3.5 out of 5 stars
I love Back to The Future, all 3 parts, I believe 1 and 3 are the strongest and funniest but you can get to 3 without having 2 in the mix. That being said I was more than willing to read this book when my sister suggested it to me. She says it is one of her favorite books of all time. A time travel story about love and second chances? Sounds like a good book. She might be wrong.
The story is great and the concept behind it is solid. I appreciate the twist at the end but we are not surprised by it because the opening chapter gives it away. Speaking of the opening I need to talk about the first 1/4 of this book, it is a mess. That is the best way to describe it. Thoman is trying to weave 2 timelines together and skips back and forth between 1985 and 2023 without any real indication. The only thing that saves this portion is that we only get one POV set in 2023, that of the other main character Jason.
The characters are not 1-dimensional but they aren’t fully formed at times and can leave you feeling a little underwhelmed. For example Lisa, Rose’s step-sister/best friend is struggling with her sexuality and realizes she is a lesbian (although the word is never said). She is dating the citizenship award winner, a white boy, and also secretly in a relationship with her other best friend, Charlene. There are some hints at trying to send a message of acceptance and her coming out story is handled, ok for a story written by a seemingly heterosexual white woman. I don’t know if Lauren Thoman is not Bisexual or Pansexual. I know she is married to someone named Greg (or maybe Craig) and has children but definitely not a lesbian.
This plays into the themes of race, that are only glossed over for the whole book. There is the scene of the citizenship award winner (remember he is white) smiling and helping a woman with her groceries contrasted with his friend the black kid being shunned and treated like a beggar or bum. There is the subtext when they talk about Rose and Lisa’s mom running for mayor, a black woman, against the town rich white man. Charlene’s parents are rude to Lisa and Rose, it is hinted because they support the rich white guy for mayor but also maybe because Lisa and Rose are black. The bones of this social justice writing are there and I can feel Thoman’s desire to paint a world where these characters can rise above these circumstances. First I need to go back to Lisa coming out to her boyfriend and her best friend/step-sister.
They are totally fine with it and react exactly like you would expect kids to react, if they were kids living in 2023. These are kids from 1985 a time when the AIDS crisis was sweeping the nation because of Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s desire to spread hate and meanness everywhere they go. I was in high school in the early 2000’s and coming out to your friends was a big deal. Some people did not react well, that is still the case, and yes most friends were cool with it. yet when I told my girlfriend I thought I liked boys she was very upset with me and did not speak to me for 2 years and we had classes together for those 2 years. She eventually accepted me and we became friendly but the idea that 20 years before that happened to me a young black girl could come out and not be ostracized by her friends is mind-blowing. I get it we want a version of history that fits our ideals of how the world should have been 40 years ago. Sadly the world was not accepting of the LGBTQIA2S+ community in 1985. Yet I am getting off topic.
The obvious social justice fumbles (again not against social justice or LGTBQIA2S+ storylines just prefer some realism in my fantasy world) the story has too many POV characters. First you have Justin and Rose, the two main characters, their story’s are important and we want to spend time with them. Then we have Lisa, Rose’s step-sister/best friend. Then we have Shawn, Lisa’s white boyfriend and winner of the citizenship award. Then inexplicably we have Karl, Charlene’s little brother and father of Justin’s tormentor in 2023. Bill and Veronica, Justin’s grandparents who died in the fire in 1985, and an interlude or two with Stan, Justin’s weird uncle from 2023.
While the things we find out in their chapters help build the story they give away too much information. They also supply the story with too many red herrings. All told we could lose every chapter with Karl, Bill, and Veronica’s POV. We need to spend more time with the other 4 characters throughout the story. I want to know more about Shawn’s struggles with his over-bearing and clearly OCD father. I want Shawn’s motivations to be more clear from the start. I also want more of Lisa and her struggles. If you are going to use her coming out as a lynchpin in the story that becomes the reason for why all the chess pieces are where they are at the climax of the story, make that the story.
Now I am not saying the book doesn’t work, it works, and the mystery to be solved is actually well hidden behind all the red herrings but once you know it you see it too clearly. While that should be the case for a good mystery story the fun should be in re-reading it and finding all the clues. Thoman does a good job of putting them into the story but after reflection they are just too obvious. Overall it is a fine story but I won’t re-read and I would only suggest it for someone who enjoys an easy read but is willing to put up with the jumble that is the beginning.
Perhaps a focus on just 1985 for the first bit up to the point where the stories merge and then jump to 2023 for a bit. I know this seems silly the tension is built in the beginning to have the stories be overlapping until they merge. Yet I think I would have liked to have gotten to know the 1985 gang, jumped ahead and been like wait what about those guys then BAM I am back with them all. I don’t know if that would have made it better but it might have been easier to get into if that had been the case.
The Fresh Persepctive 