The Other Valley
Ratings33
Average rating3.8
Added to listFictionwith 88 books.
Added to listSci Fiwith 64 books.
Added to listAudiobooks Readwith 146 books.
What a wasted premise. This really felt more like a general fiction/coming of age drama wrapped up in a vaguely sci-fi trenchcoat. I was hoping for something more mysterious and crazy, what with the depiction of the different timeline valleys as they are, but we get none of that. Meh.
A large chunk of this book is spent in Odile's school years, where she's struggling to make friends and figure out where she fits into the larger society. Her mom is pushing her to do one thing, apply for the Conseil apprenticeship where she'd be responsible for vetting requests from residents to visit the other valleys in other timelines for closure reasons, but she's not entirely sure she wants to do that. Her friend Edme, too, wants to become a violinist, but his parents want him to do something more practical. There's some relational development, and just as things start to build up between Edme and Odile, a tragic accident takes his life. His death affects Odile and their other friends greatly, and the rest of the book is about the drastically different path her life takes.
I thought the time travel premise was interesting, but underused in the book. Most of what happens here, save the last 10-20% or so, could have happened in basically any other coming of age drama with some aspects changed. There's no mystery here, there's no intrigue, there's no thriller really, just a friend group coming to terms with the death of one of their own. Once I realized that none of this different valley stuff was going to be explored in any meaningful way, I kind of got bored with the book.
I also thought that Odile as a character was flat and boring. I can't tell if that's by intent (there's hints dropped that she's neurodivergent in some way, but it's never expressly stated) or by poor writing, but she really felt removed and distant from everything that was happening, even stuff happening directly to her. But it made even the emotional parts of the book land kind of flat, because I honestly didn't know if Odile even cared.
I kind of also didn't like the way the ending was handled. (Ending spoilers here) When Odile is meeting with Evrette at the very end of the book, I hated how the threat of unmaking yourself/others was handwaved away as just not mattering sometimes, and that they simplify things to encourage people to comply. It effectively removed any consequences of Odile's actions in saving Edme.
Finally, I listened to the audiobook, but from reading the reviews here, it sounds like the author didn't use any sort of dialogue punctuation, which I absolutely hate. Had I not listened to the book, where it's clear who's speaking when, I would definitely have put this down.
Just a mediocre book. I wasn't on board with the relational drama, and wanted more of the sci-fi, I think.
What a wasted premise. This really felt more like a general fiction/coming of age drama wrapped up in a vaguely sci-fi trenchcoat. I was hoping for something more mysterious and crazy, what with the depiction of the different timeline valleys as they are, but we get none of that. Meh.
A large chunk of this book is spent in Odile's school years, where she's struggling to make friends and figure out where she fits into the larger society. Her mom is pushing her to do one thing, apply for the Conseil apprenticeship where she'd be responsible for vetting requests from residents to visit the other valleys in other timelines for closure reasons, but she's not entirely sure she wants to do that. Her friend Edme, too, wants to become a violinist, but his parents want him to do something more practical. There's some relational development, and just as things start to build up between Edme and Odile, a tragic accident takes his life. His death affects Odile and their other friends greatly, and the rest of the book is about the drastically different path her life takes.
I thought the time travel premise was interesting, but underused in the book. Most of what happens here, save the last 10-20% or so, could have happened in basically any other coming of age drama with some aspects changed. There's no mystery here, there's no intrigue, there's no thriller really, just a friend group coming to terms with the death of one of their own. Once I realized that none of this different valley stuff was going to be explored in any meaningful way, I kind of got bored with the book.
I also thought that Odile as a character was flat and boring. I can't tell if that's by intent (there's hints dropped that she's neurodivergent in some way, but it's never expressly stated) or by poor writing, but she really felt removed and distant from everything that was happening, even stuff happening directly to her. But it made even the emotional parts of the book land kind of flat, because I honestly didn't know if Odile even cared.
I kind of also didn't like the way the ending was handled. (Ending spoilers here) When Odile is meeting with Evrette at the very end of the book, I hated how the threat of unmaking yourself/others was handwaved away as just not mattering sometimes, and that they simplify things to encourage people to comply. It effectively removed any consequences of Odile's actions in saving Edme.
Finally, I listened to the audiobook, but from reading the reviews here, it sounds like the author didn't use any sort of dialogue punctuation, which I absolutely hate. Had I not listened to the book, where it's clear who's speaking when, I would definitely have put this down.
Just a mediocre book. I wasn't on board with the relational drama, and wanted more of the sci-fi, I think.
