Scan barcode
kalliste's review against another edition
2.0
I'm not sure how I felt about this book. On the one hand I enjoyed Leonora's side of the story but I found Jeff unlikable. I assume we were meant to feel this way but I'm not sure.
I mostly just found myself wanting to go back to Leonora's time and had little interest in what happened to Jeff.
*** I received this book for free by Netgalley ***
I mostly just found myself wanting to go back to Leonora's time and had little interest in what happened to Jeff.
*** I received this book for free by Netgalley ***
tonyriver's review against another edition
3.0
This is a challenging book in many ways. Written in two eras with an interesting and likable woman Leonora affected in strange ways by an unpleasant and selfish man way off in the future. I struggled with this person, Jeff’s voice, which I initially thought was clunky due to bad writing but found that this was used to represent his authentic first person voice.
The character of Jeff is also not nice - a manipulator and unforgivable exploiter of others without giving away specific detail.
There are interesting ideas in this novel and I think it well worth reading despite the challenging themes related to Jeff and his past.
Leonora’s depiction and struggles show the skill of the author. Her passion for animals and her obvious ability to care for them is frustrated by matters beyond her control.
Honestly I think that if Jeff was less flawed I could have given this intriguing novel more stars, but I could not get past his challenging persona.
The character of Jeff is also not nice - a manipulator and unforgivable exploiter of others without giving away specific detail.
There are interesting ideas in this novel and I think it well worth reading despite the challenging themes related to Jeff and his past.
Leonora’s depiction and struggles show the skill of the author. Her passion for animals and her obvious ability to care for them is frustrated by matters beyond her control.
Honestly I think that if Jeff was less flawed I could have given this intriguing novel more stars, but I could not get past his challenging persona.
queencleo's review against another edition
3.0
Intense!!
A bit weird.
Jeff is an Australian man in the near future looking to escape his life completely, by taking a drug, a "tech" that allows him to live someone else's life for hours at a time while tripping.
His compatible life is in Leonora, a woman living in the Scottish highlands in the 1860s.
Jeff becomes addicted to living Leonoras life and takes trip after trip, against all recommendation.
As Jeff becomes more & more unwell it becomes apparent that his trips are affecting Lae's life & timeline as well.
Richly imaginative, the novel takes a new concept of time travel or neuroscience or technology or I'm not quite sure exactly what that was. The historical sections are reminiscent of Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
Be warned, this is often frankly & graphically sexual with very strong language.
Read if you enjoy historical fiction, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (although this is much less cerebral), Victorian novels of suffering, grief and or illness (I'm not sure if I'm evoking the wrong people in Albert Camus, Joyce etc), gothic ghost stories or haunting novels.
As the nature of the novel is quite confronting (but not in a social.justice way), I'm not sure I can recommend this one to many of my friends. An acquired taste perhaps.
Edit - _What other people are saying_:
"A book you'll read in a thrilling rush and then think about for months" - _Emily Maguire, author of "An Isolated Incident"_
"The historical richness of Outlander meets the powerful dystopian feminism of Margaret Atwood in this gorgeously written, viscerally unsettling novel, from one of the most exciting debut writers of 2018" - Ventura Press
‘A wild and risky novel, artfully darting between two people separated by centuries and connected by… you’ll see.’ - _Steven Amsterdam, author of Things We Didn’t See Coming_
‘A beautiful and troubling novel that subtly explores how the past haunts the present.’ - _Ceridwen Dovey, author of In the Garden of the Fugitives_
A bit weird.
Jeff is an Australian man in the near future looking to escape his life completely, by taking a drug, a "tech" that allows him to live someone else's life for hours at a time while tripping.
His compatible life is in Leonora, a woman living in the Scottish highlands in the 1860s.
Jeff becomes addicted to living Leonoras life and takes trip after trip, against all recommendation.
As Jeff becomes more & more unwell it becomes apparent that his trips are affecting Lae's life & timeline as well.
Richly imaginative, the novel takes a new concept of time travel or neuroscience or technology or I'm not quite sure exactly what that was. The historical sections are reminiscent of Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
Be warned, this is often frankly & graphically sexual with very strong language.
Read if you enjoy historical fiction, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (although this is much less cerebral), Victorian novels of suffering, grief and or illness (I'm not sure if I'm evoking the wrong people in Albert Camus, Joyce etc), gothic ghost stories or haunting novels.
As the nature of the novel is quite confronting (but not in a social.justice way), I'm not sure I can recommend this one to many of my friends. An acquired taste perhaps.
Edit - _What other people are saying_:
"A book you'll read in a thrilling rush and then think about for months" - _Emily Maguire, author of "An Isolated Incident"_
"The historical richness of Outlander meets the powerful dystopian feminism of Margaret Atwood in this gorgeously written, viscerally unsettling novel, from one of the most exciting debut writers of 2018" - Ventura Press
‘A wild and risky novel, artfully darting between two people separated by centuries and connected by… you’ll see.’ - _Steven Amsterdam, author of Things We Didn’t See Coming_
‘A beautiful and troubling novel that subtly explores how the past haunts the present.’ - _Ceridwen Dovey, author of In the Garden of the Fugitives_
snoutling's review against another edition
4.0
I didn't think I'd enjoy this book this much considering it has elements of period drama. This period element just forms part of the setting of the book, a way to contrast limitations put on women in the past and imagining how such women might experience our more liberal times. The author also explores the story of a modern male, who has lived his own constricted life and goes back into the past to try and liberate himself from shame and guilt. Quite a few interesting themes!
chlo_cat's review against another edition
5.0
This is one of those rare gems that plays with science fiction themes but which would sit solidly on the literary fiction shelf.
It's not about the tech; there's a new world in 2024, but that's not the focus of the novel. Instead, we explore themes of regret and self-loathing, of the way a human being can feel caged in their society or within their own minds, but freedom is all that we seek -- and this is just as true now as it was one hundred years ago, and the way it will be a hundred years from now.
Meyer bounced between third person and first person, but this is done clearly, and with no confusion as to whose head we reside within.
It's still unclear whether I even liked the main character, the one who did most of the talking -- but that was the point. We're not always supposed to like the protagonist, are we? This would be a fantastic bookclub read (so long as the members of said bookclub are open-minded).
It's not about the tech; there's a new world in 2024, but that's not the focus of the novel. Instead, we explore themes of regret and self-loathing, of the way a human being can feel caged in their society or within their own minds, but freedom is all that we seek -- and this is just as true now as it was one hundred years ago, and the way it will be a hundred years from now.
Meyer bounced between third person and first person, but this is done clearly, and with no confusion as to whose head we reside within.
It's still unclear whether I even liked the main character, the one who did most of the talking -- but that was the point. We're not always supposed to like the protagonist, are we? This would be a fantastic bookclub read (so long as the members of said bookclub are open-minded).
jaclyn_sixminutesforme's review against another edition
3.0
This blending of futuristic science fiction with historical fiction was a curious read - we follow two timelines, Jeff in a futuristic modern day as he is dying of an unnamed disease, and Leonora as she comes of age in the Scottish Highlands.
From a pacing perspective, I felt more progression in Jeff’s perspective initially. He uses a device, the tab, to travel into the mind of Leonora and experience her life as her. Towards the end of the novel though, I definitely found more interest in her timeline as she becomes more aware of Jeff’s presence in her head and is driven to hysteria in trying to manage this within the historic constraints of Scottish society at the time.
Jeff is an unreliable narrator, and quite a detestable person - he has predatory aspects to his narrative, separate to his manipulation of Leonora, that I didn’t see the larger need for. His continued involvement in her mind also doesn’t ever get explained fulsomely for me, and I was left at the end of the book with more questions than answers. That said, something about this overall just didn’t work for me.
I think readers who like exploring more psychological science fiction will get on with this better than I did, and while I found the writing dark and striking, the book as a whole just didn’t come together for me.
From a pacing perspective, I felt more progression in Jeff’s perspective initially. He uses a device, the tab, to travel into the mind of Leonora and experience her life as her. Towards the end of the novel though, I definitely found more interest in her timeline as she becomes more aware of Jeff’s presence in her head and is driven to hysteria in trying to manage this within the historic constraints of Scottish society at the time.
Jeff is an unreliable narrator, and quite a detestable person - he has predatory aspects to his narrative, separate to his manipulation of Leonora, that I didn’t see the larger need for. His continued involvement in her mind also doesn’t ever get explained fulsomely for me, and I was left at the end of the book with more questions than answers. That said, something about this overall just didn’t work for me.
I think readers who like exploring more psychological science fiction will get on with this better than I did, and while I found the writing dark and striking, the book as a whole just didn’t come together for me.
michelle_irma's review against another edition
1.0
What did I just read? I really liked the idea of someone in the future being able to enter the mind of someone in the past. But this was just pointless to low grade erotica in parts. The characters unlikable, the plot boring and all for what. So a very unlikable man can enter a young woman’s mind so he can get off on it and send her to madness.
Maybe I just missed the complete point of the book but this one just wasn’t for me
Maybe I just missed the complete point of the book but this one just wasn’t for me
jjv84's review against another edition
1.0
This isn't my type of genre but I thought I'd give it a go. I struggled with the whole entire book, finished it and am still wondering what I read.
tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition
4.0
‘I am conjuring the past, while she is beginning to see the future.’
At some time in the future, Jeff is dying. Burdened with the baggage of his memories, Jeff flees Australia for Scotland. He has a piece of experimental technology, a device that will enable him to enter someone else’s mind through digitised neural experience (DNE). It’s a technology that has not yet been successfully trialled, and Jeff has been advised to only use it three times. It’s advice that Jeff plans to ignore.
Leonora is a young woman living in the Scottish Highlands in the late 1860s. She is busy and happy at home when her life changes forever. Leonora’s father sends her to stay with her aunt in Edinburgh. But her new life becomes unbearable as Jeff connects to her mind and gives her glimpses of a future that she cannot begin to understand.
There’s more to the story than this. Imagine a world where it’s possible for one individual to invade the mind of another. A world in which the invading individual has no scruples, no care for the person whose mind is being invaded. Imagine how terrifying it would be to see glimpses of a future you don’t understand and to experience longings which are abhorrent to you. Imagine two people trying to control one mind. If you don’t want to imagine this, or at least entertain the possibility that it is imaginable, them you may not wish to read this novel.
I kept reading, sickened by Jeff and his actions, by his disregard for others. I kept reading, saddened by what was happening to Leonora and by the perceptions of those around her. I kept reading, wondering about possibility and about ethics.
I finished the novel, disturbed in part by what I’d read but in awe of the way in which Ms Meyer developed the story. I wondered how many people like Jeff there might be:
‘Or perhaps I will just destroy this. Take no responsibility. Life is chaos; people are all the time causing minute fluctuations which will change history’s path.’
How does it end? You’ll need to read it for yourself.
Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster (Australia) for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
At some time in the future, Jeff is dying. Burdened with the baggage of his memories, Jeff flees Australia for Scotland. He has a piece of experimental technology, a device that will enable him to enter someone else’s mind through digitised neural experience (DNE). It’s a technology that has not yet been successfully trialled, and Jeff has been advised to only use it three times. It’s advice that Jeff plans to ignore.
Leonora is a young woman living in the Scottish Highlands in the late 1860s. She is busy and happy at home when her life changes forever. Leonora’s father sends her to stay with her aunt in Edinburgh. But her new life becomes unbearable as Jeff connects to her mind and gives her glimpses of a future that she cannot begin to understand.
There’s more to the story than this. Imagine a world where it’s possible for one individual to invade the mind of another. A world in which the invading individual has no scruples, no care for the person whose mind is being invaded. Imagine how terrifying it would be to see glimpses of a future you don’t understand and to experience longings which are abhorrent to you. Imagine two people trying to control one mind. If you don’t want to imagine this, or at least entertain the possibility that it is imaginable, them you may not wish to read this novel.
I kept reading, sickened by Jeff and his actions, by his disregard for others. I kept reading, saddened by what was happening to Leonora and by the perceptions of those around her. I kept reading, wondering about possibility and about ethics.
I finished the novel, disturbed in part by what I’d read but in awe of the way in which Ms Meyer developed the story. I wondered how many people like Jeff there might be:
‘Or perhaps I will just destroy this. Take no responsibility. Life is chaos; people are all the time causing minute fluctuations which will change history’s path.’
How does it end? You’ll need to read it for yourself.
Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster (Australia) for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
not_alicen's review against another edition
2.0
2.5
Hard book to judge as it covers two very different people.
Enjoyed the aspects with Leonora, but loathed those with Jeff.
Really vile stuff. Jeff reminded me of a Humbert type from Lolita. Gross, self absorbed, and needy.
Would have given it a 3 if not for the fact I was repulsed by 50% of the novel.
Hard book to judge as it covers two very different people.
Enjoyed the aspects with Leonora, but loathed those with Jeff.
Really vile stuff. Jeff reminded me of a Humbert type from Lolita. Gross, self absorbed, and needy.
Would have given it a 3 if not for the fact I was repulsed by 50% of the novel.