The Future of Another Timeline

I considered giving this book one star, because I really hated it, but I decided to be generous and give it two for a few reasons:

For one, I think there are some genuinely cool ideas here (executed terribly, but I'll get to that,) The book was clearly well-researched; I learned a few things from the research notes at the end. It's the most modern sci-fi I've read, and it plays on very genuine fears that myself and many other women in our country are feeling right now. I also liked that the characters are diverse.

However, that diversity of the cast felt like a checklist for every kind of marginalized identity (i.e., not white males). The time-travel details make absolutely no logical sense. The sub-plot takes a dark turn early on, but instead of that being shocking and fresh, it's essentially the premise of A Promising Young Woman. No character inspires any kind of empathy; not one of them is believable. Expositional dialogue is rampant and a weak vehicle for a blatant (if not bludgeoning) message. There is no subtlety whatsoever. And it's super polarizing; while I don't think all books should be for all people, this book is REALLY not for some pretty sweeping demographics. Also, there's a completely gratuitous masturbation party that takes up far too many (uncomfortable, forced, and very weird) pages.

I'm totally pro-women's rights to reproductive health. 1000%. And if the writing and plot were well-developed, this could have been a fascinating, empowering book. But as it is, that's just not the case. I don't recommend it (unless, like me, you're reading it for book club).

Time travel, feminism, 90's riot grrl punk rock scene, murder, abortion rights, geology, wormholes. Yes, all this together to form an exciting story of people wanting to make the world a better place.
Lots of imagination and interesting historic facts that creates various alternate histories realities. A great read with lots of historical references related to the 1800's social movements! I had to stop and do some Wikipedia research here and there. Fascinating!

There were some really cool things in this book... I really liked the concept of the machines and using geology. As good sci-fi does, it also was a startling look at our culture from a perspective that shows just how fragile some of the things we take for granted can be. I listened to the audio book for this on Audible and I did not care for the narrator (Laura Nichol), but the addition of music in the audio book was awesome.