The Summer of Impossible Things, by Rowan Coleman
Published by Ebury Press, 3rd May 2018
Genres: Fantasy, romance
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased (Second-hand)
Trigger warnings: Suicide, substance abuse, sexual assault
Synopsis
If you could change the past, would you?
In the wake of their mother’s passing, Luna and her sister Pia have travelled to Brooklyn to oversee the sale of an old family building. They hope to find some small mementoes of their mother’s life in this place, but something else very unexpected happens. Luna finds herself drawn to this old dilapidated building, when suddenly it is no longer abandoned, but new and occupied. Nothing prepares her for coming face to face with her mother, in 1977. As she explores this startling shift in reality, Luna must decide what she is prepared to do to save her mother’s life, even at the cost of her own.
My thoughts
I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me at the same time of The Time Traveller’s Wife and The Midnight Library. I found the concept of being able to travel through time to the exact same moment, but in a different year, to be really interesting. And the author does a great job of describing it.
I loved the moments that Luna spent in 1977 with her mother and her friends. I mean, wouldn’t you want to meet your parents’ younger selves and see what they were like before you were even thought of?!
If you have read my review of The Midnight Library, you will know that I struggled with the fact that Nora has no recollection of the life she has travelled into. In this book, however, whenever Luna changes something in the past and then returns to the future, she finds that new memories trickle into her mind, adding themselves to those she already has. I liked this idea a lot better and, at the time of reading, I wished that it could have been similar in The Midnight Library.
I loved the writing in this book and although I suspected it, the plot twist at the end was really great. No more on that though, because I don’t want to give anything away!
My rating: 4/5