Chen's new novel adds to our Groundhog Day time travel stories. Initially, the author planned to offer this book as a time loop graphic novel for readers, but it never took off, and this project sat for years before he returned to it. And the question is, why did he return?
Chen shared that during the pandemic, he felt like he was living in a time loop with an endless combination of waiting and extreme isolation through this season.
And this daily existence brought him back to this story as an homage to what he lived through as his lived experience. I’m sure that is an element we ALL can relate to.
This story offers a dual point of view that is set in 2090, where Carter Cho, a technician at a scientific lab, and Neuroscientist Mariana Pineda find themselves trapped in a never-ending time loop.
The initiation of this incident occurs when Mariana, newly grieving the loss of someone in her life, finds herself on an unexpected tour of Carter's secretive facility, where he's tinkering with the Hawke Particle Accelerator.
But their excursion takes a dramatic turn when the reactor unexpectedly detonates, hurling them into a bewildering time loop that spans four days.
As they are the only ones retaining memories from each cycle, they embark on a journey to unravel the mystery behind the loops while discovering some unexpected feelings for each other.
This book is for readers who like thorough explanations of the reason behind the why of the time loop rather than for readers who crave light time travel descriptions.
Of note, the novel's second half weaves a more complex backdrop of quantum physics and leans heavier into science fiction. At the same time, both characters admit that they're not sure WHY these things are happening, but the reader is privy to each hypothesis as the time loop happens.
Chen is known for blending science fiction with heartfelt storylines and speaking to that, this has a couple of really charming elements, like the love and routines we crave for our pets, even when the world seemingly falls apart.
Carter is also obsessed with good food, and with his repeating time loop, he takes advantage of ordering from many fancy restaurants and eating loads of treats each day without worrying about his budget or his cholesterol.
At its center, it's also a storyline about how we can fight for each other when we know that times feel unsure or dangerous to someone we love.
All of this was beautiful, especially the first two or three loops, but this became a bit cumbersome as the story progressed and, ultimately, a hurdle with the pacing for moving the time loop forward.
This novel showcases my personal difficulties with time loop stories because I need light time travel set up, and I need the repeating patterns to REALLY start changing to hold my interest.
Speaking to the love story component, the author did admit that this element was something he had a hard time writing and that this fell outside of his wheelhouse because he shared that he is Asian and grew up without a lot of expressed emotions around him.
While this writing component was challenging for Chen, the romance was secondary to the time loop story and not as romantic as pitched by the title or through the threads of this novel. And, perhaps, that is showcasing Chen’s discomfort of trying something new as this is lightly embraced.
This novel stays firmly in the PG-romance realm, and I want to recommend it for readers who have teen readers who love science fiction. I see this novel easily being honored with an Alex Award as a great crossover book for a teen audience this year.
Patti Murin does a phenomenal job with the audiobook narration and Chen, certainly builds a believable imagined 2090 world with this science-fiction selection.
TAG: AI, Robot, Time Travel, Groundhog Day, PG-Romance
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