2018 book 117

Thea Lim's An Ocean of Minutes
This was an extremely interesting and well-written book, but also it was a major bummer in a lot of ways. It centers on a young woman in 1981 who time travels to the future to save her boyfriend from a flu pandemic (too complicated to explain in a brief review), and he promises to find her when she arrives in 1993. Except she instead arrives in 1998, where she is basically an indentured servant to the corporation that sent her there. (If I didn’t already think capitalism was a corrupt system, this book would have convinced me very quickly.) This is all interspersed with flashbacks to her relationship. I wish there had been more to the ending sections—I think there was a bit more story there to tell—but I found the ruminations on the past to be effective.  Still, like I said, a lot,of this was a big ol' bummer, don’t buy the hype that this is the new Time Traveler's Wife (that book is a bummer in an entirely different way). Content warning for attempted rape. B/B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.