THEN: The formation of the UNA, the high threat of eco-terrorism, the mammoth rates of unemployment and subsequent escape into a world of virtual reality are things any student can read about in their 21st century textbooks and part of the normal background noise to Freya Kallas's life. Until that world starts to crumble.
NOW: It's 1985. Freya Kallas has just moved across the world and into a new life. On the outside, she fits in at her new high school, but Freya feels nothing but removed. Her mother blames it on the grief over her father's death, but how does that explain the headaches and why do her memories feel so foggy? When Freya lays eyes on Garren Lowe, she can't get him out of her head. She's sure that she knows him, despite his insistence that they've never met. As Freya follows her instincts and pushes towards hidden truths, the two of them unveil a strange and dangerous world where their days may be numbered. Unsure who to trust, Freya and Garren go on the run from powerful forces determined to tear them apart and keep them from discovering the truth about their shared pasts (and futures), her visions, and the time and place they really came from.
MY THOUGHTS
I read this book for my TBR challenge in which I read the oldest books on my to-read list. I added this book to my to-read list in 2012, the same year this book came out. The copy that I have in my possession is an ARC copy which I found at a used book sale a couple years back. I mention this only because I hope that some of my complaints about this book got solved before it was officially published but I doubt it.
The book begins with a prologue where the main character, Freya, is struggling because she and her mother are being taken somewhere and she is trying her hardest to make sure her brother, Latham, does not disappear from her memory. Then, in the next chapter, Freya wakes up in the year 1985. Her, her mom, and her sister have just moved back to Canada from New Zealand after her father dies from an odd gas explosion. She is starting at a new school but can't help but feel distanced from her reality. Nothing feels real to her and she starts to question her own memories and the world around her. During a trip to a museum, she sees a stranger outside, but he doesn't seem like a stranger to her. She has a nagging suspicion that she knows him and this suspicion will cause everything she thought she knew about her life to be upended.
One of the factors that were fascinating about this book was the concept. Taking a dystopian premise but placing it within 1985 is one I had not read before and was likely why I wanted to read this book in the first place. Besides the prologue, the entirety of the book takes place in 1985. We spend a better part of the book following Freya around as she tried to remember things. This dragged the plot along a bit, but I did not mind it too much because I liked the friends she made and it did create a mystery on what exactly was happening with her memories. What I had trouble with is that roughly 200 pages in Freya goes is hypnotized to remember her past and we end up with a very very long info-dump. Freya actually gives us a whole entire chapter in which she discusses world history from the 2020s to 2063. That is a lot of world history and I was unable to process it all. Then, after this info-dump, she refers to some of these events, but I had no clue what she was talking about because 4o years of world history dumped onto me in one chapter is a lot to process!
The information I did process from the info-dump was really interesting. Martin uses some really interesting ideas and does create a frightening and technology-based future, but it was too much all at once. Why couldn't there have been alternating chapters between 1985 and 2063? That would have been easier to process and would have held my attention a lot more. From the prologue and synopsis, I already knew that the future would come into play at some point so it would not have ruined the suspense, it may have actually added suspense. After the info-dump, the pacing really sped up, but now it was too fast because I hadn't processed everything and other points of interest <highlight to view spoiler>
Freya did work as a main character. There is definite growth in her character throughout the book as she tries to grapple with what her memories tell her about herself and what she really believes about herself. She also has to deal with who she is as a person if she grew up in a different environment without the freedom she has in 1985. There is a turning point where her character changed because her childhood memories have changed.
There is romance in this book which is not all too shocking. I liked how they worked as a team to overcome the challenges they faced and tried to understand what exactly was happening. I did not have any particularly strong feelings towards their relationship, although at points it did seem too fast. Part of this is because I did not quite understand what their relationship with each other was before they were placed in this situation. The book wasn't really clear on that.
IN CONCLUSION
Overall, I loved the concept and idea behind this book but I did not love how the idea was executed. I was not a fan of the info-dump and I think just that info-dump alone caused further problems in the pacing in the book. The ending of this book was pretty open-ended, which I actually think worked for this book. There is a sequel to this book but I will not be reading it. This book seems like it does better as a standalone.
I hereby give this book
2.5 Stars
Meaning: I almost liked it, but not quite
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