Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen

Spoilers Be Here

This is one of the few books I remember adding to my Goodreads list. I was at Union Station in Denver, waiting for a table at Snooze with my sisters and mom. There's a bookstore across from the restaurant, so we went inside and browsed while we waited, and the cover of this book caught my attention. Then our table was ready and my sister announced she's pregnant and my mom started crying (tears of joy) and scared the waitstaff....good times.

I would like to say that I loved this book, but I didn't, and I can't quite put my finger on why but I'm about to try! I usually really like, if not love, time travel. The story was entertaining enough; I especially liked that Kin's great-grandson ends up saving him in the end, which I probably should have seen coming. (Side note: I read Kin's name as Kim for about 20 pages.) But it just didn't resonate. Maybe it needed more world building? I suppose there weren't too many differences between the present and future, though. Maybe it was the characters....yes, I think that's it.

My biggest issue was with Penny. How is she just ok with everything that happens in her life (with the exception of how her parents treat her)? Your fiance has another family, and that's just fine? I know the circumstances are extremely unusual but she barely struggles to come to terms with it which is so unrealistic. Everyone else was also fairly boring and flat; no one seemed to have any real flaws (again, with the exception of Penny's parents) and acted exactly as you'd expect them to so there wasn't any real excitement.

The writing also wasn't fantastic, but I can't recall a specific part that I can point out; I just have a general feeling that it could have been written better. I think at one point Kin mentioned a year had passed between his time travels; what? I legitimately thought it was a month at the most. If it was a year, the book needed to be quite a bit longer so we could really get into his emotional journey and learn more about the supporting cast.

All in all, it was an entertaining enough time travel tale, and I was curious how the story would wrap up, but everything just needed to be fleshed out more.

Completed: 2 December 2020
Rating: 2.5/5
Recommend: If you're looking for a light, quick, and easy time travel story, sure

Comments

The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

**SPOILERS BE HERE** I am whelmed. I'm also ignoring that this is a fictionalized account of William and Kate. The beginning of the book was great! I was super into it and it was cheesy cute, which was exactly what I needed after reading the very dry Presidency of William Howard Taft . I love how Bex and Nick bonded over a trashy TV show and Twinkies. They were so cute together. But it went south pretty quickly after Part 1. This book was just so long . It does span eight years, but I couldn't have told you that because the time jumps were difficult to follow. Has a year passed? Have three? Who knows? What could have been the most interesting parts were completely skipped over—Bex goes home to finish university but it's only briefly mentioned. Visit the long-distance relationship and her decision to move to England! Her father dies but we barely get to see her grieving (not due to a time jump). What about her settling into a new country full time? Or her job, which is ju...

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (Translated by Norman Denny)

**SPOILERS BE HERE** Last year, I decided to read War and Peace and Les Miserables in 2020. They're both around 360 chapters long, so reading two chapters a day would enable me to finish them both by the end of the year. I succeeded! I actually finished War and Peace in April (cuz COVID) and then waited until July to start Les Miserables. I've also already read Les Miserables twice before now, but this was my first time reading this translation. I prefer the Fahnestock/MacAfee/Wilbour translation; I wasn't a fan of how this one cut out two sections and added them to the end. Oh wait! I've read an abridged version, too, one based on the 1998 film with Liam Neeson. That one is terrible; unabridged or bust! Ok so maybe not unabridged or bust. If you had asked me about 10 years ago (the last time I read it), I would have said that, but now I think some sections could be reduced or cut out. Those two that were slapped onto the end weren't very...

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

SPOILERS BE HERE I really wanted to enjoy this book, but it fell flat for me. I 100% believe part of that was due to me listening to it rather than reading it—I drifted in and out and couldn't keep the characters straight, specifically Izzy and Lexie; something about their names is too similar. I think the plot was interesting, but actions were random and didn't make sense. Why did Mia keep Pearl? I never felt like that decision was fully explored—she just up and left. And why did Izzy (...not Lexie, right?) set fires in the house? That seemed like such an extreme response to the things that happened. The characters were not fleshed out enough. I also felt like I was being led a little too much to sympathize with certain characters and dislike others. I said the plot was interesting; it was also clunky. It jumped around from one thing to another so sporadically that it felt like a different book at times. It could have been handled a lot more smoothly by cutting some of the ...

Manuscript Musing

Search This Blog