Description
Two great loves. A world in chaos. And a life that never lands in order.
'Graceful... Satisfying... It takes on the biggest issues of our times without a flinch' BONNIE GARMUS
'Wonderfully enigmatic' TRACY CHEVALIER
'A marvel... Something I won't stop thinking about' CLAIRE DAVERLEY
Alba DeTamble is a time traveler, slipping unpredictably through decades like her father before her. But the hardest thing she carries isn’t the burden of futures she can’t understand, or pasts she cannot change – it’s a secret: she is in love with two different people.
Each of them offers a different life. Zach lives in the present and can’t follow her when she disappears. Oliver can travel through time, just like she can.
As Alba careens from time to time, moving from the riot-torn Chicago streets of her present to the eerie, timeless Yellow House, and into the digital corridors of the Museum of Lost Souls and a flooded future London, she must face a question she can no longer avoid: how is it possible to love, and live a meaningful life, in an increasingly troubled, fractured world?
Intimate and expansive, Life Out of Order is a kaleidoscopic story of love, resilience and hope when time is running out.
Review
Where do I even begin with this review? Reading this book was a true roller coaster for me: I went from not knowing what was happening, to wanting to give up, to absolutely loving it, and finally landing somewhere in the middle, feeling a bit indifferent.A lot of this inconsistency came down to the book's pacing. For me, it felt significantly overlong. Because of the jumping timelines, I expected the narrative to be a little jumbled, but it ultimately became too much to keep track of. The sheer number of characters didn't help either; many of them simply dropped into the dialogue with no introduction, making it hard to stay oriented.
However, everything changed when I reached 75% through the book. Oliver’s story completely gripped me, pulling me back in and getting me fully reinvested. I also connected with the AI elements of the plot. While the final stretch redeemed the book for me, the many character introductions and over long length kept it from being 5 star review.
I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley for the ARC to review.
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