#time's edge

Okay, I read more YA fiction than is probably healthy for me, so my various book suggestion apps kept bringing up this one book. It was book one of a series that had just started and I tend to shy away from such things since I have the ability to wait just as much as a Veruca Salt does. I WANT IT NOW! But I don't remember why I finally bought it other than a *shrug* why not.

This is everything I want from a time travel story.

The biggest thing that won me over was that it reminded me a bit of the River Song storyline but better. Fixed was my first thought. I liked River when she first came along, but I hated everything that came after the first episode. It was like they had a great idea, but once put in motion, the details just bogged down everything and ruined it. If you like the idea of a romance across time, READ TIMEBOUND! It deals very much with that idea but with much better execution. Very much ALL THE FEELS.

Another thing I like about the book is that love triangles are kind of a staple in Young Adult, and while that is true here, it isn't just because it's a trope. Sometimes love triangles work in the story, most of the time it just feels like the author threw in the second love interest just to make life hard for the main couple. I'm a canon snob so I have a hard time enjoying those kind of love triangles since it's clear who the main character is going to end up with so stop dicking around and find a better conflict. It feels like it's very lazy writing even when it's done well. I feel like the point of a real love triangle (not just someone rebounding post break up, because those I don't feel count.) is to make you wonder who the main character will end up with. You will have the one YOU like but the end game shouldn't be obvious. Both guys should have points for and against them and the lead should have feelings, both for and against, for both love interest. The most obvious example of how not to do a love triangle is Twilight. Edward was the main guy and everyone knew it. He was a driving force of much of the novels and while there were PLENTY of Team Jacob people (hell, this is the origin of the term "Team ____") and several people desperately wanted that to be endgame, anyone with critical reading skills knew that wasn't going to happen (Well, anyone with critical reading skills were really reading Twilight anyway, but you get my point). But on the side of not shitty writing Hunger Games did it too. I like HG but the love triangle still seemed like it was just there to be there. I like Gale for the most part but it seemed obvious to me that Katniss would end up with Peeta. A well done love triangle but it was still done with the end being obvious.

The love triangle for the sake of drama to the OTP is not the case here. I genuinely can't say who is the main pairing. Both love interests get equal page time, both have points for and against them, both are likable characters. I have the lead I like (hint: Trey would be much more interesting to me if he had an Irish accent. All male leads would be more interesting if they had an Irish accent.) but I don't know if that's who Kate would end up with. When you have timey-whimey stuff, everything gets Complicated. I haven't been in this much agony over a pairing in YEARS. I want my guy to win but I don't know if that's what will happen. The "Now Kiss" meme...? Yeah, that's been me the last few days reading the second book.

Let's talk about time. I'm a history nerd. In fact, I used to major in it for a while until I realized that unless if I wanted to go to grad school, I wouldn't be able to study anything other than WWI and WWII in depth, which did not appeal to me. Most of the book deals with American history, which isn't really my thing (French Revolution FTW) but it deals with little things within history and not the big four (American Revolution, Civil War, WWI, and WWII). It's refreshing to see someone deal with interesting time periods without it just being a generic time frame for an interesting backdrop. It's not turn of the century, it's specifically the Chicago Worlds Fair. It's not the Deep South in the Depression Era, it deals a very specific small village that just up and disappeared. It does take some liberties, but the author will acknowledge that.

I also like how it has normal people in extraordinarily shitty circumstances acting like normal people. Sometimes, the good guys are assholes. Sometimes, the villain is pitiful. Sometimes, the dashing hero is a bit of an idiot. You may not agree with their choices, but you can see why they react the way they do.

The biggest complaint I could hold against the book is that it gets a little too timey-whimey. Sometimes, I'm not sure if I'm not getting it, the character is not getting it, or if the author is not getting it. But it very much strikes me as "Thinking With Portals." What is normal for our physics is not automatically the solution. As Kiernan puts it "Don't think about it linearly." It can bog you down a bit. Did I miss something, why don't they do it this way, is that possible? etc... But there is acknowledgement of this. Some characters get it and move through this time travel business like a duck to water. Some get stuck in the logistics and break a little. I tend to be a bit of column B, but I don't care when it's with a book that has sucked me it.