Elizabeth

The brilliance of this book is in the details. Both lives of Patricia contrast in obvious, clichéd ways. The details of both her lives is what made this book lovely. The awful, soul-destroying relationship, and the wonderful, supportive relationship. The life with no career and the life being financially independent. The life with children who love and respect her in her elderly years, and the life where her children shove her in a home.

The book isn't without flaws. Most of the dialogue was stilting and felt unnatural. The awfulness of one life in contrast to the ‘fantastic' other life really was predictable and annoying. The threesomes with Michael without the need for making babies? Ehhh. I'm also really not a fan of alt history at all, although that isn't really a big thing in the book (think Forrest Gump: the story is about his life, rather than the history that happens around him).

But, I love that things happened to Patricia at the same time in both lives. The description of those lives is the best part. The tedium of a boring life with a boring husband. The joy of finding an equal to spend your life with. The awfulness of pregnancy and childbirth and raising toddlers. The wonderfulness of finding something fulfilling to do with your life and time. I relate to a lot of those things. I cried a lot.

Muir sure invested in a thesaurus, didn't she?

Such hype around this book, which rarely bodes well. A decent, if overwhelmingly teen-angsty, beginning, but then the plot went walkabout without me until about half-way through (which is where our protagonist stops being a total ball of angst and instead becomes a tolerable teenager). Ultimately the story wound up into a tidy lead-in to the sequel, which I have no interest in reading. HOWEVER, how amazing is it to see a same-gender attracted character and her sexual orientation have exactly zero bearing on the story?

I listened to the audio version, which had superb narration by Moira Quirk, and I would recommend it highly if you're ok with being super confused as to who every one is for a good long while.