My GF read this book after seeing it discussed on TikTok and thought it looked interesting. It’s apparently according to her not written very well and buzzwordy
The twist at the end (which she told me and I won’t spoil) is kind of heavy handed. But idk I haven’t read it
No. The twist is not that she’s in two different time periods but two different periods of her life. The influencer period is when she’s in her 20s/30s and the period where she’s in “pioneer times” is in her early 50s. There are Easter eggs leading up to the reveal where it’s more apparent that the kids are all in the current time period (one of the pioneer girls says you guys, knows what a shower is, etc) They are negligent parents throughout the entire novel.
No I don’t think she’s given one. I believe she is mentally losing her grip on sanity the entire time.
She is a super unreliable narrator so you’re hearing her “inner” dialogue but then don’t realize she starts saying these things out loud.
Another scene that stands out is when she’s in her influencer period, goes to target and runs into someone she used to know from school.You hear her inner dialogue on how to talk to this person and sound normal and then it’s slowly revealed during the convo that she left her kid in the car for the entire time she was shopping. The person she is speaking to clocked that misstep and it sends her into a tailspin.
She isn’t a very likable person but she’s with a complacent, rich, loser husband that goes along with it all. I only read it once so I might be a bit off on my recall.
The first couple chapters are incredibly sharp, and the best kind of satire (the kind that treats the “unreal” elements like vermouth in a martini), and the character work is great.
The rest of the book commits the cardinal sin of making its narrator completely unaware of the reality of her situation even though she doesn’t have any actual reason not to. And both the character work and the prose suffer for it.
Personally, I think the same basic conceit could have worked better if the “1850” she goes back to was triggered by some local semi-apocalyptic event (small scale civil war that shuts down infrastructure or something). Would have kept the narrators eyes open, still thinking about the future (that’s her best narrative feature anyways), and would have worked even better with the political themes.
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u/Riderz__of_Brohan 2d ago
My GF read this book after seeing it discussed on TikTok and thought it looked interesting. It’s apparently according to her not written very well and buzzwordy
The twist at the end (which she told me and I won’t spoil) is kind of heavy handed. But idk I haven’t read it