I guess I can maybe see why this novel is so hyped. The short four-stories-within-a-story structure isn’t entirely mainstream, and each story was designed to tug at the heart strings. And it satisfies a very common self-indulgent fantasy that we all have experienced about going back in time to change something or heal something inside of us. I can see how the concept might seem fresh and original, even though the writing didn’t feel that way. It lacked a certain depth, and I have a lot of complaints about the writing style.
The main one being that it was extremely repetitive. As if the author doesn’t trust the readers’ ability for logic or he has to keep reminding himself of his own narrative. Or maybe to just up the word count. The time travel rules especially were repeated so many times. And it’s entirely unnecessary because the novel is so short. It’s not like he was reminding us of something he first explained 500 pages ago; it was two pages at most.
At the same time, some of the rules would be explained late as if they were afterthoughts, like how to ensure you’re returning to the correct time or that you could only travel through time once. It felt really odd that he would introduce rules, repeat them over and over, and then randomly tack on more rules that he would then remind us of over and over.
The character’s reactions could seem a bit over the top and caricature-like. And I think it only got worse as the novel progressed. Or maybe I just got less forgiving. Other than that, I think the character depth was appropriate for a novel of this length and for the concept. I don’t think this was supposed to be a character-driven novel, but concept-driven, and I was fine with that. It worked.
On the sentence level, I actually liked the writing style. It was very easy and pleasant to read. I think the stories were cutesy and sweet if a bit predictable and run of the mill. I can see myself enjoying this story (or these stories, I guess) in a play format, but it wasn’t a powerfully touching novel for me.
