Lauren ThomanRezensionen

Really enjoyed this 80s and today novel. Young adult but still plenty deep. Would be a good movie.

I really liked the ending of this story - it was such a great twist in an emotionally positive way. I also liked that this time travel story showed the negative outcomes of past events with clues to how to change things, but in the end it was something completely different that made the difference. I thought the characters were well drawn and as a product of the 80s it was fun to find myself back in that world.

Fantasy time travel. It is confusing and has a non logical theme. Then at the end you understand but boy slogging through those pages to get to the end was not great.

There were a lot of viewpoints in the back-and-forth storytelling via several characters. Being a time travel book, I had to concentrate in the beginning of who was when. Justin Warren has had a hard time of it, especially having to live up to his family name gracing the school his grandparents died in when his mother was a toddler. After putting in an appearance at a school party and being summarily told to leave, Justin heads home, crossing the rainy bridge when he sees a figure in the road and swerves into the river. When he wakes up, Rose Yin, stepdaughter of a mayoral candidate, gives him a ride and believes his story about what time he came from. When he discovers it is shortly before the fire that takes his grandparents, Justin figures he is in 1985 to save them. The young adult viewpoints resonate in both time periods. It's long, it's a mystery, it's coming of age and so very good.

It is 2023. Justin Warren is in love with Alyssa, but he has ADHD and his alcoholic mother, who lost her parents in a fire in 1985, cannot afford his medication very often. He is not doing well at school. Shawn, who is a very successful student with many friends, wins the citizenship award which will pay for 4 years of college and is his ticket out of his current life. At home he is belittled and verbally abused by his father. His mother left when he was young. Rose Yin is a smart and caring teenager who is in love with her best friend, Noah. Rose's step-sister, Lisa, is Shawn's girlfriend, but things are not going well for them since she is in love with Charlene, and afraid to tell Shawn and her family. Lisa's mother Diane is running for mayor so it is important that there be no scandal. Karl is a 12-year-old 7th grader who is bullied by Robbie and his friends. When Justin becomes very upset with Stan, his cousin who has helped out he and his mother for many years, he decides to attend the annual school bonfire. While there, his nemesis Dave, gives him a flask of alcohol which he drinks. In 1985, when Dave's father, Karl, catches him in the house, Dave accuses Justin of stealing his father's whiskey. Angry and drunk, Justin leaves. Driving in rain, he sees someone on the bridge, skids, and goes over the edge of the bridge. The next thing he knows he is in 1985 where he is befriended by Rose Yin, who is trying to find out who burned down Mrs. Hadley garage. The timeline of the book is very confusing. It is hard to tell which alternate universe you are in since what is happening in 2023 seems to parallel 1985.

YA Stephen King-lite
Review of the Amazon First Reads Kindle eBook edition (March 1, 2023), released in advance of the official publication by Mindy’s Book Studio in hardcover/eBook/audio (April 1, 2023)

There is nothing wrong with adults reading YA books, I’ve enjoyed many of them myself. I picked I’ll Stop The World from the Amazon First Reads selections on March 1, 2023 as it was the “Mystery” selection though (not a "YA" selection) while noting that it was also the first book to be published under writer/actor Mindy Kaling’s new imprint Mindy’s Book Studio. I assumed then that it would be an adult level mystery with a time travel element as promised in the synopsis.

This was definitely YA fiction though and the mystery & time-travel elements were very limited. Most of it revolves around teenage relationship problems and misunderstandings & school bullies (the bullies are way over the top exaggerated, and rather psychopathically murderous).

There was a clever twist at the front end when the ‘leap’ happens and then a few more towards the end when the resolution is not the one that you were expecting. It was well written and I was able to finish it easily. But it is definitely centered around teenage angst and that is what you should expect when you read it.

I did like the fact that author Lauren Thoman gave a credit nod to Stephen King’s 11/22/63 (2011) in the book though, as two characters discuss:

“You know, like you’re here to fix something that went wrong. Put the universe back on track or something.” “Like, what, prevent the JFK assassination? I read that book; it doesn’t work.”

Trivia and Links
Amazon Prime First Reads advance reading copies (ARCs) are available to Amazon Prime subscribers. They offer advance reads of books in Kindle eBook format one month before the date of official release. The current month's selection is available here (Link goes to Amazon US, adjust for your own country or region).