Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

2 reviews

pandact's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

From the start, I imagined each chapter as a music video, specifically K. Flay's videos around "Sister" where they escape from men and travel back in time. It makes a lot more sense after all the punk bands in the acknowledgements, and the Grape Ape music video they mentioned in the post-audiobook interview! Honestly, the acknowledgements and historical notes were pretty good about avoiding spoilers, and it would've been cool to know that they were composing the Arabian riff!

It's like a music video with cameos for historical nerds, and plenty of suggestive dancing and smoking that would piss off Comstock... Newitz juggles a lot of twisty timelines at the expense of character development, imo. Nonetheless, it's a powerful work that evokes feminist punk and might teach you something just like Robot and Crow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, and Sexism

Moderate: Drug use, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Torture, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Sexual content, Antisemitism, and Cultural appropriation

Some nitpicks... Reverting the erased character so early kind of "nuked the fridge" for me and it wasn't suspenseful unless there was a threat to prevent time travel, but the edit war never really had any big moments where someone was "burned out" or had a permanent loss. There wasn't a lot of tension in the middle, and I kept getting distracted by inconsistent, handwavy causality. It's not as much science of time travel as historical drama... The narrator had a perfect speed (at 1.5) and good acting, but did not match the songs. I really wanted Lucy Parsons or some feminist to come back and undermine the Great Man diverting the timeline thing, but I get that even Sanger and Helen Keller also liked gilded age eugenics... All that said, I'm so glad I finished it because the ending stuck the landing in a fun way!

aardwyrm's review

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Oof. So it's nothing against the book, but it's a weird time to read this one (July of 22).

The bit where they discuss shock at the idea of abortions being illegal in 2022 is a doozy.

It's not a flaw of the text, but of the moment, which is sort of the point of the text, so bravo, really. 

The book does a good job of juggling time travel and changing realities, slipping in needful details and surprises. Plot is really its strongest point. There's some occasional clunky dialogue; character speak out loud the same way they internally monologue, and infodump their emotions once in a while. But the worst this'll do is throw you out of the text a minute. It's an intensely, deliberately political book, which may not be everyone's choice, but it's an effective, well balanced time thriller, too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, Child death, Classism, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Rape, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Abandonment, Abortion, Torture, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Racism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Murder, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Medical content, Lesbophobia, Incest, Hate crime, Homophobia, Grief, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Cultural appropriation, Death, Vomit, Violence, Transphobia, Sexual assault, Antisemitism, and Blood