The Future of Another Timeline is a feminist punk rock time travel novel that had me really excited... after all, I had never heard of any story like this before and was eager to see what this novel had to offer.
I was unfortunately disappointed. I really wanted to like this book, I really did. I may not have loved it because I had such high expectations and... it just fell flat. I loved the diversity in this book and the focus on the 90s punk rock era, but I felt that the plot was underdeveloped and the pacing was slow, especially toward the middle. I struggled to continue reading once I reached the middle chapters.
The story focuses on two main perspectives: Tess and Beth. Tess is a time traveler from the 2020s who is part of the Daughters of Harriet, a group of travelers intent on stopping a group of men from writing women out of history. Beth is a high school student with abusive parents and a punk-rock loving group of best friends that get into some serious trouble.
I loved the characters and their arcs. I think that is what saved this book from being a total flop. I did not care for Tess, or the ending she got, but I did love the characters around Tess. I was rooting for Beth the entire time and was very satisfied with the ending she got. She suffered a lot and deserved happiness.
The world building felt expositional and distracted from the story itself. I liked the concept for this story a lot (time traveling feminists? it sounds so cool in theory!) but I don't think it was executed as well as I had hoped. A lot of the book read like someone was describing the Machines to me rather than writing a story set in a world where time machines existed... and that kind of ruined the reading experience.
So I definitely recommend this novel if you like 1) strong female (and non-binary!) characters, LGBT representation, feminism, time traveling, or even if you want something different and unique! Just be prepared for a slow middle and some expositional world building.
I was unfortunately disappointed. I really wanted to like this book, I really did. I may not have loved it because I had such high expectations and... it just fell flat. I loved the diversity in this book and the focus on the 90s punk rock era, but I felt that the plot was underdeveloped and the pacing was slow, especially toward the middle. I struggled to continue reading once I reached the middle chapters.
The story focuses on two main perspectives: Tess and Beth. Tess is a time traveler from the 2020s who is part of the Daughters of Harriet, a group of travelers intent on stopping a group of men from writing women out of history. Beth is a high school student with abusive parents and a punk-rock loving group of best friends that get into some serious trouble.
I loved the characters and their arcs. I think that is what saved this book from being a total flop. I did not care for Tess, or the ending she got, but I did love the characters around Tess. I was rooting for Beth the entire time and was very satisfied with the ending she got. She suffered a lot and deserved happiness.
The world building felt expositional and distracted from the story itself. I liked the concept for this story a lot (time traveling feminists? it sounds so cool in theory!) but I don't think it was executed as well as I had hoped. A lot of the book read like someone was describing the Machines to me rather than writing a story set in a world where time machines existed... and that kind of ruined the reading experience.
So I definitely recommend this novel if you like 1) strong female (and non-binary!) characters, LGBT representation, feminism, time traveling, or even if you want something different and unique! Just be prepared for a slow middle and some expositional world building.