The Psychology of Time Travel

by Kate Mascarenhas

A time travel murder mystery from a brilliantly original new voice. Perfect for readers of Naomi Alderman's The Power and Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven.

1967
Four female scientists invent a time travel machine. They are on the cusp of fame: the pioneers who opened the world to new possibilities. But then one of them suffers a breakdown and puts the whole project in peril...

2017
Ruby knows her beloved Granny Bee was a pioneer, but they never talk about the past. Though time travel is now big business, Bee has never been part of it. Then they receive a message from the future – a newspaper clipping reporting the mysterious death of an elderly lady...

2018
When Odette discovered the body she went into shock. Blood everywhere, bullet wounds, that strong reek of sulphur. But when the inquest fails to find any answers, she is frustrated. Who is this dead woman that haunts her dreams? And why is everyone determined to cover up her murder?

Genres: Time Travel, Science Fiction, Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy, LGBT, Audiobook

372 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 9, 2018

About the author

Kate Mascarenhas is a writer.

Born in 1980, she is of mixed heritage (white Irish father, brown British mother) and has family in Ireland and the Republic of Seychelles.

She studied English at Oxford and Applied Psychology at Derby. Her PhD, in literary studies and psychology, was completed at Worcester.

Since 2017 Kate has been a chartered psychologist. Previously she has been an advertising copywriter, bookbinder, and doll’s house maker. She lives in the English midlands with her partner.

Her new novel, The Psychology of Time Travel, will be published by Head of Zeus in August 2018.

Reviews

[Sean Barrs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time travel is a fantastic concept and it’s almost limitless in its possibilities. An author could take their book anywhere and to anyone: it could be so many things. I’d love to see more of them out there in the market.

The Psychology of Time Travel explores many ideas and it plays with reality through the process. Mascarenhas has chosen to focus on the cognitive effects of such an epic exploration. What happens to our minds when they are stretched too far? Does our sanity start to crumble as it is subjected to such a mind-boggling experience? It’s an interesting question, almost real world in its scope. And that’s what I liked about the book: it all felt very realistic. If science ever became advanced enough to create time travel, then I feel like psychologists would be exploring these concepts.

The story begins with four women inventing time travel in the 1960s. After they use their machine, one of the women, Barbara, loses her mind and cannot form coherent sentences. This is discovered on live television, which promptly causes the other three women to disown her in order to maintain some degree of credibility for their research. They conclude that such an episode was due to Barbara’s susceptibility to depression and mental illness. From this they construct rigorous psychological screenings to prevent any weak minded individual from using their technology.

The novel is told through a multitude of perspectives across different time zones, and it’s driven forward by a mysterious dead body found in 2017. How do you catch a killer that could be from anywhere or anytime? Not easily, that’s for sure, especially when you don’t even know who the victim is. There’s nothing to identify her with. No papers. And her body is so badly damaged that she’s unrecognisable. You could be the killer and you wouldn’t even know. A future self could have transported themselves through time and done the deed. Everybody’s a suspect, and it really kept me reading.

I find it immensely interesting that the novel was written by a woman who has a PhD in literary studies and psychology. Her academic background clearly adds something to the book and it’s one full of great ideas and imagination, though the plot and structure felt a little messy at points. I suppose that could only ever be the end result of multiple characters moving in and out of time. Dates are provided at the start of each chapter, which did help, but it still got a little confusing with such a large cast of characters. Novels like this can easily turn into a tangled mess of interweaving story threads. However, towards the end it all became clear as everything slotted neatly into place and I realised how clever the book was being. It’s certainly something that has been well thought out and planned down to the very last detail.

Overall, it’s a very promising first novel and I would like to see these ideas taken further in the future.

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[megs_bookrack · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will not drag this out, The Psychology of Time Travel did not work for me.

I was kindly sent a copy by the publisher to read and review, which I truly appreciate. I accepted the title because it sounded like something that would be right up my alley.



I went in, rightly or wrongly, with the following beliefs: the story was Science Fiction, that it followed a group of female scientists who discovered how to successfully travel through time, that a murder happens and they use said time travel abilities to solve it.

What I got was sort of that.



I would say this is a Literary Fiction novel, with a few characters who happen to be scientists, and where time travel is used as plot device to tie different parts of the story together.

Okay, fine. That's great, so it wasn't what I initially expected. I can usually get over that fairly quickly.



The execution of this story, however, for me, was not good.

I generally enjoy multiple perspectives, and even multiple timelines, but here, it jumped around so much, to so many different characters, none of whom felt distinctive in any way, I couldn't remember who I was reading from, or where I was in time.



The chapters were really short, so you were never in a particular perspective long enough for it to have a lasting impact.

On a lot of occasions, I find that short chapters help to increase the pace of the story and the rate in which you read it. Not so here. This was incredibly slow. It just never really went anywhere.



Then I get to the last page, the last paragraph and am left scratching my head. That's it?



So, yeah, not for me, but it may be for you. This book has numerous positive reviews, so please do not take my word for it. Pick it up and find out for yourself. Will you or won't you?

Thank you so much to the publisher, Crooked Lane Books, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. I appreciate the opportunity to provide my opinion.

[Christina Loeffler · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5, an epic tale of Traveling Sisters stars!!!

Full review featured on my blog Recipe and a Read!

This was an incredibly unique and interesting story about four women who pioneered the invention of time travel in 1967 and the repercussions of that choice and ability. This book was 100% #LADYPOWER and I absolutely loved that. I think centering the story around women, gave Mascarenhas the ability to add a deep empathy to the affects of time travel and how it touched those who took part in it, and those on the sidelines.

There are three timelines in this, one running with the invention of the machine, another in the present and the last taking place 50 years later after time travel has really taken off. There is a lot of switching between POVs and differing story lines that made it a bit difficult for me to follow. In between the story of how time travel works and what it does to those who encounter it there is a little mystery thrown in. Ruby is the granddaughter to one of the pioneers Barbara (Granny Bee) and when a post from the future arrives about the murder of an unknown woman – this sends Ruby into a tailspin about what this could mean.

Your face is the wrong way round, Barbara thought. You’ve been burning the midnight oil – that’s why you’re pale. You are trembling – you are blinking over and over. Has the hard work been worth it? You can remember my feelings. But I don’t know what your feeling at all.

At the same time we receive the post, we’re also given the POV of Odette – the woman who finds this future unknown murder victim and this storyline begins to unfold and overlap as well. Time-Travel has always been a sticky subject for me – it’s like my brain has to slog through mud just to wrap itself around the intricacies of how that would all work and it was no different in this novel. The detail that went into this is truly impressive and wholly original. I think the sheer number of narratives going on in this hurt the flow a bit and made it hard not only to follow along, but to connect with the characters as well.

When you’re a time traveler, the people you love die, and you carry on seeing them, so their death stops making a difference to you. The only death that will ever change things is your own.

I’ll be honest – this one took me a minute to get through. As I mentioned, things are confusing and get a little convoluted. However, if you stick with it, there really is a magnificent and truly original story here that I found touching and overall worthwhile. It was a hodgepodge of many different genres – science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction and mystery all rolled into one book and it will take you on an interesting ride to say the very least.

A relationship between equals isn’t possible if one person has all the knowledge.

My favorite aspect here, and what I think worked the best was the examination of how time travel affects each person. It was incredibly interesting to see how it touched each individual character – from those that had encountered a great deal of it, to those that only touched it a bit. It is truly awe inspiring the level of detail and thought that went into this. While I do think this book suffered from a bit too much story at times my overall takeaway was enjoyment and entertainment. This is a real time-travel masterpiece that examines it for the convoluted subject it is.

I completed this as a Traveling Sisters read and while many of us were a bit confused, we all really enjoyed discussing the ins and outs of time travel and the moral dilemmas it presents! Thank you to Crooked Lane Books for an advanced copy of this novel.

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

When four female scientists create the world's first-time machine in 1967, they had no idea how they would alter the world (or themselves). These women were known as pioneers, each with her own specialty to assist each other in the development of the time machine. Fifty years later, time travel has taken off. Ruby Rebello's grandmother, Granny Bee, was one of the original pioneers. Ruby has always been curious about her grandmother's past and her contribution to time travel, so when her grandmother receives a newspaper article from the future mentioning the murder of an unknown woman, she becomes concerned. Who is the identified woman? Could this woman be her grandmother? Could the woman be someone her grandmother worked with in the past? Can the murder be prevented?

This book has a highly original take on time travel. The title says it all: The Psychology of time travel. How does traveling through time change a person? Can time travel change your physiology? Would traveling to the future effect how you live in the present? Would time travel affect your relationships. your outlook on life, your views on death, your thoughts on your own mortality? So many questions popped into my mind while reading this book. Mainly would I want to know my future? Would I want to know how and when I die?

There are a lot of story-lines and the characters travel through time, their lives intertwining with each other at various stages of their lives. With that many characters living in and traveling through various time periods, I do not know how the Author kept track of things. It is impressive. I was initially a little confused, but my advice is stick with it, because it does all make sense. I believe regular readers of science fiction and/or time travel books will not experience the initial confusion that I experienced. Plus, once I got the rhythm and the characters down, the time traveling was no longer an issue. The second half of the book was a faster read for me, mainly as I had a few things down/figured out and I was invested in learning the identity of the dead woman.

This book tackles very reverent issues while exploring time travel. This book is a marriage of science fiction, mystery and romance. This book also has a diverse cast of characters who are dealing with thought provoking issues such as bullying, sexuality, love, loss, death, mental health issues, aging, and the choices we make. The plot is multi-layered and extremely well thought out.

Highly original and creative.

Thank you to Sarah at Crooked Lane Books and the Traveling Sisters who gave me the opportunity to read this book. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Read more of my reviews at www.openbookpost.com

[Melissa (Mel’s Bookshelf) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time travel books are generally hit or miss with me. Some of my favourite and LEAST favourite books (cough.. Outlander... Cough) are time travel related. I really enjoy the concept and find it really clever how some authors navigate it. I really enjoyed this one. It was different to anything I have read before, and confused me at times... But at the same time I enjoyed it immensely.

in the 1960's, four women invent a time-travel machine. The world is their oyster! But one of them suffers a mental breakdown. Years later, her granddaughter receives a note from the future about the death of an elderly lady. Is it her grandmother? How can she stop it?

Such an original book! Granted, I haven't read THAT many time travel books, but this one took me by surprise how unique it was. Not just the subject matter but the tone and atmosphere of the novel. It was quite well imagined.

I thought it was so much fun how time travel worked! Those who worked at the conclave could travel back or forward in time constantly. At any time there could be multiple versions of the same person walking around, interacting with loved ones, reliving important events in their lives... Every traveller knew when they were going to die, when their loved ones are going to die. There is no fate anymore. They become desensitised to it. So fascinating to think about! I loved the little world that she created! No-one blinked an eye to see a future self walking around. And it made the murder investigation all the more interesting!

The characters were all great, and they were really complex because of the time-travel! The characters weren't the same over the years and they were able to reflect on the differences between their former/future selves. It was quite mind-blowing!

It did get a touch confusing at times for the reader, navigating through the years and keeping up with what was going on and at what different time. Although there were only a few set times so it wasn't too difficult to grasp thankfully.

Some of the stuff she came up with was just so unusual and unexpected! I really hope she continues with this time-travel theme in some future novels. I also wonder what else she can come up with! I will absolutely keep a look out!

Would I recommend The Psychology of Time Travel?

I thought it was a lot of fun! A very interesting and unique read!

Many thanks to Harper Collins Australia via Netgalley for a copy of The Psychology of Time Travel for me to review.

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[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this science fiction-mystery, people move back and forth in time as easily as taking a bus. Thus time travelers can go back and hang out with their past selves or leap ahead and spend time with their future selves.


Time machine

Wedding festivities can be celebrated by a slew of 'silvers' (future incarnations of oneself) and funerals can be attended by a batch of 'greens' (past incarnations of oneself).


From green self to silver self

Travelers can hop into the future to see how a job interview or relationship turns out or visit the past to give themselves (or other people) things. Nevertheless, NO TIMELINE CAN BE CHANGED WHATSOEVER....NO MATTER WHAT. This premise makes no sense from the get-go (even bringing something to the past changes things) and the book requires a hefty suspension of disbelief. That said, I like the story, which is clever, unique, engaging, and women-centric.

*****

The story:

In 1967 four brilliant women - Margaret, Grace, Lucille, and Barbara - invent time travel. The early experimental trips trigger mental illness in Barbara, so the other women - fearing bad publicity and loss of funding - ruthlessly eject her from the program.



Over the years, time travel becomes a big enterprise run by the 'Conclave', which has very restrictive policies about who can take time-trips. Fearing even a whiff of 'mental instability', the Conclave subjects prospective employees/time travelers to written tests, interviews, and intentional harassment.



Applicants are also assigned unpleasant tasks and required to participate in deadly games.....all to weed out the 'weaklings' who might be freaked out by seeing themselves or loved ones die, etc. In addition, anyone in the program who starts to show signs of mental deterioration is dismissed forthwith.

This regimen is strictly enforced by Margaret, who's matured and become director of the Conclave. Unfortunately, Margaret has also become narcissistic and power hunger.



Jump to 2017 and former time traveler Barbara (Granny Bee) is a widow who lives with her granddaughter Ruby, a psychologist.



When Ruby receives a newspaper clipping from the future, about the mysterious death of an elderly woman in 2018, she fears it refers to Granny Bee - and becomes determined to find out if this is the case. (People insist on believing they can change the future!)

Skip ahead once more to 2018, and Odette - a graduate student who works in the local museum - finds the body of an old woman in the building's basement.





The unidentified victim has been shot in a locked room - but there's no gun - and the scene is suffused with blood and plastic shards. Odette is freaked out, can't sleep or concentrate, and decides to investigate the murder to ease her mind. Thus Odette applies for a job as a detective for the Conclave, so she can go back in time to see what happened.

As a potential employee, Odette meets Margaret and the other founders of the Conclave - Grace and Lucille - who still work for the organization. She also makes the acquaintance of more job candidates and additional employees. Over time Grace learns about the culture of time travelers - a conceited, clannish bunch who think of themselves as better than 'emus' (people who don't time travel, and thus pass through time in a single direction).



Odette meets Ruby as well, when she becomes Ruby's patient for psychotherapy. Odette wants to stop the horrible flashbacks that (mentally) return her to the scene of the crime and interfere with her daily activities.

This is the bare bones of the plot, which is vastly complicated by the past and future Graces, Lucilles, and Margarets that pop up here and there; by additional people that jump back and forth in time; by romances among the characters; and so on. The romance angle is especially weird when it involves people that would normally reside in different time periods. Thus a person can have an affair with the younger version of a person who's currently in his/her dotage. Crazy, right? 😎

The Conclave has singular laws for time travelers, and there's a unique vocabulary for people who engage in time travel. Here are some words/expressions related to time travel:

• Common chronology - the sequence of events experienced by non-time travelers.

• Completion - to live an incident you've already read or heard about.

• Echoing - returning to an incident you've already experienced.

• Forecasting - intercourse with one's future self. (How cuckoo would that be?)

• Liebestod - A trip to see a lover for the last time before one's death.

• Personal chronology - The sequence of events experienced by an individual time traveler.

• Swim in the same cut - People whose personal chronologies match well, because they belong to the same team (at work).

• Wenches - Freshly recruited time travelers.

• Zeitigzorn - Feeling angry with someone for things they won't do wrong for years.

I applaud the author for creating the compelling, convoluted plot (she must have had walls covered with flow charts) - and for presenting the story in a comprehensible manner. The mystery element is especially intriguing, and I liked the solution to the crime.



Though I enjoyed the story and (more or less) accepted the bizarre sci-fi facets of the plot, I did find one idea very troublesome - that past and future versions of oneself can hobnob together. I just don't see how this would work without generating a paradox.

Still, I strongly recommend the book to fans of 'soft' science fiction, for its originality and inventiveness.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Kate Mascarenhas), and the publisher (Crooked Lane Books) for a copy of the book.

You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time travel is a complex subject. From my childhood days of reading 'The Time Machine' by H. G. Wells and watching the movie 'Back to the Future' to my adulthood escapes into devouring several new books about the topic, it's been prevalent all my life. Often the theme focuses on 'what would you change about the past' and 'what happens if you alter reality.' While those ideas are covered in Mascarenhas' novel, the Psychology of Time Travel also focuses on exactly what the title implies -- the psychological [and physical] impacts on people who have traveled through time. It's a fascinating topic handled quite adeptly and set against a backdrop of drama in which readers learn very early on, someone has been murdered... yet we don't know who it is!

I'll say from the beginning, I enjoyed this story immensely but I also recognized it's not the kind of book where you'll understand everything all in one read. Perhaps I'm not smart enough, but there were so many moments where I found myself trying to determine exactly what could've happened to lead to the woman's death. As the layers of this onion peeled away, scenes from a seventy-year period became clues about the murder. But the part that keeps you analyzing every little aspect of the story is not only (1) who is the woman, but (2) what time period is she from! That's what makes it such a clever and intriguing story. At several points in the book, characters meet themselves in different decades of their lives, and they also live exclusively in another decade rather than the one they should be living in. So... if you're smart and intuitive, you'll be totally enthralled no matter what. If you're like me (whatever that means), forget some of those boundaries and rules... and enjoy the novel as a thoroughly wonderful mystery and a discovery of how people change throughout time.

One of the best parts of the book is the connection I felt with most of the characters. Whether it was the girl who found the body in a museum where she worked, or the determination of a scientist who had a bit of a breakdown trying to force her way back into the time travel program, Mascarenhas offers heavy emotions and painful actions to depict all the ways someone can be hurt. How can one woman be so cold to turn her back on a friend just because it might hurt the time travel program? How can another sabotage science for personal gain? Do you let someone do something you fear just because you know they'll be hurt even if they don't? The book tosses out more questions than answers at times, but honestly... some of those answers are probably up to interpretation by a reader and each individual personality. This is where the psychological aspects come into play. We're all going to read this book differently because we all identify with life experiences differently.

As a mystery, it's non-traditional. An amateur sleuth or a detective is not trying to solve the murder; this approach is not the forefront of the story. The answers unfold as we see what happens over time to several characters who ask questions in different time periods. It's a cool concept, and it helps the author focus on many other brilliant parts of these women's lives. For example, romance... a girl falls in love with one of these women, but they're nearly 40 years apart in age -- except when you travel to different time periods, that's no longer true. Another example, a woman yearns to help those who are being hurt by time travel, but she doesn't know how to fix it other than do something illegal. In time, we see how all these events are connected and encourage the dramatic standoff that leads to someone's death.

The writing is great. The characters are all flawed but you root for them even when they do something wrong. Well... maybe not one of them who just irritated me non-stop once I learned she wasn't as nice as she appeared to be. A villain is necessary, so it's not anything negative about the book. It's actually something well done by Mascarenhas because you love to hate this woman. I wanted to shake her until the truth came out. It's fantastic when a writer can evoke such emotion from a reader. All this said, I end up giving the book 4.25 stars. So much of it was beautiful and engaging. A few parts were overly complex and left out a few things that might have made the whole story even more connected and immersive. I'd definitely read future works from the author.

[Ivana - Diary of Difference · Rating 3 out of 5]

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I love the idea of time travelling and I love the idea of time travelling books. That is the main reason why I chose to read this ARC copy. The synopsis sounded intriguing, and the cover was gorgeous. I don’t have much experience reading time travelling books. I still believe the synopsis is intriguing and the cover is gorgeous, but I am not satisfied with the feelings this book left me, after I read the last chapter.

The story begins when four ladies in the early 1960s work together and build the first time travel machine. And they are surrounded by curious people and media, and one of them has a breakdown and is expelled from the project, as she is a risk to herself and others. But they don’t just exclude her from their project, but from their whole lives, and time travelling altogether.

”Sometimes we want proximity and a crowd gives us the excuse.”

And many years after, when time travelling is something everyone knows about, secrets start to be revealed, little by little, and a murder happens without explanation. A few young women, completely unrelated and with different missions will try to get their way into the whole time-travel business, and try to figure the answers to their questions.

In The Psychology of Time Travel, one is certain – you will flow through time and places like never before. One chapter it’s 1967, and the next one, it’s 2015. You will meet a lady and her young self, her old self, and her current self, all at one place, talking to each other, or simultaneously performing a dancing act. You will get to see a world very well created, a complex structure of how time travel might work, and details that you wouldn’t thought of checking twice.

I couldn’t connect to any character. Maybe there were too many. The chapters were very short, and they travelled through years so quickly, that I couldn’t catch up. Catching up with the plot of a book, and figuring out what is going on while being presented things so fast is very frustrating. It’s like watching a movie in a foreign language, the subtitles being your only way of gathering information, and they disappear instantly, without you having a chance to understand.

The romance in this book was another thing that bothered me. While we get a lot of romantic relationships going around, one particularly threw me off my feet. A love story where one girl is in love with another. This is the completely realistic part. But the unrealistic one was that one girl lives in the present, and the other is a time-traveller in the past – so even though they are currently (technically) the same age, in reality one is in the mid 20s, and the other in the mid 80s. I couldn’t process this, or agree with it.

”You couldn’t get involved with someone who spent most of their life in a different time period from you.”

I am sure I would have loved the characters, have I had more chances to get to know them. They showed signs of bravery, and goals and hopes for a better tomorrow, with a spark unlike any others. But it all lasted so short, before we switched to another character, and so on.

Even though this one didn’t work for me – I still encourage you to give it a go, if you are a fan of time travel. The idea of time travelling is very well done, and deserves to be discussed.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books, for providing me an ARC copy of The Psychology of Time Travel in exchange for an honest review.

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[Phrynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was actually intending to let this one pass me by - the title did not grab me and I have so many other books waiting. However a combination of the reviews and the fact that it was available on Netgalley made me decide to read it and I am so glad I did.

It is a story about four women who invented a time machine and what happened to them and their invention once it became public property. More importantly the book focuses on the people involved and how they were impacted by this remarkable achievement. Some of the generally accepted rules of time travel are used and some are just tossed out of the window. Not interacting with ones former and future selves is an example. In this book people seek themselves out, revisit and attend past events such as weddings and births and some even live most of the time in the wrong decade. It is fascinating but I found it best not to dwell on the science of the thing - just take it as it comes and it is great:)

There is even a Sherlock Holmes style murder mystery involving a corpse and a locked room - locked from the inside of course! This was fun but I failed to follow the rationale. Doesn't matter! It was still a great story.

At the start of this review I gave the book 4 stars but I have talked myself into 5. It really was very entertaining.

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Cecily · Rating 2 out of 5]

“When you’re a time traveller, the people you love die, and you carry on seeing them… The only death that will ever change things is your own.”

This is a really original, female-focused slant on time travel, with a strong emphasis on mental health, plus a locked-room murder mystery. It zips along in short chapters, each titled by the year and name(s) of the main character(s), all in plain language.

It’s good fun, with some interesting ideas, but I found the heavy-handed exposition and handling of Issues (gender, racism, bullying, psychological problems) increasingly annoying, exacerbated by plot holes and inconsistencies. It’s generally a bit YA for my taste.

Plot - no spoilers

Four British women invent a time-travel machine in 1967. The organisation they create, The Conclave, gets military funding, but is secretive and self-policing - literally: there are separate legal and currency systems for time travellers. It employs a few hundred within two years! But early on, one of the four, Barbara, has a breakdown on live TV. Margaret kicks her out of The Conclave, and thereafter, the mental health of time travellers is an issue. The main plot drivers are Barbara’s desire to travel time again, and a university student, Odette, who finds a body and becomes obsessed with wanting to know who and why.


Image: Diorama from the author’s website (Source.)

Ask yourself

• Do you want to know your future? (The enduring popularity of fortune-telling suggests many do.)

• Would you want to spend Christmas with several versions of yourself (different ages, on the same timeline)? Or invite several of you to your wedding?

• Would you visit your dying future self?

• Is it surprising that one of the time travellers is a churchgoer who believes in the afterlife?

Mechanics and consequences

• You can’t travel back to before the machine’s invention.

• You can’t travel forward more than 300 years after the time machine’s invention. If the specific reason was given, I missed it.

• Time travel can trigger psychological problems: disruptions to body clock; the stress of cognitive recall when timelines and memories are non-chronological; the emotional burden of knowing the future (yours, and those you love); monogamy isn’t a very meaningful concept; obsession with death, and although neutering feelings, can help cope, it can also lead to bullying and nasty pranks to trigger emotions in others, and experience them vicariously.

• “Time travellers’ relationships feel prearranged… They know the outcome before they necessarily know the person.” And unless both partners are time travellers, there’s an imbalance of knowledge that few couples can manage.

• Time travellers can spend more of their lives in the past or future than their purported home timeline.

• You can meet yourself - multiple selves from different times of your life - simultaneously (and having sex with yourself is common enough there’s a word for it in the time travellers’ glossary).

• You can’t change anything in the past. Except for the things you can, which do of course change things. It doesn’t really stack up.

Creative

One of the founding time travellers, Grace, is also a successful conceptual artist, including a self-portrait painted in reverse: the travelled 24 hours into the future to see the finished picture. Then back one hour (only 23 hours ahead of her “present”) to paint the preceding brushstrokes. She repeated this until faced with a blank canvas on which she painted the first line, “with a fresh, directly experienced memory of how the final painting would look.”

Diversity

I welcome diversity, especially in sci-fi, but here, you’re constantly reminded that every main character is female (mostly women in STEM), several are non-white and made to feel aware of it, some are lesbian or bi, one is a single mother, and many have mental health issues (PTSD, bipolar, OCD, death anxiety, anorexia, self-harm). The only fleeting mention of Margaret’s secretary was to indicate that he was a man. It just needed some physical disabilities for the hat-trick.

On the other hand, immediately before this, I read This Is How You Lose the Time War (see my review HERE), whose queer feminist slant was almost too understated to make the point. I prefer subtlety to sledgehammers.

Other annoyances - no major plot spoilers

There are quite a lot, though a few are trivial. I’ve hidden them because I want to remember what they are, but don’t want to spoil other people’s enjoyment.


Image: Not (quite) appearing in this book (Source.)



Implausibility and inconsistencies

Ruby’s favourite book as a child was The Box of Delights by John Masefield, a fantasy novel about a magic box that enables its holder to travel time and space. It plays a small but significant role in this book, though I don’t think I lost out by not having read it.

What irked me was its parallel, the Candybox: a miniature time travel device. The Conclave briefly sold them as toys: put a piece of candy in, it would vanish, and appear a minute later. As we’re often told the fuel for time machines is terribly expensive and used up quickly, this doesn’t seem a good form of fundraising. But worse, the Candybox is really a deus ex, rather like The Doctor and his Sonic Screwdriver.

I cannot believe that for 50 years, no one else manages time travel, even given The Conclave’s monopoly on the fuel. It’s too powerful a tool. Spies (commercial or foreign governments) would go to extraordinary lengths to get their hands on it, and probably succeed, especially as they could legitimately buy and disassemble Candyboxes.

Apparently, “most time travel legislation derives from the twenty fourth-century, which is pretty bloodthirsty”, but how does anyone know, given the stated impossibility of travel beyond 2267?

Odette is a main character: a Cambridge graduate, but often seeming to lack intelligence. She met a time traveller in her childhood, so why doesn’t she immediately wonder if time travel could be a factor in the locked-room murder? Another time, she is thinking of all sorts of complex tech ways to get secret information to a journalist. A man she has met, and could meet again.

Mental health

The mental health of time travellers is a big deal, but why is their physical health never mentioned? This is especially relevant because most time travellers are women. How does it affect their menstrual cycles, and what happens if a woman travels while pregnant?

The glossary is of time travel jargon is fun - though it doesn’t include all the terms used in the story. The 30 pages of psychometric questions to weed out potential time travellers who have mental health issues are an amusing idea, but way more than necessary. But maybe it’s more appealing to listicle-obsessed YAs who might want to check if they’d be suitable candidates. The idea that such tests would be used again and again with the same time travellers didn’t seem very plausible though.

For a book by a chartered psychologist, and one that champions mental health and equality, I was surprised to read “manic depression” twice (instead of “bipolar”) and even “air hostess”.

Writing and editing

Mascarenhas does a lot of telling when she could be showing, especially of people’s thoughts and motives. “Ginger didn’t lack self-awareness...” Those words should not be necessary. The Conclave entrance exam question, “How can time travel help us prevent a crime?” is a good one, but it’s used for didactic explanation. And towards the end, Ruby gives an out-loud psych assessment of and to an opponent, just in case readers haven’t joined the dots. Very Blofeld.

I don’t proofread novels, but I did notice a couple of egregios typos, including one where the wrong character’s name was used (confusing!), and mention of “a Terence Malik film” that manages to misspell both his names, and wasn’t really relevant anyway!

Another unnecessary aside is being able to have strap-on wings in 2075 (cute) - that you can use for inter-continental flights!! What about oxygen, temperature, staying awake...? (Unless flying to Cuba was a joke, but it didn’t read that way.)

[Mackenzie - PhDiva Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are wrapping up 2018 soon and beginning a new year full of new books! In the spirit of thinking about time, I want to give a little teaser of a book I read (and loved!) in 2018 but that publishes in February of 2019--The Psychology of Time Travel by the incredible Kate Mascarenhas. This book completely captivated me, and I'm actually on a second reading of it because I loved it SO much! On my second reading, I'm picking up on so many wonderful clues and moments that weave together and delight me even more now that I can place them in the context of the full novel. This is a book that should be read many times--the best kind of book in my opinion!

See my blog post on PhDiva.blog!

Reflection

Intelligent, intricate, delicate, and captivating... I am so in love with this novel! This is so much more than a mystery that involves time travel. To me, this is a book about the implications of being the first to do something groundbreaking, and about how different people react to power. Because in a way, time travel is power. What is at the core of each of us as humans? Would we all succumb to the mental and emotional impact that time travel has? At what point do we lose point of what makes us humans, who love and feel emotions, and experience highs and lows?

I love the way Mascarenhas delves into the implications of this scientific break through. There needs to be laws and codes on conduct, and there needs to be research into the impact on the human body and mind by unleashing this breakthrough. How do we determine who is best suited to hold this privilege? As a psychologist myself, the characters and how they develop throughout the novel were truly the best part. And by the end I found myself in awe of the way everything was tied together. There wasn't a single character, story, or moment that went unaccounted for. A masterpiece!

I can't wait to post my full review in 2019!

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books for my copy to read and review. I first read this with the Traveling Sisters.

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

JULY 2021 UPDATE $1.99 ON KINDLE!

THE PUBLISHER APPROVED A DRC OF THIS TITLE VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Okay. This is hard. I can't explain why I didn't give this fascinating, layered, reality-twisting novel of ideas less than five full stars without spoilering the hell out of the ending.

Let me approach this from the side. I remember a few details from the past, when there was one digit in my age. I don't claim, at this late date, that they are factual and accurate; way too much time has passed, way too many things look completely different to my grandfatherly self than they *could* have to my kid self. So is that The Past, my version of the past, a fantastical creation of my imagination, some combination of these (and other) angles of view? Is something new created, something old altered, is there any way imaginable that this paradox could be resolved with technological time travel? Or would that just make things a lot worse?

“Maybe being in charge of time and space would give anyone a god complex, but she’s such a mean god.”

Reader, this novel does not answer those questions. It does not approach your experience of its story universe from the position of *giving* you answers; it demands of you that you spend significant mental energy creating answers for yourself, using the story's elements (note I did not call them facts) to sort out who actually intended to be good and create happiness for the greatest number of souls.

“Rules exist for a reason.”
“Yes, to stigmatize people.”
–and–
“Sometimes, we have a moral duty to break the rules. Particularly where the rulemakers are corrupt.”

The answer is not the one you expect it to be. Or it wasn't the one I expected it to be. So I think you're likely to be led down the strange and winding thread of the screw bolting the monster's head to their body, directly into a concrete slab, and left there to wonder just what exactly happened while you thought you were reading a fun little entertainment about women empowering themselves in the world of 1967.

“Remember that. When you go, you want to have people you love to think about. You need enough money to feed yourself, and a sense of purpose is nice. But the rest is superfluous.”

And you'll like it.

[Brenda ~The Sisters~Book Witch · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Traveling Sisters stepped out of their comfort zones a little bit here when we were invited to read and review The Psychology of Time Travel as it isn’t a genre that some of us normally would read. However, all of us who participated in this group read really loved the opportunity to try something different than we normally would pick up to read. That is part of what makes our group reads so interesting and exciting and we are grateful for when these types of group reads come available to us. We don’t need to love every book to have a great reading experience and this was one of those great experiences for us all.

The Psychology of Time Travel is a complex, heavy, complicated and unique story that explores time travel and the impact it has on the time traveler’s mentality. The story has a twist here with a whodunit and a mystery element to it. You need to pay close attention to the alternating timelines and perspectives as things can get a bit confusing keeping track of all that is going on in the different and diverse storylines.

The characters here in this story are some of the most unique, diverse and interesting characters I have come across in a story. Each character adds a layer to the story and another piece of the story is explored with each character.

There was much to discuss with this one and one thing for sure, this is a great one to discuss whether it worked for you or not. It’s a thought-provoking story that opens up a lot of questions to explore in a discussion.

We highly recommend for readers who like a complex and intelligent well-layered story who might like to dig deep into some of the effects of time travel with some complex layers to it.

For more thoughts from the Traveling Sisters

https://twosisterslostinacoulee.com/2...

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

There have been a lot of time travel books. Like. A LOT. But few deal quite this directly with the secondary effects of a lot of movement through time. This one does.

The title is entirely accurate but it is NOT a DSM listing. Rather, it's part a worldbuilding exercise where madness, murder, and mayhem is realistically unfolded in the reality of knowing Time. This is not a universe where paradoxes happen. This is unmovable Time. The institute can set up trade agreements between time periods and a timeless economy can flourish, paying taxes during whatever time period is most favorable. :)

But better than that, everyone in the department knows when they die and prospective partners engrave their births and deaths on their rings. Isn't that messed up? Well, not really. People still do their willfully ignorant things, play around with time, get revenge for slights and wrongs, murder, investigate murders, and while there is no prevention, at least there is Understanding.

I like this best about the novel, but a good runner up aspect is the fact that most of the characters are women of all qualities. Sure, there's plenty of questionable mating practices among both sexes, using foreknowledge to mess with or cheat on or seduce when there might never have been any chance at seduction.

And yet, the question is something odd, since All Things Are Set In Stone.

What happens with people's minds when that point is driven home? It's almost theological. :) Or rather, future time travelers already go there. :)

Well worth the read. Complex, great characters, and even better forethought here. :)

[Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unexpectedly emotional! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This is a challenging review to write because The Psychology of Time Travel is a difficult book to describe! It’s so many things, wonderful things, and I’m going to do my best to capture it all.

Four female scientists build the first time machine in 1967. When the machine is about to make its world-wide debut, one of the scientists is removed from the team because of significant emotional difficulties…This was done to protect the debut…

Over fifty years later, the world is a different. Time travel is commonplace and a huge moneymaker. Ruby knows her grandmother was one of the inventors of time travel, and she receives a newspaper clipping from the future reporting the murder of an unidentified woman. Could it be her grandmother and why? And thanks to time travel, can Ruby save her?

The Psychology of Time Travel requires your full concentration as a reader. It’s complex and sometimes complicated. There are many characters, issues, and genres to figure out.

But at its core, The Psychology of Time Travel is a beautiful story. One that resonates and is powerful all thanks to the time travel elements.

Mascarenhas has plotted this multi-layered work with precision. You can feel her love and reverence for the subject matter with every page. While not my typical read, I’m grateful I spent the time with this one. Overall, I found it engaging, entertaining, and unexpectedly emotional.

Thanks to Crooked Lane Books for the complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

My reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aptly named, The Psychology of Time Travel combines mystery, fantasy, and yes, a ton of psychology in a complicated and multifaceted story that flows in and out of time. In the 1960's, four scientific pioneers all bring their expertise to the table to create time travel. It's a true team effort. But what happens when you create something Earth shattering? You change the world. And when you have the power to change the world, you better check yourself. With a large, primarily all-female cast, there is no overshadowing or credit stealing from the male gender, showing that the inclusion of this sort of drama is not the only way to validate women (nor is it the only way to create romance and truly villainous behavior). However, exclusion still manages to infiltrate this story as themes of alienation by way of intellect and mental illness are evident throughout.

Being a psychologist herself, author Kate Mascarenhas gives this book such an intelligent foundation on which to build incredibly creative layers. But make no mistake, this book was downright confusing for me at times. There is a lot to keep track of despite the chapter headings that specify the date/year and point-of-view(s). However, the further I read, the more I absorbed the rules and norms of this fantasy-like world and it gradually became easier. Will it be that way for everyone? I'm not sure.

I absolutely loved Mascarenhas' imagination as I read about how time travel impacted ethics, accountability, views on death, currency, tax contributions, the judicial process and even partner options for romantic ventures. She thought of it all, people! My brain hasn't been this challenged in a while. Smart, diverse and stimulating, it's worth the read. Check it out.

Note: At the end of the ARC edition, there is a battery of psychometric tests that screens the subject for compatibility with the Conclave, the strict organization that manages time travel. My personal score encouraged me to apply. I just laughed and tried not to wonder what that says about me.


Thank you to Crooked Lane Books for mailing me an advance readers' edition of The Psychology of Time Travel. In exchange, I agreed to share my thoughts on goodreads and my other favorite social media sites. This generosity did not impact my honesty when rating/reviewing.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas is a science fiction fantasy that is a bit like the story of Hidden Figures. In this book instead of the ladies that worked on the space program we have a fantasy read with four ladies that worked to create time travel.

The story begins in 1967 with the four ladies working to invent time travel, each with their own specialty. After successful animal trials things move forward for them to begin working with human travel. Unfortunately, one of the woman in the program suffers side effects from the program and is pushed out of the program.

In the present time we meet Ruby who is the granddaughter of that original member who left the program. When her grandmother, Barbara (Granny Bee), receives a note from fifty years in the future it seems there will be a murder of an unknown woman with time travel being at it´s peak in that time.

I will admit first that The Psychology of Time Travel isn´t the easiest of books to follow along with as it bounces from time to time and character to character. However, I do think this one is worth the extra time to read having new and interesting ideas with time travel. Instead of being a book that focuses on what era is being visited this one focuses on these characters and the effects of travel and still kept the pages turning and my interest to see what would happen especially with a bit of mystery, certainly a nice read overall.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/

[Jenna ❤ ❀ ❤]

Love the title. Love the cover. Love the blurb. The book? Guess I ran all out of love. C'mon, now, really?? 4 scientists brilliant enough to create the world's first time machine and they jump around squealing, "thank god!", weeping over their success, and speaking with the vocabulary of a gang of vacuous Kardashians? PASS!

[Scarlett Readz and Runz....Through Novel Time & Distance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Russian roulette, secrets, time travel! Multi-dimensional with layers upon layers...

This book is very different from any of the other time travel books I have ever read before. Where most other books focus on the journey, destination, places or the life forms encountered, this book has a central focus on the women that invented time travel in 1967, their families and lives that surround the successes and the repercussions from instituted time travel.

As one woman receives a paper note that predicts her death, there is a murder mystery shrouded within the Psychology of Time Travel.

Four Women will invent time travel.
Three will make their mark on history.
Two will do anything to be remembered.
One will not survive.

The novel opens with 4 scientists working on their time travel project and they receive a parcel of rabbits to send the first organic matter through time. From there it proceeds to tell in different timelines what happens after their success and failures. One of the scientists becomes affected psychologically by time travel and future recruitment measures to the Conclave are put in place by evaluating time traveler’s psyches with better questionnaires.

The women’s personal lives and relationships are hopped in and out of in different segments at the time, giving the reader an idea of internal workings like happiness or depression. An unhappy marriage, infidelity and initiation rituals of new time travel recruits all play a role on how the plot unfolds to a twisted conclusion at the end and the one woman who tirelessly tries to solve a murder.

***

This novel is very unique and a brilliant mess. With interludes and layers upon layers the plot unfolds sometimes out of context only to bring it in at the end. It lends to a very different reading experience as at times it seems in cohesive, yet the intricacies are brilliant.

The Psychology of Time Travel is one of those books you may want to take notes with to understand everything that is going on. Both writing and plot are unique and special and I am glad I had the chance to read it.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books for my advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 4 out of 5]

'The Psychology of Time Travel' is Kate Mascarenhas' exciting debut and mixes a variety of genres in a special way. Part mystery, part thriller, part science fiction, this novel has a little something for everyone within it. It also boldly explores difficult but important themes and is an absolute pleasure to read.

The story begins with the introduction of four incredible female scientists - Barbara, Margaret, Estelle and Grace. who are on the verge of inventing a time-travel machine. Unfortunately, just before they are to debut their creation Barbara suffers a nervous breakdown live on TV and as a result she is ejected from the project. The others decide to create the Conclave, an institution aiming to monopolise the time-travel industry. In 2017, Barbara and her granddaughter, Ruby, are given evidence of a death the following year which is linked to the Conclave and Barbara questions whether she should give in to her cravings to time-travel for the last time. In 2018, Odette happens upon a horrendous scene and a body. She resolves to investigate the who, how and why of the situation.

There are many different strands to the story and it jumps back and forth in time with the various elements of the plot. I was rather worried that I would be confused by the intertwining stories and rapidly changing times but for the most part it was simple to follow. At its heart this is feminist fiction with few male characters and a particular focuson the strength and intellectual capacity of the women involved. To say the plot is busy and action-packed is an understatement, as the author also discusses weighty and thought-provoking topics such as mental health, psychology, OCD, anxiety, love and death, to name but a few, and explores all of this within the time-travelling context. Superbly written with a whole cast of characters that are developed sufficiently, and a complex, well thought out plot that holds your attention but challenges you too.

All in all, this is a highly original take on time-travel with a wide range of important topical issues playing a part. There are some people who would say that this suffers from a mistake debut author's often make: cramming too much into the plot making it too complex and overcomplicated in the process and I can see why. If you can keep up though you'll thoroughly enjoy it and find it a rewarding experience as I did.

Many thanks to Head of Zeus for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

[donna backshall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gosh, I did so want to love this book, but I knew that by maybe 30% in, if I had not engaged yet, it wasn't going to click for me. But so many other readers loved it, so it's definitely me, not the novel. I guess I've indulged in too many hard sci-fi time travel novels that this one, which reads more like a cozy mystery, diverged too far from my paradigm to work?

The world building was unique, the pioneering women of time travel were sympathetic, and the idea of time travel as a culture was interesting. However, I couldn't bring myself to care. Ruby, Odette, Margaret, Barbara, etc. -- they were just names and times and places to me, nothing I felt invested in. I wanted to care about how the travel was wreaking havoc on the mental health of those using it, but instead I just got confused by the timelines and bored with how little was happening, how slowly it was unfolding.

I fully recognize it's nearly impossible to find a killer when you have not just space but also time to investigate, so why wasn't this more compelling?

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

A glorious, beautifully crafted novel that treats the theme of time travel in such an original way - no concerns here about meeting your future self or selves. Clever and quite complex but also full of heart. There's a lot to say about this wonderful, memorable novel and the women in it - review to follow shortly on For Winter Nights once I've had time to sit and think on it. A contender for my book of the year.

[Stacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rating

In 1967, four female scientists discover a way to time travel. During their first televised interview, one of the women (Barbara) has a psychotic breakdown. In order to spare the project bad publicity, the leader of the group (Margaret) has Barbara hospitalized and ostrisized from the project. This event sets off a series of occurrences that span lifetimes and ends with murder.

____________________________________________

This is an average story. The time travel specifics are a bit confusing, and the author should have explained why certain things happened. I do not understand what occurred at the inquest and why Barbara's husband visited Margaret. Also, I was not invested in the relationship between Ruby and Grace because there was zero buildup to their romance. I will say that there is an easy flow to the narrative, so I read through the book pretty quickly.

[Amanda - Mrs B's Book Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

*https://mrsbbookreviews.wordpress.com
I was sold on The Psychology of Time Travel, just based on the intriguing title choice and front cover. The front cover is quite deceiving, it features a stitched set of motifs, almost cosy in nature. This is quite a facade, as beneath this novel lies a complex exploration of time travel. The Psychology of Time Travel is aptly titled, this debut novel offers up one of the most in-depth and alternative investigations of time travel I have encountered. The Psychology of Time Travel carefully focuses on the mental health and psychology of those who are involved in this unfathomable concept.

It was with some trepidation that I went into The Psychology of Time Travel. Although I am a great fan of the Back to the Future (who isn’t?) film series, I wasn’t a fan of The Time Traveler’s Wife. In addition, a recent novel I read this year for book club that was based on time travel proved to be too much of challenge for me! Anyhow, I digress, I tried very hard to go into the reading experience of The Psychology of Time Travel with an open mind. I did appreciate many elements of this novel, the transcendence aspect blew my mind, along with the pioneering work of this brave group of intelligent women. However, I encountered my usual problem with time travel books, the non linear narrative irked me, I did get confused despite the helpful chapter headings and this ultimately impacted my overall response to the novel.

For those with an open mind and an ability to gain the upper hand over multiple time zones, this book will dazzle you! For a debut novel, I am particularly impressed by Kate Mascarenhas’s willingness to compose of novel of this magnitude, she is highly ambitious and kudos to her. I also appreciated the feminist slant of this novel, it isn’t your face, it is subtle but I liked this focus, it is a great nod to the novel and film Hidden Figures. What also worked in this novel were the wide range of overarching issues covered from; the justice system, discrimination, family dynamics, moral codes, mental health, friendships, relationships and so much more. The book also carefully begs the reader to place themselves in the position of the female scientists in this story and consider how they would react to being placed in this strange set of events. So much food for thought!

As a bonus, not only is this an analysis of the work and impact of time travel has on small group of women, The Psychology of Time Travel is also a murder mystery with a difference. With factors such as different time zones and possible suspects from the past and future thrown into the mix, this intriguing aspect of the story remains quite ambiguous until the close. Be rest assured, the final few pages are fascinating and it is pleasing to see how Mascarenhas handles the resolution of the murder mystery. I think readers who have invested their time in this novel, will be satisfied by the close of the book.

So despite some reservations and personal difficulties with the structure of the narrative, I did enjoy many elements of The Psychology of Time Travel, it proved to be a revolutionary read. Based on the visionary approach of this debut, I am very keen to see what the author, Kate Mascarenhas, serves up next. I’m sure it will be just as innovative as this one.


*Please note that a free copy of this book was provided to me for review purposes through Beauty & Lace and Harper Collins Books Australia. To read the original review on the Beauty & Lace website please visit here: http://bookgirl.beautyandlace.net/boo...

[Debra · Rating 1 out of 5]

It isn't often that I am driven to give a book 1 star but I am afraid this one pushed me to the limit. This is a book about time travel - of that there is no doubt. What else it is about rather passed me by!

In 1967 four pioneering women discover time travel. By 2017 there is a culture of time travellers who seem to flit backwards and forwards in time. Time travel is strictly regulated with its own regulations and rules. We dip in and out of the lives of the original pioneers - Grace, Margaret, Granny Bee and Lucille. We also meet Ruby, Granny Bee's daughter and Odette who finds a murdered anonymous woman.

There are four main problems with this book - the writing style, the total confusion of threads, the dreadful characterisation and the time travel issues.

After the first couple of chapters of this book I had to go and check to see if it was a children's book that I was reading. I am not adverse to reading children's books but the language and style of the writing was very juvenille. It was very "he says, she says" with little depth of vocabularly. There is little in the way of description beyond plain facts. Consequently as the book transfers between threads there is little to differentiate between the different time periods. The chapters did clearly state which character they were following and what the year was but without that I couldn't have been sure. I lost track of how many threads there are in this book. I think there were four or five main ones but each of those went off at tangents with new threads only months apart from previous ones. It was total chaos and a total recipe for disaster.

The characterisation was, quite frankly, dreadful. Who were these people? What were their characters? What did they think and feel? Yes, basic facts are given as required - Ruby felt attracted to Grace. Well, thank you for that but why? What made Ruby tick? Facts are no enough I need to feel these people. What I got was a collection of cardboard characters who were bland and very alike - dull.

Then there is the time travel issue. I am a big Dr Who & science fiction fan. This author broke the cardinal rule of Time Travel & had characters meeting younger and older versions of themselves willy nilly. Any Dr Who fan knows that this will cause a paradox in the wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff. Now I could have accepted the author breaking this rule if they had explained to me why there was no problem with this happening. A simple explanation would have done. After all no one really knows if a paradox would happen or not but some sort of explanation or mention as to why it wasn't happening in this book would have been helpful. Personally I struggled with there being many versions of the same person in the same place at the same time. They all have Christmas together and go to their own wedding and funeral - strange. All the toing & froing with the same person in different time periods & then older and younger versions of that person crossing over into other threads just left me in mindless confusion - if you are keeping up here please explain it to me.

If your book is going to jump around in time it needs structure, a clear plot and clearly defined characters. This book failed on all accounts.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

At one point in the novel, one of the characters observes that a characteristic of more experienced time travellers is that they generally have ‘a weird hippocampus’.  Having now read the book, I feel I can definitely identify with this – and goodness knows what the author’s hippocampus looks like!  As it happens, during the time I was reading the book I had to undergo an MRI brain scan.  In my imagination, the radiographer is now looking at the scan and thinking, WTF…

There are so many intersecting story lines and switches of time period in The Psychology of Time Travel that I can’t imagine how the author kept track of everything.  I picture her surrounded by post-it notes, whiteboards, flowcharts… The Psychology of Time Travel is definitely a contender for a ‘read-in-one-sitting’ book.  Once you pick it up, you may just decide to cancel all your plans for that morning, afternoon or evening.  In fact, to save you the trouble of making the decision, I took a quick trip to the future myself and I can reassure you that reading the book will turn out to be much more satisfying that what you intended doing anyway.  And, by the way, Jaroslav says ‘Hi’.  Oh, I forget, you haven’t met him yet, have you?  Plus that new recipe you were planning to try later?  Don’t bother; it doesn’t work out too well.

I said earlier that my proof copy was personally inscribed by the author.  I had the uncanny sense when I finished the book that if I turned back to that page, rather than 'Hope you enjoy it!', it would now read ‘Glad you enjoyed it!’.

A sort of modern day version, for grown-ups, of John Masefield’s The Box of Delights, Kate Mascarenhas’ debut novel is a clever, funny, exhilarating, mind-bending mystery that deserves all the rave reviews it is getting.   This is an author to look out for in the future.  (See what I did there?)

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Head of Zeus, in return for an honest and unbiased review.

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Psychology of Time Travel presents an alternate version of recent history that is captivating from the first page. In 1967, time travel is invented by a team of four female scientists – Margaret, Lucille, Grace and Barbara, or, as they're often known, 'the pioneers'. However, the process has a destabilising effect on Barbara: she has a bizarre public outburst when the group present their research to the media, and is thereafter admitted to a psychiatric ward. Excommunicated by the pioneers (at the insistence of Margaret, their queen bee), she is largely excised from the history of time travel. The others go on to great success, forming a powerful organisation known as the Conclave to facilitate and control the use of time machines.

It's not easy to summarise the plot from then on, as it skips between time periods and characters, and becomes rather complex (the interweaving of timelines makes The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle look like child's play). Ruby, Barbara's granddaughter, is the closest thing the book has to a protagonist. In 2017, she receives a cryptic 'message' from the future: the death certificate of a woman in her eighties, dated to January 2018, with the name left blank. Convinced this is a warning of Barbara's impending death, she quietly begins to investigate the workings of the secretive Conclave. In 2018 there is Odette, a museum volunteer – seemingly unconnected to the others – who finds the body of an unidentified woman in a boiler room. This room has been locked from the inside; the victim was shot several times, but no gun can be found. So, as well as a story about, well, psychology and time travel, this novel becomes a murder mystery.

I loved that The Psychology of Time Travel is so joyfully female-focused without slipping towards the dreaded 'feminist dystopia' genre I've begun to find so tedious. It prioritises female relationships: the professional alliance formed by the pioneers is crucial, as is Ruby's bond with her grandmother, and the central romance is between two women. The women in this book don't always do very well at being leaders or partners or mothers – they're imperfect, and sometimes they're downright awful. All this is achieved without the narrative coming off as sanctimonious, without disparaging male characters, and while embracing diversity in surprising ways.

My one complaint would be that in one of the antagonists we have that hoary old cliche: the woman whose life is empty because she is unmarried and childless, and must therefore go around making life miserable for others. This book is better than that, and I wish there'd been room to explore this particular character's motives beyond such a crude explanation.

The worldbuilding is extremely complex, since the book must establish not only a broad cast of characters but the science behind time travel; how it is governed and regulated; how time travellers interact with their older and younger selves and family members; the time travellers' initiation rituals, habits and slang. There's simply so much going on, and consequently, events towards the end feel a little rushed and lacking in detail. In some ways it seems unfinished. But that could be intentional; perhaps Mascarenhas intends to turn this into a series?

If there is another book about this world and these characters, I will read it. The Psychology of Time Travel is rich, convincing and, above all, fun.

I received an advance review copy of The Psychology of Time Travel from the publisher through NetGalley.

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[Gabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m delighted that my first review in the new year goes to such an enjoyable book.

„The psychology of time travel“ is exactly what the title hints at. If you want to think about the technicalities of time travelling or the causalities of jumping around in past and future then it would be better if you pick up one of the zillion books that concern themselves with those aspects. For this novel time travel works and the past can’t be altered – stat. This has to be taken as a given without explanation before the reader dives into the story. This book is about psychology, about emotional and mental stress on people who deal with the knowledge of their own death and that of loved ones, who have to live with the philosophy that nothing can be changed, that everything is set no matter what. Mascarenhas explores in which ways this changes people and lives, and she does that on a very plausible and human level. Her protagonists are believable women (yes, all the main characters are women – another successful feature in this novel) who all have their own methods to deal with their unique situation, some the reader will love, some the reader will hate. All are flawed and relatable.

One of the background stories is a mystery crime where neither victim nor cause nor time of the murder can be stated. The other is the attempt of an elderly woman to get back into the time travel project from which she was expelled in her youth due to a nervous breakdown. The paths of all the protagonists whose stories are told over several POVs and time lines mingle around those two themes and cross each other.

The beginning of each chapter is clearly stated with the date, so that following the different time lines is well manageable. It gets a bit complicated due to the fact that the time travellers themselves can act in any chosen timeline and know their other selves (which can lead to the strange fact that one can attend one’s own funeral or a ridiculous event where around 50 selves perform a ballet).

There are some points where even my logic stumbled a bit, but all in all I loved this story which brought me a fresh and new view on the so often beaten-to-death subject of time travel. Likeable characters, a light and sure prose and a proficient take on psychology makes „The psychology of time travel“ my perfect book start into 2020 (to say nothing of the resourceful subject of avoiding taxes by time travel).

I want more Kate Mascarenhas in my life!

[Lindsay L · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

[Evelina | AvalinahsBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF @ 60%
The separate ingredients of this book were great: the diversity, the mystery, the premise of time travel and even the world building. But I failed to fall in love with the book. It's hard to say why - for me, it's the characters that make a book. And characters are not the strength of The Psychology of Time Travel. It centers on the story and only the story, it has a lot of characters and you don't get to know any of them well enough. The thing that bothered me the most was that the initial story that everything is built upon introduces you to four core characters and tells about the whole incident in a matter of pages, and then skips years ahead. That came off as really flat for me and I was disappointed in the book from the very first pages. It was very hard to let go of this feeling when reading on. I tried, but like I said, I failed to fall in love with this story.

The society of time travelers (called the conclave) is a truly interesting concept though, and it's all explained quite well. The world building is also very detailed, and I honestly can't criticize. But maybe I wasn't the best candidate for reading about it. The conclave has draconian laws, basically. It functions like a Spartan society where any weakness to do with mental health is a ticket out with no contesting it. Read: if you experience emotional turmoil, you're out of your lifelong job and there's nobody to defend you. The discrimination is what half of this book is about. It is criticized, but it didn't make for pleasant reading nonetheless. If you've ever experienced mental health problems (and most of us have), you might feel bad reading this, and you might feel anger. I ducked out after a character was bullied over having suffered a mental breakdown years and years back. It was too much.

I think I have not talked enough about the diversity - this aspect is truly great. Queer characters, racial minorities. I have nothing more to comment apart from that that bit of the book is very well intentioned and it's wonderful they're being given a voice - even the author's letter of the start of the book stated that this was the main purpose of this story. That purpose has been achieved.

Triggers: discrimination and bullying about mental health issues; murder and gore; violence; indifference.

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

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