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A review by bibliokyra
An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim
4.0
Wow. This book was an absolute gut punch. When I finished the book, it felt as though it had spat me out. I had to sit down for a while and gather my thoughts and secure my heart back inside my chest.
The year is 1981 and a deadly flu pandemic is growing rampant across a dystopian America. Time travel is now an option, made possible by a large corporation called TimeRaiser. Due to a glitch in technology, no one is able to travel back in time to stop the virus from spreading, however, people can travel into the future to avoid the virus. These people are referred to as "Journeymen". This is where the protagonist Polly comes in. Polly's boyfriend Frank has contracted the virus and she will do anything to save the love of her life. Polly receives an offer she can't refuse: if she time travels from 1981 to 1993 and works for a year as a bonded laborer for TimeRaiser, they will pay for Frank's necessary medical care and cure him. Polly hatches a plan to have them both go to the Flagship Hotel in Galveston, TX every Saturday in September of 1993 until they find each other.
Unfortunately, Polly gets re-routed an extra five years and winds up in an unrecognizable Texas in 1998. She is told that a border had previously been erected along the Mason-Dixon line and the southern states were now known as America and the northern states were The United States. Polly would now need a visa to travel back to her home in Buffalo, NY. She was transported to this unfamiliar time by herself, without any money, and without any understanding of this foreign place. The helplessness and agony she experienced while trying to navigate her way though America was haunting. She encountered a number of strange, relentless people who all tended to fend for themselves. The class divide was enormous and the laborers had almost no rights. The men throughout the novel seemed to be tinged with wickedness. The writing was so vivid, it felt as though I was there with Polly, experiencing all of these horrors myself.
The story fell flat for me during Polly's time in America, which was a good chunk of the novel. It was incredibly detailed, non-stop suffering for Polly which became repetitive and brutal to read. Also, it seemed to me that Polly might not have had the best taste in men to begin with, which was pointed out at the beginning of the story. I wasn't extremely convinced that her and Frank's relationship was as strong as she conceived it to be. I would've liked to know more about the characters and their back stories. Their stories seemed rushed and the characters seemed a bit dull. I loved the character of Polly's Aunt Donna. She had her head on her shoulders, was tough and gave excellent advice. I was leaning towards 3.5 stars for the majority of the novel until the end, when I bumped it up to 4 stars. The ending was not what I expected it to be but I think it was realistic and pulled the whole novel together beautifully.
Overall, this is an extraordinary debut novel with such elegant prose. The story is gripping, terrifying and emotional. I was curious to see if Polly and Frank would ever find each other and if their love would last the test of time. I can guarantee you will not want to put this book down until you've finished the last page. I look forward to reading more from Thea Lim. If you've read and enjoyed Station Eleven or The Hunger Games, this book is for you! Many thanks to Touchstone Books for my free copy. All opinions are my own.
The year is 1981 and a deadly flu pandemic is growing rampant across a dystopian America. Time travel is now an option, made possible by a large corporation called TimeRaiser. Due to a glitch in technology, no one is able to travel back in time to stop the virus from spreading, however, people can travel into the future to avoid the virus. These people are referred to as "Journeymen". This is where the protagonist Polly comes in. Polly's boyfriend Frank has contracted the virus and she will do anything to save the love of her life. Polly receives an offer she can't refuse: if she time travels from 1981 to 1993 and works for a year as a bonded laborer for TimeRaiser, they will pay for Frank's necessary medical care and cure him. Polly hatches a plan to have them both go to the Flagship Hotel in Galveston, TX every Saturday in September of 1993 until they find each other.
Unfortunately, Polly gets re-routed an extra five years and winds up in an unrecognizable Texas in 1998. She is told that a border had previously been erected along the Mason-Dixon line and the southern states were now known as America and the northern states were The United States. Polly would now need a visa to travel back to her home in Buffalo, NY. She was transported to this unfamiliar time by herself, without any money, and without any understanding of this foreign place. The helplessness and agony she experienced while trying to navigate her way though America was haunting. She encountered a number of strange, relentless people who all tended to fend for themselves. The class divide was enormous and the laborers had almost no rights. The men throughout the novel seemed to be tinged with wickedness. The writing was so vivid, it felt as though I was there with Polly, experiencing all of these horrors myself.
The story fell flat for me during Polly's time in America, which was a good chunk of the novel. It was incredibly detailed, non-stop suffering for Polly which became repetitive and brutal to read. Also, it seemed to me that Polly might not have had the best taste in men to begin with, which was pointed out at the beginning of the story. I wasn't extremely convinced that her and Frank's relationship was as strong as she conceived it to be. I would've liked to know more about the characters and their back stories. Their stories seemed rushed and the characters seemed a bit dull. I loved the character of Polly's Aunt Donna. She had her head on her shoulders, was tough and gave excellent advice. I was leaning towards 3.5 stars for the majority of the novel until the end, when I bumped it up to 4 stars. The ending was not what I expected it to be but I think it was realistic and pulled the whole novel together beautifully.
Overall, this is an extraordinary debut novel with such elegant prose. The story is gripping, terrifying and emotional. I was curious to see if Polly and Frank would ever find each other and if their love would last the test of time. I can guarantee you will not want to put this book down until you've finished the last page. I look forward to reading more from Thea Lim. If you've read and enjoyed Station Eleven or The Hunger Games, this book is for you! Many thanks to Touchstone Books for my free copy. All opinions are my own.