Tag: this time tomorrow

Riverhead Books
Genre: Science Fiction
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

What was so striking about This Time Tomorrow for me was that it was able to incorporate time travel into a story that was otherwise completely realistic, and make it work. The sci-fi element was seamlessly integrated into the story of Alice and her dad when she wakes up the night after her 40th birthday to find herself in her childhood bedroom on her 16th birthday. What strikes Alice most in her 16-year-old reality through her newly 40 year old perspective is how young and full of life her dad is, compared to him, bedridden at the end of his life, in the present.

Alice begins a quest to get to know her dad more fully and truly and to try to keep him healthy for longer. Although there are some things she plays around with changing for her potential personal benefit, she quickly becomes solely focused on her dad. Seeing the lengths Alice goes to, and the way she approaches her life with such a singular mission was both heartwarming and heartbreaking. For anyone who has witnessed their parents getting older, this will be an emotional read.

The depth behind Alice’s dad’s character and his own interest in time travel made his character stand out and I felt like I got to know him well. I loved seeing Alice change how she acted at 16 in response to what she knew about the future. It was deeply thought-provoking.

Although there was a lot of time-hopping and repetition of scenes, the narrative never felt confusing or redundant and watching Alice’s growth made for a really special story that I won’t soon forget.

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