The Future of Another Timeline

This book started out strong but ended up kind of losing steam for me. The idea of the time machines and the way they influence life in every era was really interesting (down to slang and soap opera plotlines). However, most of the characters are pretty thinly written and don't do much, which kind of makes some of them (especially among Tess's friends from 2022) feel like points on a checklist. One thing they actually do though is argue: it feels like nearly half the book is various characters bickering about what to do next.

Much of the subject matter is extremely heavy: suicide, abuse, sexual assault, for example, but then other parts feel very silly. For all their malevolence the evil off-brand incels from the future feel like clowns a lot of the time (the guy calling the Pinkertons ”chads” almost made me put the book down in embarrassment) and there's a very silly orgy scene as well. I also don't think that the revelation of Tess's identity in the past is handled very well - there's a secondary layer of deception that's really only there to make the ending make sense. It feels like an afterthought and the way the author has to write around Tess thinking about her relationship with Beth because of this is very weird.

Despite all of this, if you're interested in unique time machine concepts and have a strong enough stomach to handle some really detailed descriptions of rape and incest you might want to check it out.