My rating: 5/5 stars
“All our Wrong Todays” by Elan Mastai is his debut novel, in which the screen-writer tells his story in a very original way, bringing Tom Barren to life and making us witnesses to a marvelous and original story.
Tom Barren is part of an evolved 2016, where technology has reached its peak. Everything is more advanced, durable, complex, with an extreme futuristic note. Unfortunately, his family is less than functional and the environment in which he was brought up wasn’t pleasant. When his mother suddenly dies in a tragic accident, he is left alone with his dad. His only reason of hanging on is his work, because he is a scientist, working on a time machine. Together with his father, they build the fundamental research for the invention that one day will revolutionize the modern word. Here he meets Penelope, a beautiful girl who dreams of becoming an astronaut. They fell in love, but after some events, Penelope commits suicide. We find Tom desperate to have Penelope back in his life and he will do anything in his power to make it happen, even using the time machine. He does it and travels to a parallel 2016, were things are not so evolved, but were his family is more normal and things are closer to home. Any mistake could cause a huge gap in time and Tom must be really careful. His only mission now is to get Penelope back, but things are different now. Being part of a normal family and having a happy life, will make Tom have second thoughts if he wants to return to his time.
I am not the type of readers who chooses the book by its cover, but this book won me over completely due to the design. Even thought this is his debut novel, Elan Mastai is really good at it and managed to catch my attention with the plot and his characters. Besides “The Time Traveler’s Wife” I haven’t read something similar in plot, but I loved the pace and the style, it was funny, fluent, technical and dynamic.
This book is about choices and doing the right ones even when it hurts. It’s about taking a decision and living up to it. If we are talking about time traveling, Tom had to take many decisions that could have a huge impact on everyone. The reader will be by his side, seeing how he will cope with the consequences of everything he does. Tom will have to decide if his love for Penelope is strong enough to endanger everyone around him, by altering something as fragile as time. I totally recommend it, and I put all my money in a bet which says this book will become a movie, because Elan did a wonderful job in creating a story as if writing a script.
Ramonisme 