I whizzed through this fast-paced contemporary debut, which won People's Choice in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. The story's slightly fragmented form, which switches between numerous parallel timelines, made it a rather challenging read at first - but when I realised this disruptive mode of storytelling was allowing me to experience Ida's distress myself, I appreciated the story on a whole new level.

Ida, just out of high school, finds life dull, has trouble finding direction, and often experiences self-doubt. However, thanks to an unusual shifting power, she literally gets to change the decisions she has made in the past and explore alternate paths. Ida's power lands her in a mess of trouble when she realises that creating parallel timelines can lead to dire consequences. I really felt Ida's frustration, confusion and alienation as she switched between parallel lives. When not jumping between lives the author keeps us grounded with plenty of concrete images, visceral description, and often a shining clarity.

"I used to hate my body; I was taught to hate it and I learnt so well. In school I was the fat Asian, words whispered through the hallways like they were poison, shouted through the hallways like they were poison, shouted like weapons, but then once I realised neither of those things were insults, it was better. Every body has these soft folds, the pimples in weird places, because no one's that shiny in real life..."

Reading Ida made me reflect on the ways we are pressured into presenting many different selves to others, of the anxiety this provokes, the sense of dislocation and alienation that can ensue, the disassociation that provides temporary relief. We are often pulled out of Ida's present timeline into another by fluid yet unusual descriptions like this one.

"Everything is white dark. I know this place, its coldwarm comfort. It's like I'm floating but there's no way to tell because I can't open my eyes. I can't move.

Peaceful calm.

The space is everywhere and although I am not bound, I know if I try to move my arms the space won't let me. Nothing but the lightdark embrace..."

The characters were perfectly pitched - somehow the author made me quickly care about all of them. The literary merit of this story makes it a great choice for advanced high school students or anyone interested in sci-fi with a psychological twist. ( )

Ida has a secret – she can travel in time. She can close her eyes and go back to the moment before she makes a decision, moving herself into an alternate reality. She starts time traveling more and more until one day, it starts getting out of her control. Now she’s at risk of becoming lost in the multitude of her own lives.

Ida was a quick read – I finished it in about twenty four hours. The prose is plain and the story moves at a fast clip. While a lot of science fiction stories are focused on big pictures, Ida looks at the small. It contains aspects of a psychological thriller, the frightening sensation of Ida’s life unraveling.

One of my favorite things about Ida was the sheer diversity of the cast. This book has more transgender characters than any other I’ve read. Ida herself is bisexual and mixed race (half white, half Vietnamese). Her partner Daisy is genderqueer, and her cousin Frank is a transgender boy. There’s also two genderfluid characters who work for a mysterious time travel authority. All the queer identities are explicitly stated on page.

However, I think the book would actually be stronger if it only contained Ida’s first person POV, not the third person focusing on one of the agents for the time travel authority. I felt like her sections took away some of the tension by over explaining what was happening with Ida. I also felt like the book ended suddenly, and I would have liked to learn more about what was going on with Daisy’s home life (this was being constantly hinted at).

Ida’s around nineteen, and she’s been out of high school for roughly a year. Possibly the book could be considered new adult, although I think it would also work well for a young adult audience. I would certainly recommend it to that audience, especially to anyone looking for a book with queer characters.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

I received a copy of Ida from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review. ( )