saves his brother and the friend dies. (Not a spoiler. It happens right at the beginning. And, yes, even that was boring.) He knows who did it and just doesn’t say anything. Why?! Why would you let the killer/attempted murderer get away with it? Fast forward to present day and he’s just interacting with the killer like nbd. No anger. No bitterness. Bizarre!
After the time travel starts, everyone is really blasé about it. Except the MC’s wife, Flo. Flo gets definitive proof multiple times and refuses to consider it. Everyone else in the town is just kinda like “oh yeah? That’s cool.” Now that I’m thinking of it, the whole book is full of blasé characters acting unrealistically.
And the ending. Just no.
November 2, 2021
I going to say 3 and a half stars. Enjoyable time travel story that just flagged here and there from reaching four stars.
It's nice to have one of these stories not be concerned with visiting major historical events or fighting evil empires. It's a tale about local people doing local things, haha.
Having said that it's possibly a little too simplistic in terms of the overall story.
SPOILERS:
The interaction between Josh, the father, and his family doesn't always ring true for me. His wife could be about to leave him, her business might collapse because of him, his young teen daughter decides she doesn't want to go with him and he barely even shrugs as he does his own thing.
And where was the comeuppance for the Ketch dynasty bullies?
It's nice to have one of these stories not be concerned with visiting major historical events or fighting evil empires. It's a tale about local people doing local things, haha.
Having said that it's possibly a little too simplistic in terms of the overall story.
SPOILERS:
The interaction between Josh, the father, and his family doesn't always ring true for me. His wife could be about to leave him, her business might collapse because of him, his young teen daughter decides she doesn't want to go with him and he barely even shrugs as he does his own thing.
And where was the comeuppance for the Ketch dynasty bullies?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 9, 2021
Um, it was engaging. But messy. I tried to give the author credit for having a method to his madness but I just can't figure it out. And the last bit is so different, with a weak seam between. I agree with the minority that it's the last bit that's interesting, and the majority is stumbling prologue. In any case, I don't like the main character at all, and I didn't get to know anyone else well enough to care about them.
Read for Time Travel group November 2021.
Read for Time Travel group November 2021.
Read
September 9, 2025i’m sort of confused about this book. it’s sort of impersonal, the main character is not real and doesn’t make human decisions. I love the historical elements and was involved with the mystery but he didn’t feel affected by anything which tripped me up. He kind of reminds me of Mersault from the stranger. A narrator in his own story, removed from the feeling. Odd, i liked it!
February 27, 2022
A little light, but very gripping: read the whole book in two sittings. The story has interesting twists and turns. The characters are underdeveloped, amplified by violent events rather than other approaches.
December 19, 2018
Good story, exciting plot. Would have given it 5 stars, but the ending was somewhat anti-climactic & disappointing.
June 24, 2019
I’ve written better
Actually this book gives me hope, because if something this mediocre can get published, my novel should be a shoo-in.
Actually this book gives me hope, because if something this mediocre can get published, my novel should be a shoo-in.
August 14, 2019
It's been about 16 years since I read this book, and I still remember it. Not perfectly, but certain elements very very deeply.
October 22, 2020
A very enjoyable story. What if key moments in your life happened differently, how would your life have turned out – somethings worse, but maybe somethings better.
December 30, 2021
This is the most literary time travel novel I've ever read. Lovely book!
October 23, 2022
Carelessly written, unedited, senseless in places, this first-draft manuscript should never have been published. Inexcusable. DNF. Don’t waste your time.
September 24, 2023
👍 for a solid and interesting take on the time travel story but 😵💫🤨😬 for the abrupt and unhelpful ending
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February 17, 2024A plot involving time travel via a community sidewalk that has huge logic holes, yet somehow is a page turner. Unfortunately, it simply ends leaving many questions unanswered.
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