By Megan Crewe
Skylar, 17, is bothered by passing feelings that parts of the world around her are wrong. When it happens, she has panic attacks. Then she meets Win. Suddenly her whole life is explained to her and the answer is both cool and terrifying at the same time.
ALIENS!
No seriously. Aliens. And time travel. This book was such a happy surprise!
Ok, clarification - generic without spoilers, I promise. Our planet is the subject of alien experimentation. Whenever Skylar feels something wrong, that's because they have been interfering. They mess with time.
Win is a part of the rebels who want to end this interference. So yes, he is alien. Having fun yet?
Crewe took this really cool idea and turned it into this crazy, time hopping chase between the rebels, the human Skylar, and the alien scientists. So neat!
How did she manage to create this story and keep it from being off-the wall cheesy? Her characters are believable and very flawed, details of the world are explained slowly (apart from one possible info-dumping section that I'm going to ignore because I loved this book so much), and her world is created with real science. In order to get the reader's mind around the complexities of time travel, Crewe was able to explain it in such a way that felt neither dumbed down nor overly unnecessary.
For the most part, the book focuses on the interactions between Win and Skylar. There's conflict - believeable conflict - between them, but also a mutual push to save the world.
My ooooone complaint. At the beginning of the book, I was pleased to be reading about a girl with anxiety issues. I was loving the way it was explained. Her coping mechanism was real and carried throughout the book. My complaint is that part of her anxiety is explained away by the alien interference. On one hand, wouldn't it be cool if all those with anxiety be given a logical (loosely logical... because aliens) reason as to their paralyzing panic attacks. On the other, it's a real issue that cannot be fixed that easily. The redeeming factor of this thread is that she continues to feel panic, even though now she knows what causes it and she retains her coping mechanism. In the grand scheme of things though, it's a minor complaint.
I'm a sucker for anything time travel related... so this book was right up my ally. AND, Megan Crewe is Canadian. Whoo Canadian writers!!!
Highly recommend for the young adult, sci-fi enthusiast.
4.5/5 STARS
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