fenny_42's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Read this if you’re interested in intersectional history—anarchism, suffrage, reproductive rights, slavery, music and dance. There is SO MUCH going on in this book, and it is all painfully excellent.
LOTS of trigger warnings. I tagged as many as I could think of.
Graphic: Murder, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Transphobia, Antisemitism, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Violence
Minor: Alcohol
jhbandcats's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book is topical, having been published in 2019, three years before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. It describes a 1993 and a 2022 where abortion has never been legalized, and time travelers work to edit the timeline in favor of women’s rights. Of course, the people who deny rights to women are just as busy trying to edit the timeline to crush women and turn them into breeders. (It feels all too real in that sense.)
Engaging story, valiant characters, salient topic - an excellent book.
Graphic: Murder, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Child abuse, Police brutality, Abortion, Alcohol, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Violence
rafaelsampaio's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Murder, Pedophilia, Slavery, Violence, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic friendship, and Transphobia
Moderate: Rape, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Child abuse
Minor: Deadnaming, Hate crime, Racial slurs, and Racism
thesawyerbean's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
However, where this book falls short is I’m not sure the vision of the fundamental aspect, the time travel and its mechanics, were as defined and clear as they should have been. I did have to suspend belief and go along with it at certain points because it did seem like they flouted their own predefined rules in order for the plot to continue. By the end, although it was satisfying and a satisfactory end, there were still so many questions left unanswered - the characters and I were both left asking ‘who knows?’. In certain ways it made it more convoluted than it already was trying to justify some of the plot points.
Overall this book was good and definitely worth a read. A powerful feminist sci-fi novel, full of historical context and loveable characters, with an overarching plot-line we can all feel impassioned about.
Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Vomit, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Suicide, Death of parent, and Drug use
aardwyrm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Spoiler
The bit where they discuss shock at the idea of abortions being illegal in 2022 is a doozy.The book does a good job of juggling time travel and changing realities, slipping in needful details and surprises. Plot is really its strongest point. There's some occasional clunky dialogue; character speak out loud the same way they internally monologue, and infodump their emotions once in a while. But the worst this'll do is throw you out of the text a minute. It's an intensely, deliberately political book, which may not be everyone's choice, but it's an effective, well balanced time thriller, too.
Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, Child death, Classism, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Rape, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Abandonment, Abortion, Torture, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Racism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Murder, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Medical content, Lesbophobia, Incest, Hate crime, Homophobia, Grief, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Cultural appropriation, Death, Vomit, Violence, Transphobia, Sexual assault, Antisemitism, and Blood
lain_darko's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Graphic: Misogyny, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Violence, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Abortion, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Racism, Antisemitism, Suicide, Blood, and Deadnaming
Minor: Alcohol and Vomit
fraxisle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Medical trauma, Abortion, Sexism, Child abuse, Violence, Mental illness, Rape, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Cultural appropriation
Moderate: Slavery, Transphobia, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Racism, Addiction, Drug use, Antisemitism, Xenophobia, Blood, and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Sexual assault, Vomit, Pregnancy, Child death, Genocide, War, Colonisation, and Deadnaming
skl_hcn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Gore, Alcohol, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Rape
Moderate: Forced institutionalization
Minor: Racial slurs, Vomit, and Suicide
courtneyfalling's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Biggest piece of advice: Read the content warnings.
Specific notes:
- I really like Beth's character. I felt so personally drawn to her, to how she reacted to trauma and how she imagined her future.
Spoiler
This was one of the most real and harrowing descriptions of a volatile father I've ever seen, and as someone who shares a lot of those experiences with Beth, I did have to pause after many of her chapters and take a breath. I do like where her story ended up, but definitely very heavy. Spoiler
I did not see that twist coming, holy shit! Just had to totally reassess how I had viewed Tess's backstory up to that point. But it was pulled off pretty well and set up the ending.- I do like how Tess's story ended up, but for most of the novel, she just frustrated me. She's terrible at taking the information she's learned while traveling and actually incorporating it into her actions at all.
Spoiler
The scene where she goes to the Lady Managers to set up a cultural tea is so cringy. Why would she just expect sudden sisterhood? It's so historically unbased and represents a real lack of intersectional feminist awareness at her core, beyond the right terms or basic frameworks, at a real fundamental and personal level. Also, when she first shows up to the Expo, she immediately fucks up and tells Aseel her whole, half-baked plan. You're telling me she's traveled so much and become so important and well-known across history with absolutely zero social awareness or cover-up skills? I didn't believe how blank she was. Spoiler
Morehshin's character comes in really suddenly and we never get to learn much about her. I honestly could've done without her... she felt too thrown in without the proper context setting.- I wanted more murder. There's a lot of time spent feeling guilty about violence or theorizing about how violence is never truly justified, but the book fails to truly back up why violence doesn't work or why it's overshadowed by its immorality, especially for the first half of the book while establishing how Tess doesn't use violence.
Spoiler
I'm honestly glad Tess ended up returning to her roots as a killer; at that point even the unequivocal embrace of bloodthirsty killing felt better than the moralistic anti-violence line that took over so much of the book. Spoiler
Upon meeting one of the world's crappiest, most one-dimensional villains, Tess notes how his birth year, 2379, makes him "a contemporary of Berenice's killer." But that chapter where we briefly meet Berenice's would-be killer is from Enid's perspective, and Enid never fully shares what happened when she gets back to 2022. It actually seemed like she was purposefully not mentioning how futuristic these villains truly were. So how does Tess know, and why is it such a minor deal to her that it's only coming up now? Bad communication-related plot hole.- I feel like this book's feminism often tried to rope in trans women and nonbinary folks without fully, fundamentally rethinking its concepts of "feminine" bodies and power. There were some scenes about the Divine Feminine that strayed a little toward bioessentialist, and a lot of the book focused on reproductive rights (and specifically reproductive rights, not reproductive justice). Which is extra frustrating because the author is nonbinary! And I really wanted these issues to be handled with a little more nuance and centering of trans women and nonbinary folks specifically.
- Beyond a few jokes about the elaborate hell that is tenure review, this book doesn't really unpack how its characters navigate their status within a university even as they try to adapt and subvert how they're using their funding. At points, it sets up university education as a site of automatic and only forward progress, like access to the university is the main issue, not the deeper power dynamics of economic authority, institutional and cultural sway, knowledge definition, and land and resource theft that universities bank on.
Graphic: Abortion, Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Transphobia
Moderate: Antisemitism, Cultural appropriation, Pedophilia, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Alcohol, Colonisation, Slavery, and Vomit