How to Stop Time

One-Sentence book review

A surprisingly philosophical book with many good quotes, but a bit superficial in how deep it dives into its core themes.

Summary, thoughts and notes

How to Stop Time is about Tom Hazard, a man in his 400's but that physically looks 40. The book moves back and forth between specific events in Tom's past that marked special events in his life, such as meeting and saying goodbye to loved ones, or how he met certain famous historical figures, and then going forward to the present. The "present" chapters many times serve as a sort of prelude or introduction to what the next "past" chapter will be about. The plot is very basic, Tom is trying to find his long-lost daughter, Marion, who has the same slow-aging condition he has. All while he's been changing identities and traveling all over the world with the help of Hendrichs, another long-living human, who heads a society called "The Albatross Society" (whose members are called "albas"), which serves to help anyone "afflicted" with slow aging. There is a little bit of romance sprinkled in but honestly it just felt like a quick side-note overall.

As the story progresses, Tom comes to terms with what he wants in life and what it even means to be alive, and must face the consequences of taking charge of his own life again.

Themes and Character Notes

The book's central theme is that of identity, Tom is continually made to start a new life every 8 years, since the society deems that is the maximum amount of years an alba can stay in one place before starting to draw unwanted attention, putting them at risk to be found and putting themselves in danger. The book also tends towards the philosophical, it has many good quotes and passages that would resonate with many people regarding life, identity, and how to live in the present. That being said, I also felt that the book served more as a device to present these philosophical ideas instead of them being a result of the plot. This also lead to the plot feeling very thin and sometimes as a secondary priority, while the philosophical musings took center stage.

What Worked, What Didn't

I know that it will sound like I didn't like the book, but I really did, it was entertaining and found the premise interesting. It's also a pretty quick and easy read, despite the philosophical leanings. I would have really loved the plot to be more fleshed out, the climax at the end had an outcome that felt very convenient, and everything just happened so, so fast, I didn't really have time to even feel any real tension about what was going on. This is one of those cases where the ending is satisfying, but the way we got to that ending left me wanting more, but I'd still take that over a bad ending any day of the week.

The romance in the "present" timeline also didn't really land for me, in reality all we get is 2 or 3 interactions between the couple, which includes them meeting and making up, and then fast forward to their happy ending. It's just not enough for me to care about their relationship, especially when one of them is over 400 years old and those interactions are not even blimps in his lifetime.

The book overall feels like a palate cleanser, it's ok, but nothing to write home about, and none of my issues with it are so big that I would say the book fails in what it's trying to achieve, or even to say it's not worth reading or that it's bad, but I expected something deeper, more fleshed out, hence my rating of 3/5, I liked it, I enjoyed it, but didn't love it. I also acknowledge that some of my criticisms are entirely subjective and anyone reading this review is most definitely welcome to disagree with me.

Personal Recommendation

If philosophical musings about memory, time, and life, with some romance sprinkled throughout, is something that might peak your interest, definitely pick this up, with the caveat that it only touches on those themes at a superficial level, it doesn't really dive all that deep into any of them.