A novel look at strange (and stranger) things.
“The future’s open wide” according to “I Melt With You,” the song by Modern English that lends other lyrics to the title of this time-looping fiction debut. Maybe they meant the past, too?
Justin Warren, a disaffected student waiting for high school to end, finds himself enmeshed in hard-to-explain (and understand) circumstances in this mystery saga of time travel, adolescent heartache, and coming-of-age angst. Finding himself transported after an accident from 2023 to the year 1985, Justin is confronted with perplexing details about his complicated family history. Among the pre-millennial teens Justin meets is Rose Yin, a do-gooder and diligent student who becomes one of his few allies in unraveling the mysteries of not only his time travel, but also a 1985 crime that affected the course of his family’s life. (Rounding out the cast of characters for both settings are enough teens, teachers, and family members of varying backgrounds, sexual orientations, and personality types to populate whatever screen adaptation of the work results from the book’s selection by Mindy Kaling for her Mindy’s Book Studio publishing and production project.) Realizing he may have a last-minute opportunity to alter his family’s tragic history, Justin puzzles through the facts as he recalls them and the truths he uncovers in his new (old) hometown. While dealing with her own teenage miseries and insecurities, Rose lends a sympathetic ear and transportation to the out-of-sync Justin—who bemoans the lack of crime-solving technology available to him in 1985 and struggles to use a rotary phone in one hilarious episode. Thoman’s ambitious timeline of events is both expansive and compressed, with the storyline unfolding over the course of both one week and 38 years, and her portrayal of teenagers in varying degrees of crisis is sympathetic.
A novel look at strange (and stranger) things.Pub Date: April 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781662509971
Page Count: 446
Publisher: Mindy's Book Studio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
Breezy, entertaining characters and a cheeky premise fall prey to too much explanation and an unlikely climax.
An aspiring mystery writer sets out to solve her great-aunt’s murder and inherit an estate.
Twenty-five-year-old Annie Adams has never met her great-aunt Frances, who prefers her small village to busy London. But when a mysterious letter arrives instructing Annie to come to Castle Knoll in Dorset to meet Frances and discuss her role as sole beneficiary of her great-aunt’s estate, Annie can’t resist. Unfortunately, she arrives to find Frances’ worst fears have come true: The elderly woman—who’s been haunted for decades by a fortuneteller’s prediction that this will happen—has been murdered, and her will dictates that she will leave her entire estate to Annie, but only if Annie solves her killing. It’s a cheeky if not exactly believable premise, especially since the local police don’t seem terribly opposed to it. Annie herself is an engaging presence, if a little too blind to the fact that she could be on the killer’s to-do list. Her roll call of suspects is pleasingly long, including but not limited to the local vicar, a one-time paramour of her great-aunt’s; a gardener who grows a lot more than flowers; shady developers and suspicious friends from Frances’ past; and Saxon, Annie’s crafty rival, who inherits the estate himself if he manages to solve the case first. Annie pieces together clues through readings of Frances’ journal, but the story eventually runs aground on the twin rocks of too much explanation and a flimsy climax. Cute dialogue gives way to lengthy exposition, and by the time Frances’ killer is revealed you may well be ready to leave Annie, Dorset, and Castle Knoll behind for the firmer ground of reality. Fans of cozy mysteries are likely to be more forgiving, but if you cast a skeptical eye toward amateur sleuths, this novel won’t change your mind about them.
Breezy, entertaining characters and a cheeky premise fall prey to too much explanation and an unlikely climax.Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780593474013
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
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