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A review by fuguballoon
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
I don't usually gravitate towards books that are character-driven, but I enjoyed the characters, setting, prose, and especially the questions posed by the book's nostalgic premise that I didn't mind. I also didn't get too impatient with the pace, which is definitely slow in the first half. Maybe the pace was intentional, mimicking the way time passes slower when we're young and speeds up as we age? I hope it was a reason like that.
What stopped This Time Tomorrow from being a five-star read for me was the aforementioned pacing. The beats and revelations that happened in the second half of act two felt like they belonged in the first half of act two. The way the book sped up at the end was, I think, intentionally disjointed; but for how long the book is, I wish some of the slowness of the beginning had been sacrificed to make room for another turn near the end.
What stopped This Time Tomorrow from being a five-star read for me was the aforementioned pacing. The beats and revelations that happened in the second half of act two felt like they belonged in the first half of act two. The way the book sped up at the end was, I think, intentionally disjointed; but for how long the book is, I wish some of the slowness of the beginning had been sacrificed to make room for another turn near the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Drug use, Sexual content, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism