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chancecar33's review against another edition
5.0
I found this book tucked into an old shelf of my middle school library and I still think about it to this day, over ten years later. The story just sticks with you, the sadness and confusion of the story stay with you. A book I will recommend 'til the day I die!
thona's review against another edition
5.0
To be concise, descriptive but yet spoiler free here is what I'll say about the book:
A)i was making tea but got caught up with the plot line, lets just say I'm not drinking tea right now much to my disappointment
B)this book is like supernatural meets doctor who shit -- without the monsters of course, but none the less awesome. There you go.
A)i was making tea but got caught up with the plot line, lets just say I'm not drinking tea right now much to my disappointment
B)this book is like supernatural meets doctor who shit -- without the monsters of course, but none the less awesome. There you go.
duffypratt's review against another edition
4.0
Lot's of spoilerish stuff ahead.
When I first heard about Back to the Future, I thought there was a whole lot of potential in a time travel story where a teen goes back and meets his teenaged mom. So I was expecting something like Oedipus, and got light-hearted Spielberg flick instead (and yes, I know he didn't actually direct it, but the first of the Back to the Future movies has always felt more like Spielberg than Zemekis).
I was surprised that Mr. Was, which is targeted at the younger part of the YA market, treads upon this same ground. The central premise is that Jack Lund discovers a fifty year door. Go through it one way, and you go back fifty years. The other way takes you forward fifty years. Jack decides to take the trip back fifty years and then wait so he can undo the murder of his mother. But in the past, he falls in love with his own grandmother. The difference between Jack, and Marty McFly, is that Jack doesn't know that Andie is his grandmother, and so the love is allowed to flourish. And the book ends up with the two of them living happily together. This ending was both very satisfying, and quite creepy.
The story is very crisp. I've read from other reviews that it is a mystery, and I suppose that for younger readers, it probably is. I thought the mystery aspect of the story was quite transparent. I immediately knew who Jack's grandmother and grandfather were, so the revelations in the book came as no surprise to me. But I still found myself admiring the way Hautman had constructed his little puzzle. It works astonishingly well. Most time travel stories get fouled up in one way or another on the various paradoxes that time travel might cause. The Back to the Future series started out by winking at them (Chuck Berry's brother calling Chuck to let him hear the 'new sound' he had been looking for), and eventually went so overboard that it became beyond silly. By contrast, Hautman is careful to construct his story so that by the end, there is no true paradox involved.
One minor point troubled me. When aging Jack appears in front of himself as a youth (in 1993), they are unable to see each other. I guess that's OK with a certain kind of poetic license. But although they can't see each other, young Jack can hear his older self. And they physically bump into each other at one point. I suppose in every time travel book, there has to be something where you just say "Well, OK". But this point still feels quite clumsy to me.
Finally, the more I think about it, the more I think that Hautman may have written this book as an anti-Back to the Future. Jack goes back in time to try to save his family, but he fails in that. While back, he falls for his grandmother. His rival, his Biff, is Skoros who ends up being his grandfather. Skoros uses a sheet from the financial page of a 1990s newspaper to make himself rich on the stock market (which is straight out of BTTF), and he thinks that he has killed his rival, here on Guadalcanal. The basic plot elements are strikingly similar, but Hautman's take has made something darker, less confectionary, and I think ultimately a bit more satisfying.
When I first heard about Back to the Future, I thought there was a whole lot of potential in a time travel story where a teen goes back and meets his teenaged mom. So I was expecting something like Oedipus, and got light-hearted Spielberg flick instead (and yes, I know he didn't actually direct it, but the first of the Back to the Future movies has always felt more like Spielberg than Zemekis).
I was surprised that Mr. Was, which is targeted at the younger part of the YA market, treads upon this same ground. The central premise is that Jack Lund discovers a fifty year door. Go through it one way, and you go back fifty years. The other way takes you forward fifty years. Jack decides to take the trip back fifty years and then wait so he can undo the murder of his mother. But in the past, he falls in love with his own grandmother. The difference between Jack, and Marty McFly, is that Jack doesn't know that Andie is his grandmother, and so the love is allowed to flourish. And the book ends up with the two of them living happily together. This ending was both very satisfying, and quite creepy.
The story is very crisp. I've read from other reviews that it is a mystery, and I suppose that for younger readers, it probably is. I thought the mystery aspect of the story was quite transparent. I immediately knew who Jack's grandmother and grandfather were, so the revelations in the book came as no surprise to me. But I still found myself admiring the way Hautman had constructed his little puzzle. It works astonishingly well. Most time travel stories get fouled up in one way or another on the various paradoxes that time travel might cause. The Back to the Future series started out by winking at them (Chuck Berry's brother calling Chuck to let him hear the 'new sound' he had been looking for), and eventually went so overboard that it became beyond silly. By contrast, Hautman is careful to construct his story so that by the end, there is no true paradox involved.
One minor point troubled me. When aging Jack appears in front of himself as a youth (in 1993), they are unable to see each other. I guess that's OK with a certain kind of poetic license. But although they can't see each other, young Jack can hear his older self. And they physically bump into each other at one point. I suppose in every time travel book, there has to be something where you just say "Well, OK". But this point still feels quite clumsy to me.
Finally, the more I think about it, the more I think that Hautman may have written this book as an anti-Back to the Future. Jack goes back in time to try to save his family, but he fails in that. While back, he falls for his grandmother. His rival, his Biff, is Skoros who ends up being his grandfather. Skoros uses a sheet from the financial page of a 1990s newspaper to make himself rich on the stock market (which is straight out of BTTF), and he thinks that he has killed his rival, here on Guadalcanal. The basic plot elements are strikingly similar, but Hautman's take has made something darker, less confectionary, and I think ultimately a bit more satisfying.
trixie_reads's review against another edition
5.0
This is a great time travel/mystery/suspense novel.
ronniek's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.5
youngeunpark87's review against another edition
5.0
This book is unbelievably amazing. Everyone should read it!!
nerfherder86's review against another edition
4.0
Awesome book about time travel, mind bending, just plain twisty and weird.
electricvaps's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
The first 136 pages (or first "notebook" as the book calls it) were great but the rest was very very mediocre. Ending is horrible - is that really it? No, the book can't end on that note, can it...?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Gun violence and War