A review by ambershelf
On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle

4.0

3.5/5 ARC gifted by the publisher

A character-driven story of a woman stuck in a time loop in Nov 18th. While the premise sounds very sci-fi-y, the book is more about the interiority of a woman who goes through stages of doubt, despair, hope when forced to relive one day over and over again.

I enjoyed the rich character, where the time loop can be interpreted as a one’s endless grind, or maybe doubt about one’s ability to change. I feel a bit frustrated that the FMC seems passive and doesn’t really experiment to see how to break out of the time loop, even though I know it’s not that kind of novel